Absent-minded people take heart. If you forget to register your car, you may get a two-month grace period - at least your car won't get impounded because you forgot to renew your registration.
The Senate voted to prohibit law enforcement officers from impounding cars if the registration has been expired for less than two months. Officers can still issue tickets for expired registration."People should not have their vehicles impounded because of a simple mistake," said Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, the sponsor of SB17.
Lawmakers were targeting what they say is a capricious enforcement of car-registration laws. Some officers impound vehicles that are a day late in renewing registration. Others wait a year.
Col. Richard Greenwood, superintendent of the Utah Highway Patrol, did not adamantly oppose the legislation but expressed concern about the message the bill sends to police officers. "You're saying that it (expired registration) is not important to the Legislature. If the Legislature doesn't care, why should we?" he said.