DATE: Tuesday, June 24, 1997                TAG: 9706240269

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CINDY CLAYTON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   55 lines

DMV SUSPENDS SALES OF ``AUTUMN LEAF'' PLATES

The Department of Motor Vehicles has temporarily halted sales of its ``autumn leaf'' license plates, after customers complained that the coloring of the leaf design obscures the license letters and numbers.

The leaves on the reflective sheeting that covers the plates are too dark, said Anne Atkins, a DMV spokeswoman.

DMV officials have spoken to the manufacturer about lightening the bright, leaf-shaped splashes of orange and red, Atkins said, and the DMV is negotiating with the manufacturer about paying for the new plates.

DMV has stopped selling the plates, which were introduced May 1, but is still taking orders, she said. New ones are expected in about six weeks.

Atkins said the 6,500 motorists who have the plates will receive free replacements.

``Customers won't have to do a thing; they will just get them in the mail and put them on their cars,'' she said.

Customers and police were having trouble reading the plates, she said.

``When we got the first customer complaints in, we went back and looked at our samples that we had received and that's when we realized we had a discrepancy,'' between the samples and the plates made for customers, Atkins said.

Across Hampton Roads, police said the plates are hard to read but haven't presented a major problem.

But even a small thing like the coloring of a plate can mean the difference between catching or not catching a suspect, said Cpl. Jim Richards of the Norfolk police.

``If you can't read it, any time you try to obtain a license plate number - for whatever reason - that becomes a problem,'' Richards said.

The plates presented potential problems for victims of hit-and-run incidents and police in pursuit of motorists, he said.

``Just by changing the colors it'll make a great difference in the way we do our job,'' he said.

The company that manufactures the sheeting, 3M Corp. of St. Paul, Minn., is working on lightening the sheeting, Atkins said. The plates are made at the Powhatan Correctional Center and are shipped directly to the customers.

Atkins said no decision has been made on whether 3M will pay for the new plates. She said the original inventory of the sheeting cost about $150,000.

The new plate is one of two winning designs in a DMV contest last year that brought more than 600 entries by middle school and high school students from across the state. A Winchester student designed the leaf plate.

The other new design, a ``patriot'' plate showing a fife player, also went on sale May 1. About 1,500 of those plates have been sold. MEMO: The Associated Press contributed to this report. ILLUSTRATION: Motorists with ``autumn leaf'' license plates will

receive new, easier-to-read replacements for free.

DMV photo

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