Georgia Driver Gets License Suspended For 20-Year-Old DUI In State He's Never Been To

I can't imagine the bureaucracy nightmare of getting a letter from the DMV stating that your driver's license is suspended for something you had nothing to do with. One unfortunate Georgia driver is living that nightmare. The Georgia Department of Driver Services suspended the license of a Justin Jones in October. According to the agency, Jones was charged with a DUI in Santa Fe, New Mexico on Christmas Eve in 2005. However, it was a different person who committed the crime. The Jones whose license was suspended had never been to the state.

Georgia DDS had laid the burden of proof on Jones to exonerate himself and restore his license. However, the department refused to accept any evidence that he had attempted to submit. Jones is adamant that he's never been to New Mexico, telling WSB-TV, "Never been to New Mexico, never driven through New Mexico. I've never even stepped foot in the state off a plane." Despite multiple letters from officials in the Southwestern state confirming that Jones wasn't the same person as the perpetrator, DDS back in Georgia refused to lift the suspension.

There is some light at the end of the tunnel for Jones. Because the original notice from New Mexico was submitted electronically, Georgia won't lift the suspension until it receives an electronic negate from the New Mexico DMV. It's a ridiculous solution to an equally stupid dilemma. Who would've guessed that computer systems would only further complicate the notoriously frustrating struggles at the DMV?

This isn't the first time that a computer error has caused problems for an unsuspecting driver. A 76-year-old Star Trek fan in New York decided to get NCC-1701, the USS Enterprise's registry number, as a vanity license plate. She quickly discovered that it probably wasn't a good idea. The Trekkie received thousands of dollars in tickets from across the country as people replaced their real plates with novelty NCC-1701 plates purchased online. It's an easy way to dodge speeding tickets and other citations from license plate readers, but someone caught the bill.