Story of the Day 12/23/2016 - more about the suspended driver's license

So, now to Part 4 of the saga of the suspended driver’s license.

By Friday, I had called the BMV, three times. This resulted in my being told that they could not help me, if I called. They could only respond to a written request for reconsideration under the same long Code as suggested in the missive.

I had also emailed them a similar number of times.

Two of the contacts resulted in this message:

Dear Customer,

According to our records the last Certificate of Compliance on file was received 9/9/2015 from E-Insurance. No insurance document has been received for the incident of 11/3/2016.


The third was in response to my sending their message back, explaining , yet again, the situation, and attaching a copy of the COC that was electronically filed on 11/07/2016- contradicting their assertion.

Instead of even acknowledging the COC that I had attached, I got this response:

Re: Question about License Status



Dear Customer,

Your driving privileges were suspended on 12-17-16, for failure to submit proof of insurance coverage for an accident occurring on 11-03-16 in which you were involved. This is a 90-day suspension, remaining in effect until 03-17-2017. As a result of the suspension received you will be required to submit both an SR22 insurance filing and a $250.00 insurance fee to the BMV prior to license reinstatement.


So, now, not only is my license suspended, but I am going to have to pay $250 to get it reinstated……

Wait, I forgot to add what came next, information about my needing to submit a COC……even though I had attached the form showing that it had already been submitted.
However, if you were insured to operate the vehicle involved at the time the 11-03-16 accident occurred, please have your insurance carrier electronically submit a certificate of compliance to the BMV, where the insurance suspension will be deleted from your driving record.

So, that was Part 4- my interactions with the completely useless BMV.


Part 5… that was probably my four phone calls to the assorted numbers for my state representatives. One has not yet responded. One did answer their phone, and told me that they do not deal with the BMV.

I can’t really say that I blame them.


In the meanwhile, I am panicking.
I am Jewish, and I am genetically programmed to fear starvation.
So, in desperation, I ordered groceries to be delivered.

Let me explain, my weekly grocery shopping is done on Thursday mornings. This works well for me because I often work on Thursday evening and on Friday morning, and I need groceries in the house , so I can cook, Friday afternoon, for our Sabbath.

On Thursday mornings, I do a very carefully scheduled “round” of the stores. I stop for fruits and vegetables, drop off the recycling, stop at the store that carries a lot of kosher items we use, and the almond milk we prefer, then, possibly, add a stop- Trader Joes or Costco or , rarely, Wal-Mart for a few items that we only buy there. Wal-Mart, for example, has the only kosher salsa in town that does not cause me to break out in hives.

I just love food allergies.

Oh, and I buy gasoline, while I am out.

The trip is organized to make a loop with no doubling back or extra driving to eliminate wasted time and gasoline. I would love to only have one stop on my list, but in Indianapolis, there are several things that , if you keep kosher, can only be found at one or two places…
The entire outing runs about 2 hours, if I also have to stop at CVS, or less, if I don’t.

And, here it is, already Friday, and, not only do I not have fresh fruits and vegetables , we are almost out of milk for my daughter (she drinks cow’s milk) and out of almond milk for my husband and me. Furthermore, it is not just Shabbat, but we are looking at a long weekend with no easy grocery store access. You see, it is about the be Xmas- that holiday when even the 24 hour grocery stores close…

So, I get on the internet and type in “ grocery delivery Indianapolis”, and, lo and behold, up pops Fresh Thyme and Amazon prime. I go and make orders. For only $10, I am getting delivery from each. I would have gone with just one or the other, but, because we keep kosher, Fresh Thyme didn’t have some of the things I needed. In fact, neither of them had some of the food I would have normally bought, so my order is about half of what I normally buy on a Thursday, but it is enough to get us through the long weekend. Even better, the delivery will come early enough for me to have time to cook.




Then, there was Part 6, assuming that I have not lost count……I called the claims adjustor – the one the insurance company assigned for the accident. I did this because the insurance agent’s office was still , apparently closed, and the weekend was fast approaching.

The claims adjustor was very polite…and she told me that I was going to need to go through the insurance agent’s office, since they had filed the COC . She did, however, say that she would send them an email. This would be in addition to the emails I had already sent, but would look “official”.

She also told, me that she was no longer the claims adjustor. The car that Aaron’s car hit….actually, was pushed into by the car that rear-ended Aaron, well, that driver has retained an attorney. This “escalation” means that the case has to be moved up a level to a different claims adjustor.

Okay, great, fine… and the new adjustor, Lisa, would be calling and taking down the same info we had already given.



A bit later, Lisa called my cell phone and I vomited all of the frustrations I was having out on her. I did tell her, a few times, that I was NOT frustrated with her, and I knew she had nothing to do with it, but would appreciate any help she could give me.

She politely listened to the saga, and told me that if I hadn’t gotten anywhere by Wednesday to call her back. That put her in the unique position of being the only person, so far, who even seemed to want to get involved.

Then she very carefully asked me if Aaron was available to talk. I said, “Yes, he is right here, eating.” (She had called late enough to catch him, but early enough that it wasn’t yet, Shabbat.)

Then, she said something that made me realize why she had asked, so hesitantly, to speak with him, “I understand that he is deaf.”

I explained that he is, but that he would probably be okay on the phone, just to be aware that he sometimes answers the wrong question, since his brain fills in for what he doesn’t hear; so she might have to repeat a question or phrase it differently. I also assured her that his speech was easy to understand.

I gave the phone to Aaron, and signed to him that I had a question to ask her, when he was done.

About 5 minutes later, he handed me back the phone and I asked her, “Does the other driver who was hit getting lawyer mean that we need to get one?” To which she replied, “No,” Since the accident was clearly not my son’s fault.

At the time, I believed her….but the saga didn’t end there.