More than 400 drivers cited by the Kent Police between June 10 and July 1 for holding a cell phone to their ear or texting while driving will receive a refund of their $124 tickets because of an error by state Department of Licensing officials.<\/p>\n
The state DOL announced July 15 that the state’s Model Traffic Ordinance had not been updated by state officials until July 1 to reflect the new cell phone law that went into effect June 10.<\/p>\n
Many cities, including Kent, follow the state’s code book for traffic ordinances. That means drivers cited in those cities for the cell phone violations are eligible for the refund.<\/p>\n
The Kent Municipal court will handle refunds to drivers cited in Kent. Drivers do not have to take any action to receive a refund. The city will mail refunds within the next couple of weeks.<\/p>\n
“They (ticketed drivers) don’t have to do anything,” said City Chief Prosecutor Tami Perdue in a phone interview July 19. “It is appropriate that we refund the tickets as quickly as we can.”<\/p>\n
There were 438 cases in Kent between June 10 and July 1 that involved tickets for holding a cell phone to their ear while driving, texting while driving or approaching a stationary emergency vehicle (another law that had not been updated).<\/p>\n
Several drivers have called the city to ask about refunds after the state DOL released information last week that the traffic code had not been updated, Perdue said.<\/p>\n
The state’s Model Traffic Ordinance was updated by emergency rule July 1 to include the new laws, said Tony Sermonti, DOL spokesman, in a media release. He said the state will reimburse local jurisdictions for the amount of each refunded fine.<\/p>\n
In Kent, the total refunded amount at $124 per ticket is $54,312.<\/p>\n
Tickets issued by the State Patrol and Seattle Police are not affected by the error because each agency uses its own traffic rule rather than the state code book.<\/p>\n
The DOL has formalized the process to ensure that the traffic ordinance is reviewed annually and updated if necessary, Sermonti said.<\/p>\n
Drivers ticketed for cell phone violations between June 10 and July 1 by Kent Police can call the Kent Municipal Court at 253-856-5730 and push 8 or call the city prosecutor’s office at 253-856-5770 to inquire about ticket refunds or the dismissal of a ticket if the fine has not yet been paid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More than 400 drivers cited by the Kent Police between June 10 and July 1 for holding a cell phone to their ear or texting while driving will receive a refund of their $124 tickets because of an error by state Department of Licensing officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-20268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20268"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20268"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=20268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}