2 Sides of a Speeding Ticket

[MouseMadness]

I've been ticketed a number of times. :shrug: I'm always polite with the officer and never make excuses, simply put I was caught and was deserving. As a result, I've never actually been issued a ticket that reflected the actual speed I'd been doing, they always reduce it to whatever the minimum speed they're pulling people over for that day. Occasionally they'll write in the margin what the fine would have been for the speed I'd been doing and any demerit points it would have incurred.

The idea of giving the officer some sort of excuse or suggesting they're picking on the wrong person because others might be going faster that day is mind-boggling to me. The officer is doing their job and there is never any excuse that warrants giving them a hard time for doing it. If you think otherwise, you just weren't raised right.

The only time I've ever challenged an officer who pulled me over was an occasion where he was doing 60 in an 70 zone while I was behind him and then moved to doing 70 in an 80 zone [all Km here :lol:]. I finally went around him and he pulled me over. When he got to me he said I'd been tailgating him for a while and then sped to pass him. I pointed out that I had never lost sight of his rear tires on the road, so hadn't been that close and I passed him because he was going well below the posted limit on both stretches of road. He told me the limit where we were was 70 and I had been doing 80, took my license and registration back to his vehicle to right the ticket. In my rear-view I noticed his partner point to the speed limit sign that was right beside my car that said the limit was 80... The officer rather sheepishly returned my papers and apologized.

I don't say anything unprompted, but they've usually asked me "Is there a reason you're going so fast?" :ROFLOL:

Nope :shrug:

I'm probably 50/50 on whether I've been ticketed or not for speeding. I deserve it 100% of the time, so I really don't make a big whiney deal of it. It IS frustrating, because we have all been in the situation where we have a car blow by us on the highway, and then we'll get pinched for going 10 or 15 mph over :lol: but, you know, life's not fair and all that. :lol:

 

[EPCOT.nut]

Sorry, but like I said, I've never been a fan of going strictly by the letter of the law without taking into account other mitigating circumstances. I'm in favor of using your brain. And that goes the other way around, too. For example, my Dad likes to do cute little tricks to circumvent the intent of the law by claiming that he's technically following the letter of the law. Such as the seatbelt law, for example. Now I'm not getting into whether or not I agree with seatbelt laws, because that's irrelevant. But rightly or wrongly, it's the law in Illinois to wear seatbelts. My Dad's way of rebelling against that is to pull the seatbelt over his shoulder to make it look like he's wearing it. His defense, when questioned by someone about it, is that he's following the law...he's "wearing" his seatbelt. It's that kind of brainless adherence to the letter of the law without using a little common sense, IMO, that results in cops with a power trip waiting at the bottom of a hill to nail people whose cars have inevetably accelerated in the process of going down the slope. God gave us all brains...let's use them a little.

Several years ago, me and a friend of mine went out to eat after our late shift at work. It was past midnight when we were on our way home, and we were coming up on one of the towns on the way home. I misread the first "speed limit 35" sign, thinking instead that it was a sign telling us that the speed limit 35 zone is coming up. So I continued to go 55, slowing down in preparation for coming into town. When I came up to the second sign, which I thought was the first speed limit 35 sign, I slowed down to 35. There was a cop up ahead and he pulled me over and gave me a ticket. He told me that the 35 zone starts back there over the little hill, where I thought it said "speed limit 35 ahead". I thought he was wrong, so I filed to protest the ticket in court. However, as the court date approached, I saw the signs for myself again in the daylight and saw that the cop was right...the first sign DID say speed limit 35 and he was right...legally. I knew I didn't have an argument, so I just ponied up and paid the ticket. Legally, did I deserve the ticket? Sure. But I'm interested in more than just the letter of the law. While I did rightfully deserve the ticket in a strictly legal sense, I think the cop just had a power trip and enjoyed writing tickets just because he could. It was an honest mistake and it wouldn't have hurt him to cut a little slack just because of that. Secondly, it was past midnight, no one was out, so it's not like I'm hotrodding through a school zone while the bus is unloading.

Again, to all the cops out there...COMMON SENSE, FOLKS! Just because you're legally in the right to give a ticket, that doesn't mean you should. Don't walk around with a Barney Fife complex measuring cars to see if you can nail one for being one centimeter over the line, or seeing if you can catch one still in the process of decelerating as he crosses the speed zone, etc. Use your brain a little and take some other things into consideration.

