Tens Of Thousands Of Pa. Drivers Getting New Licenses After Faulty Ones Issued
By Tony Romeo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - If you got or renewed your Pennsylvania driver's license over the past four months, you may be getting a new one in the mail.
It seems that since November until this past Wednesday, PennDOT was issuing licenses with faulty laminate.
PennDOT spokesman Rich Kirkpatrick says if you got one of these licenses, there could be a problem when you go someplace that is using a black light to check ID's. The light is supposed to show a strip of keystone symbols with "PA" in it.
"The two letters got reversed," Kirkpatrick explains, "and so it says 'AP' instead of 'PA.' And we had one complaint from someone who had used it to gain access somewhere where ID was required, and the security people said 'well, this isn't a valid license'."
So Kirkpatrick says perhaps 100,000 or so residents will get new licenses in the mail, at cost to the vendor. Just destroy the old license when the new one comes.
PennDOT says this issue should not affect TSA security checks at airports.