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Pryor driving with no license
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo
Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor arrives at a players only meeting, Monday, May 30, 2011, at the Woody Hayes Complex, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Terry Gilliam)
AP
Photo
Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor arrives in this Nissan 350Z, center, to a players only meeting Monday, May 30, 2011, at the Woody Hayes Complex, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Terry Gilliam)
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Associated Press
COLUMBUS
The NCAA is interested in Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor’s cars. The state of Ohio says he shouldn’t be driving one.
Pryor was seen driving a sports car to a team meeting on Monday hours after coach Jim Tressel’s forced resignation, even though his Ohio driving privileges have been suspended.
Pryor’s driving privileges have been suspended for 90 days because he failed to produce proof of insurance when he was pulled over for a stop-sign violation on Feb. 19 in Columbus. Pryor received repeated requests to appear in traffic court to show that he had valid insurance before he eventually paid a $141 fine and court costs on April 2. But Ohio authorities say he has never produced proof of insurance.
Pryor is being investigated by the NCAA for the cars he has driven over his three years as a Buckeye, The Columbus Dispatch has reported. The newspaper also said NCAA investigators are looking into more than 50 vehicle transactions involving Ohio State athletes, their families and friends and two Columbus dealerships.
Said Lindsey Bohrer, a communications officer for the Ohio Department of Public Safety: “Our records do not indicate that [Pryor] has driving privileges in Ohio.”
Pryor was photographed driving a used Nissan 350Z valued between $16,000 and $27,000 to and from the team meeting on Monday night. He drove the same car to a workout on Wednesday.
His driving suspension took effect on May 20 and runs through Aug. 18. To regain his driving privileges after that, he will need to pay a $150 reinstatement fee, get insurance and carry a special card for high-risk drivers signifying that the driver is covered by insurance.
Before Pryor could renew his license in any state, he would first need to take care of the non-compliance issue in Ohio. His license would be flagged through two systems which monitor problem drivers throughout the country.
Even though his driver’s license is from Pennsylvania, where Pryor is from, the two neighboring states are among 44 members of a “nonresident violator compact” which recognizes citations across state lines. So if he were to be pulled over in most places in the country outside of Ohio, the suspension would still be in effect.
According to Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles records, Pryor was ticketed in November 2008 for driving 99 in a 65-mph zone and in March 2010 for driving 94 mph in a 65-mph zone.
His driver’s license isn’t the only suspension facing Pryor.
The NCAA has suspended Pryor, who will be a senior this fall, for the first five games of the 2011 season for receiving cash and tattoos from a Columbus tattoo-parlor owner. Four other Buckeyes are also suspended for the first five games for trading autographed jerseys along with Big Ten championship rings and other memorabilia that the U.S. attorney’s office said had a value of $12,000 to $15,000.