Oh, and in case anyone wonders, I wasn't rude in any way to that cop. I think I politely told him that I thought the speed zone started with that second sign, but I didn't sit there and argue with him about it. I respectfully accepted the ticket, bid him goodnight, then mailed it in after checking the box indicating that I wanted to fight it in court. And yes, I admit that I am responsible for the fact that I apparently wasn't paying enough attention to those signs. So I don't deny my responsibility in all of that. I just think it would be nice if more cops would be willing to take other things into accout other than thinking "AHA! I've got another one to nail! Mwahahahaha!" :lol:

HOLY COW AGAIN! :lol:

I don't think that much about the law, speeding, cops or tickets. That's why I am laughing! :lol:

I get tickets and I'm pretty irritated about it. I really don't care, though. It is rare that I'm not speeding on purpose. You know how you kind of look at the speed limit and go MEH - and normally we don't get a ticket - but sometimes we have a "crappy luck day."

Once I got pulled over on the way to work....I leave about 15 minutes before my husband....and we take the same route, so I was upset not wanting my husband to drive past me getting a ticket....
The cop was taking his dear sweet time...and I was thinking, HURRY UP OK! Well, I said, "Jeesh my husband is going to kill me if he drives by and sees me getting a ticket!" And the cop got real paranoid and started asking me questions about how violent my husband is....:lookaroun

SO when you get a ticket just sit there and take the darned thing. If you disagree then go to court.

 

[Monty]

Maybe Monty should try that next time he gets pulled over... :lookaroun



:lol:

Sadly, I've never been pulled over by a woman officer. If it ever happens, I'll flirt for sure!

I don't say anything unprompted, but they've usually asked me "Is there a reason you're going so fast?" :ROFLOL:

Nope :shrug:

I've actually answered "Nope, this is just the way I drive." :shrug:

Interestingly, officers seem to appreciate honest answers.

 

[sbkline]

HOLY COW AGAIN! :lol:

I don't think that much about the law, speeding, cops or tickets. That's why I am laughing! :lol:

I get tickets and I'm pretty irritated about it. I really don't care, though. It is rare that I'm not speeding on purpose. You know how you kind of look at the speed limit and go MEH - and normally we don't get a ticket - but sometimes we have a "crappy luck day."

Once I got pulled over on the way to work....I leave about 15 minutes before my husband....and we take the same route, so I was upset not wanting my husband to drive past me getting a ticket....
The cop was taking his dear sweet time...and I was thinking, HURRY UP OK! Well, I said, "Jeesh my husband is going to kill me if he drives by and sees me getting a ticket!" And the cop got real paranoid and started asking me questions about how violent my husband is....:lookaroun

SO when you get a ticket just sit there and take the darned thing. If you disagree then go to court.

That's pretty much what I did. I didn't make a scene or anything. He gave me the ticket, and I took it, and planned to fight it in court, but then changed my mind when I discovered that I had no defense.

And just in case anyone wonders, as a general rule I try not to speed. I set my cruise for whatever the speed limit is and endeavor to go that speed limit. Exceptions to that may be when I'm in town and the stop and go driving makes the cruise contol ineffective, or when we're treking to WDW and I'm used to speed limit 65 here in Illinois, and come across the darned annoying road work speed zones in Georgia and the speed limit drops to 55 or 60. In those cases, I try to set my cruise within the 5 MPH "grace zone" so to speak and thereby sneak in a little extra speed. LOL

Otherwise I typically stay right within the speed limit, although I do find myself not paying attention sometimes, and forgetting to set the cruise, only to look down and find myself going 10 or 15 MPH over the speed limit. I promptly hit the brakes and set the cruise.

So again, it's not like I make a deliberate point to exceed the speed limit. But there are those times when I'm going down an incline and the car picks up speed. And yes, I would be very ticked off if some cop took advantage of that to strut his stuff and start writing tickets instead of being understanding of the fact that such things happen very easily to the best of us.

And that ticket that I mentioned several years ago...I think that's the last actual ticket that I've gotten...and that was back in 2000. I've been pulled over a couple other times and given verbal warnings or written warnings, but not necessarily for speeding. Making a rolling stop, or using the U-Turn on the interstate, for example. And had I gotten a ticket for that, I would not have cried foul, because I knew it was illegal and chose to do it anyway because I didn't want to sit in the traffic backup on the interstate. So again, it's not that I think cops should never give tickets, or are always power hungry pigs for doing so. I just favor a little common sense and discretion in doing so and, IMO picking up speed on the way down a steep incline is one example of where a little "grace" should come into play.

 

[SpongeScott]

I can see both sides here.

Amazing posts.

I don't see anything in the driver's handbooks about "letters of the law." All of them mention not speeding. Period. By the lady's admission, she was going 10 mph over the speed limit--enough said. She was speeding, it was illegal, she was ticketed. Going downhill has nothing to do with it.

As for your examples, no disrespect intended for your father, but if he's ever pulled over for a seat belt infraction, I hope they throw the book at him for his smart a** attitude. Law enforcement usually and rightfully so demand our respect and that is not the way to give it. I would love to see your father challenge his attitude and justification in a court.

