SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office said Wednesday that he does not plan to ride a motorcycle again until he gets the proper license --this after the governor was injured in a crash over the weekend and it came out that he's been riding his Harley illegally for years.
The Los Angeles city attorney said Wednesday afternoon that the governor will not be charged with a driving violation.
Meanwhile, different agencies can't seem to agree on whether the governor really needed a license for the particular kind of motorcycle he was riding on Sunday. But ticket or no ticket, Schwarzenegger will soon be making a trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles.
In movies and on the freeway, Schwarzenegger has been riding motorcycles for years. On Sunday, he was riding a Harley-Davidson near his home in Los Angeles, when he collided with a car that backed out of a driveway in front of him.
With 15 stitches in his lip, Schwarzenegger said Tuesday that after he moved to the U.S. from Austria, it never occurred to him to get a motorcycle license.
"You know, I just never really applied for it ... and it was just one of those things that I never thought about it," the governor said.
Los Angeles police officials said Schwarzenegger broke the law by riding without a motorcycle license. But the DMV said in this case, the governor's regular license was good enough because he was driving a motorcycle with three wheels.
"In this particular incidence involving a motorcycle with a sidecar, we believe he was operating under the law," DMV spokesman Bob Martinez said.
State Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, is again pushing legislation to give illegal immigrants driver's licenses. He said he hopes this experience causes the governor to reconsider his opposition.
"You know, give him pause to re-evaluate, to look at this situation away from the politics," Cedillo said.
Before he gets back on the bike, Schwarzenegger will have pass a written test, as well as an obstacle course test.
If the governor had been ticketed, the fine could have ranged from $100 to $250.