GOOSE CREEK, S.C.(AP) - A mix-up at the Division of Motor Vehicles left one Berkeley County sheriff's deputy confused and a driver trying to explain she wasn't responsible for a car wreck when she was 4 years old.

After being stopped recently for driving through a traffic light, Jessica Thompkins, 21, said she was shocked to learn her driver's license had been suspended for not meeting financial responsibility for a car accident in 1986.

It's one of the latest blunders at the department that has come under scrutiny recently after reports of long lines and other problems as offices statewide put in a new computer system.

Deputy Jerry Reynolds questioned the suspension on Thompkins license as he wrote her a warning ticket.

"The only reason he didn't take me to jail was because I just renewed my driver's license," Thompkins said.

Reynolds wouldn't let Thompkins drive her car and she had to get a ride to a DMV office to clear up the problem.

DMV spokeswoman Joan Beardsley said the error occurred when a clerk transposed the numbers while recording a driver's license suspension. The Moncks Corner DMV office has corrected the problem, she said.

Beaufort Gazette

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