If you're ever pulled over, I hope that you keep your self-righteousness in check while you speak to the officer--and don't call him Officer Fife. :animwink: If you're pulled over, odds are very, very high that you are guilty, letter of the law or not.

 

[unkadug]

I find a high degree of disrespect for the law on this thread.

 

[hcswingfield]

I find a high degree of disrespect for the law on this thread.

Not just in this thread. I find it everywhere. I used to find it annoying, but it's starting to be a little scary. Nobody thinks any of the rules apply to them anymore. The rules are there to protect all of us.

 

[Hrudey3032]

Well my dad was a police officer for 27 years and he would tell me all the time about people making up exscuses and saying they were being picked on by him or other officers.His reply to people who say why did you not pull them over.They were going faster than me.He would say well I caught you and you were breaking the law.

Last September days after my birthday I was pulled over for running a red light(which I disagreed with as it had just turned yellow)and the officer pulled me over.I knew 1st off I had a expired license as I had yet to get my new plate,and my drivers license which both expired on my birthday.So as soon as the officer approached I told him that they were both expired before he even asked.He told me about the stop light(Which I told him I thought had just turned yellow) and said he would be back.Now to him I have broken 3 laws but when he came back to the car he told me I wasn't what he was looking for(It was a friday night and he was looking more for drunk drivers)and said I had a perfect record and told me here are 2 warning tickets and to get both my expired license and plate taken care of ASAP which I did the next day.So to me I could have been looking at 500 dollar minimum in tickets and instead because I was honest and treated the officer with respect I think I got away with a slap on the wrist.While i disagreed with why he pulled me over I still have the utmost respect for police officers and know they have tough jobs that are extremely stressful and they make mistakes like we do but to say they should be lenient well I pose this question to you.At your job if you look the other way or didn't do something because it was not as important do you get a free pass?Well a officer is paid to "enforce" the laws.If you break the law and he writes you a ticket there is nothing to gripe about.
If you can't do the time don't do the crime!

 

[Number_6]

I have a great deal of respect for Law Enforcement. My grandfather was a detective with the Newton Police in Massachusetts. And when I worked for the Traffic Management Center in Orlando, it was side-by-side with the Dispatchers and Troopers of the Florida Highway Patrol. The only Law Enforcement Agency that I ever lost respect for was Orange County Sheriff's Office. I saw too many instances of them shirking their responsibilities, had a friend that needed help and it took them six hours to respond to the emergency and one nearly ran down a crossing guard and students from my children's school after yelling at the crossing guard for being in the intersection to cross the students. No emergency with the crossing guard one, mind you, just stopping, yelling "What do you think you're doing?" and then blowing through the rest of the intersection almost running everyone over. So.... yeah.... no respect for them, but high amounts of respect for all the others. Especially Buffalo PD since I've seen them out doing their jobs daily.

 

[figmentmom]

Hello - she was SPEEDING, by her own admission! Whether or not the person ahead of her was speeding as well has NOTHING to do with it. We tell our kids in school that you take responsibility for your own actions. She deserved the ticket.

We have speed limits for good reasons, folks. Speeding is dangerous, and can cause accidents. We have seatbelt laws for good reasons, too - they save lives.

Oh, and, if she'd been in New York, she'd have gotten a ticket for being on the phone while driving.

 

[unkadug]

Hello - she was SPEEDING, by her own admission! Whether or not the person ahead of her was speeding as well has NOTHING to do with it. We tell our kids in school that you take responsibility for your own actions. She deserved the ticket.

We have speed limits for good reasons, folks. Speeding is dangerous, and can cause accidents. We have seatbelt laws for good reasons, too - they save lives.

Oh, and, if she'd been in New York, she'd have gotten a ticket for being on the phone while driving.

Oh...such a pet peeve of mine. That and not using blinkers.

 

[hcswingfield]

Oh...such a pet peeve of mine. That and not using blinkers.

Don't ever drive in Alabama, then. The only people here who use blinkers are those of us who learned to drive in Georgia.:lol:

 

[maggiegrace1]

Sadly, I've never been pulled over by a woman officer. If it ever happens, I'll flirt for sure!

It works..
:lookaroun

Don't ever drive in Alabama, then. The only people here who use blinkers are those of us who learned to drive in Georgia.:lol:

Or Louisiana...people have no idea what a blinker is..:lol:

 

[sbkline]

Oh...such a pet peeve of mine. That and not using blinkers.

