WASHINGTON (WUSA) -- DMV ticket late payment penalties are being waived for the rest of the year in the District, city officials said in a news release.
It's called the "Ticket Amnesty Program," and it's designed to get people to pay their outstanding tickets to the city, who may not have been paying them because of all the fees that accrued, officials said.
"The program will begin on August 1, 2011, and continue through January 27, 2012. All open parking tickets, citations for moving violations and photo-enforcement tickets issued before January 1, 2010, qualify under the amnesty program," city officials said.
You can pay your ticket online at www.dmv.dc.gov, over the phone at (866) 893-5023 or in person at DMV Adjudication Services, located at 301 C Street, NW, Monday through Friday from 8:15 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.
"The current value of the more than 4 million outstanding tickets eligible under the amnesty program is $245.7 million. Of this amount, the District expects to collect approximately $6.3 million during the six-month amnesty. Among the local jurisdictions, drivers in Maryland owe the most to the District in unpaid tickets," officials said in a news release.
Under the program:
• Hearings cannot be requested on amnesty tickets.
• Amnesty tickets are eligible for a ticket-payment plan.
• Payments on tickets made prior to August 1, 2011 are not eligible for a refund.
• No points will be assessed on moving-violation tickets paid.
The area outside the city's downtown DMV is known as parking purgatory. While inside paying their outstanding parking tickets scores of people complain they are being hit with still more citations as the meters run or or they learn they have mistakenly parked in loading zones.
On Wednesday, Andrew Green emerged from the DMV building to see his family van lifted in the air and being hauled away by a DDOT tow truck -- there was a $100 ticket on the window to boot-- after he had been inside paying a $50 ticket.
Green works as a cook. He's married and father of four small children.
His latest misfortune comes on the very day the mayor announced a six month amnesty program for people with outstanding traffic tickets dating before January of 2010. This won't help the Green family.