My Worst Spring Break: Pulled Over for What?
By Kenyon Kemp
On the first day of spring break last year, I expected that nothing was really going to happen. A bit boring, I know, but I was at least looking to have a nice break from school work. Unfortunately, this was not going to be a great spring break.
Everything started out fine, my sister and I drove to her job, Juniper Lounge in Lexington, where she gave the keys to her car so I could visit our parents. As I was driving towards the highway, I drove past a police officer who was going the other direction. As I drove up the hill towards the entrance to the highway, I noticed a car speeding behind me. I checked my speed to see if I had been driving too slow, and made sure I stayed in the right lane so they could pass. As I checked the mirror again, the car was even closer, and I thought it was going to hit me. At the last second, they hit their brakes and slowed behind me, giving a moment of relief until their red flashing lights came on.
A feeling of dread came over me as I realized I was being pulled over. As I pulled my sister’s car off to the side of the road, I tried to think of what I did. I knew I had driven at the speed limit, and I always do my best to follow the other driving laws. In fact, I had never been pulled over before, so what did I do wrong?
After what felt like an eternity, the police officer (well, not just a police officer, but a state trooper) walked up to my window and asked the famous question:
”Do you know why I pulled you over?”
”Uh…, no,” I replied, still really confused.
He told me that I didn’t have a front license plate on my car, which is required in the state of Virginia. My sister had just gotten her car registered to Virginia after we officially moved for school, but no one told us that we needed to put a license plate on the front of the car as well as the back, so we didn’t. I was planning to explain this to the officer, but he wasted no time in asking for my driver’s license and walking back to his car. I waited for about 20 minutes, wondering what he was doing, and trying to keep myself from being too upset. Finally, he walked back to the car and handed me my license and a ticket, telling me that I would need to put the license plate on the car, then go to the court to prove that the car is legal.
While there are definitely worse things that could have happened, this is definitely the worst spring break that I have had, since I had to spend the week finding parts to put the license plate on the car.
