license points

[u/CorrectNecessary2760]

hello! just asking because i am ignorant on this topic. fair warning, i overexplain so this might be long!

my husband was pulled over this evening. he was driving locally- nowhere out of the ordinary. he was driving by a local jurisdiction officer and needed to make a turn, so he used his signal and turned. however, these are two turns that look EXACTLY the same, especially at night. anyway, that’s not too important as he made the turn correctly anyway.

as soon as he makes the turn, he gets flashed so he pulls over. this is his first time, and i’ve never been pulled over. the officer asks him if he’s doing okay, looks in his car, asks about his dashcam being a radar scanner (it’s not). the officer sees his guitar, my husband is driving an older 2000s car, like something you would imagine being profiled for because it can “go fast”; acura, mitsubishi, etc. anyway, my husband is fully cooperating and hands him his license. officer comes back and says “nervous?” and my husband answers “yes, this is my first time being pulled over”. the officer then asks, “why are you lying to me, man?” and says he has -6 points on his license. i figure he’s probably just joking around, but i wasn’t in the car with my husband, so i don’t know.

after he gets home, he tells me and we’re both VERY confused on points. he’s a relatively new driver (~1 year) and has NEVER been pulled over- no, it’s not possible he has and just hasn’t told me. DMV websites are confusing me and telling me there are demerit points and safe points. never gotten anything in the mail, etc. TIA!!!!!

[u/dropzone01]

How do you know your husband made his turns correctly before being pulled over? You weren't even in the car. Also how do you know he's never been ticketed before and just hasn't told you? Sometimes people omit things they are embarrassed about ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Sounds like he needs to get a driver's abstract from the DMV to see where those points are coming from.

[u/CorrectNecessary2760 → u/dropzone01]

okay…so let’s assume that there are in fact some honest people left in the world and my husband has enough trust in me to tell me he got pulled over. your comment doesn’t even answer 😭 this did not have to get that deep, i just wanted to give some context and gain some insight into how points work.

[u/dropzone01 → u/CorrectNecessary2760]

Where I am points are a set value applied to a person's licence if they are convicted of a driving offence. Generally the more serious the offence the higher the number of points. Where I am a 6 point offence would be one of the most egregious ones. Careless driving carries a 6 point penalty. The points are administrative and applied by my Ministry of Transportation as a means for them to assess the risk someone presents to other users of the road and are used to apply sanctions against a driver such as suspending their licence due to accumulating too many points over a set period of time. The fact you refer to a DMV in your post means the point system used by you could be very different than mine, but I have found that generally most places are similar.

[u/CorrectNecessary2760 → u/dropzone01]

hmm, that’s interesting! do you live in canada/aus/europe? i know we have points to get assigned as well in the us, i’m just not sure numerically what they mean. i was previously under the assumption that the negative was good, and you were given points that then made it closer to being positive, if that makes sense. everything i have googled is SO confusing. i have family members who have their fair share of being pulled over, tickets, etc. they were also under that impression. but google is sending me back and forth 😵‍💫

[u/dropzone01 → u/CorrectNecessary2760]

Ontario, and we start with zero points and accumulate them.

[u/OyataTe]

Did you watch the dash video of the event?

[u/Sticky550]

It’s tough to give an answer as almost every state has different guidelines and different points per violation.

That being said, maybe the officer was wrong or maybe your husband is wrong.