I don't have a problem with people talking on phones while driving, and I don't mind doing it myself...except for the fact that they just passed one of those idiotic laws in Illinois now, too. And for some reason, my wife still insists on calling me on my cell phone on my way to or from work sometimes, as if she's trying to get me pulled over! :lol:

 

[sbkline]

As for your examples, no disrespect intended for your father, but if he's ever pulled over for a seat belt infraction, I hope they throw the book at him for his smart a** attitude. Law enforcement usually and rightfully so demand our respect and that is not the way to give it. I would love to see your father challenge his attitude and justification in a court.

I hope "getting the book thrown at him" is the worst thing that would happen to him as the result of not wearing his seatbelt. It would be much better than my Mom's consequences for not wearing hers. She foolishly chose not to wear her seatbelt and she and Dad were in a wreck where the truck flipped over and she was thrown out the door and landed on the road and died a few hours later. Yet Dad hasn't learned a thing from this and continues to not wear his seatbelt.

I'm not sure that I believe in seatbelt laws, however. I wear mine because it's the smart thing to do, regardless of what the law says, and I do believe that anyone who doesn't wear one is a fool. Now whether or not it should be legally mandatory is another issue. To not wear your seatbelt is stupid, I totally agree. But if you want to take your own life into your hands like that, then more power to ya, I suppose. :shrug: But I can see arguments on both sides and I'm not totally sure where I stand on the issue of seatbelt laws. I just know that I stand firmly on the principle that if you don't wear yours, you're a very foolish person.

 

[JimboJones123]

Sounds like the officer was VERY NICE compared to how he could have been.

 

[Erika]

I hope "getting the book thrown at him" is the worst thing that would happen to him as the result of not wearing his seatbelt. It would be much better than my Mom's consequences for not wearing hers. She foolishly chose not to wear her seatbelt and she and Dad were in a wreck where the truck flipped over and she was thrown out the door and landed on the road and died a few hours later. Yet Dad hasn't learned a thing from this and continues to not wear his seatbelt.

I'm not sure that I believe in seatbelt laws, however. I wear mine because it's the smart thing to do, regardless of what the law says, and I do believe that anyone who doesn't wear one is a fool. Now whether or not it should be legally mandatory is another issue. To not wear your seatbelt is stupid, I totally agree. But if you want to take your own life into your hands like that, then more power to ya, I suppose. :shrug: But I can see arguments on both sides and I'm not totally sure where I stand on the issue of seatbelt laws. I just know that I stand firmly on the principle that if you don't wear yours, you're a very foolish person.

Very sorry to hear about your mom. How tragic

Regarding the bold- most people don't realize that not wearing a seatbelt also puts other passengers at risk. I know I've posted before about a friend of mine who had her back broken in several places because of a backseat passenger being thrown forward.

 

[Monty]

I don't have a problem with people talking on phones while driving, and I don't mind doing it myself...except for the fact that they just passed one of those idiotic laws in Illinois now, too. And for some reason, my wife still insists on calling me on my cell phone on my way to or from work sometimes, as if she's trying to get me pulled over! :lol:

Having personally witnessed two fatal car accidents involving drivers talking on cellphones... I have a problem with it. Get yourself a hands-free unit, it may very well save your life [and your screams as you crash won't haunt your wife for the rest of her life knowing it was she that distracted you].

 

[figmentmom]

I hope "getting the book thrown at him" is the worst thing that would happen to him as the result of not wearing his seatbelt. It would be much better than my Mom's consequences for not wearing hers. She foolishly chose not to wear her seatbelt and she and Dad were in a wreck where the truck flipped over and she was thrown out the door and landed on the road and died a few hours later. Yet Dad hasn't learned a thing from this and continues to not wear his seatbelt.

I'm not sure that I believe in seatbelt laws, however. I wear mine because it's the smart thing to do, regardless of what the law says, and I do believe that anyone who doesn't wear one is a fool. Now whether or not it should be legally mandatory is another issue. To not wear your seatbelt is stupid, I totally agree. But if you want to take your own life into your hands like that, then more power to ya, I suppose. :shrug: But I can see arguments on both sides and I'm not totally sure where I stand on the issue of seatbelt laws. I just know that I stand firmly on the principle that if you don't wear yours, you're a very foolish person.

What a terrible tragedy - and what makes it even more tragic is that you could very well lose your father to the identical scenario. Sometimes laws are there to protect us (as well as others!) from our own foolhardy decisions.

And how can anyone argue that talking on a cell phone doesn't distract them from the very serious business of driving?

 

[EPCOT.nut]

What a terrible tragedy - and what makes it even more tragic is that you could very well lose your father to the identical scenario. Sometimes laws are there to protect us (as well as others!) from our own foolhardy decisions.

And how can anyone argue that talking on a cell phone doesn't distract them from the very serious business of driving?

I saw a Mythbusters where they compared driving drunk and talking on the cell phone while driving an obstacle course and the people did a better job driving while drunk than they did talking on the cell phone.

Anyone else see that one? It was freaky!