Speeding Ticket :(

polvadis

New member
I was pulled over today by our beloved California Highway Patrol for going 82 on the freeway.

How was I picked from the crowd of people going the exact same speed still boggles me a bit. My last ticket was some 5 years ago so I suppose it's a good slow down reminder... but: a) I don't exactly have cash laying around I'm willing to just give away and b) I wonder how that's gonna affect my L.A. Sheriff's department applicaction (taking the test tomorrow).

I'm just ranting, I know. It's done, so nothing else I can do now but just "suck it Trebeck".
 
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If it makes you feel any better, the fines could be worse. In Jersey for example, you pay the speeding ticket fine and an annual insurance surcharge for 3 years after. Last time I had a ticket was probably 5 years ago myself and the insurance surcharge was at $100 a year (no idea what it is now). One particular ticket ending up costing me a total of nearly $600 over the course of the 3 years
 
Never just pay the ticket, especially if you have a clean driving record. If you get a ticket, request a formal hearing; show up, be prompt, prepared and polite; ask the prosecutor/city attorney for a non-moving violation. 90% of the time they will agree. You wind up paying a fine but there will be no points that will mess up your record and effect your insurance rate. Here is the catch: if you have points on your record they will probably not give you the deal. You can keep getting tickets, pleading them down to non-moving violations and not worry about points. Examples of non-moving violations: blockading an intersection and defective equipment (my favorite).
 
HNTMUP said:
Never just pay the ticket, especially if you have a clean driving record. If you get a ticket, request a formal hearing; show up, be prompt, prepared and polite; ask the prosecutor/city attorney for a non-moving violation. 90% of the time they will agree. You wind up paying a fine but there will be no points that will mess up your record and effect your insurance rate. Here is the catch: if you have points on your record they will probably not give you the deal. You can keep getting tickets, pleading them down to non-moving violations and not worry about points. Examples of non-moving violations: blockading an intersection and defective equipment (my favorite).

Oh, yes. I speak with a voice of experience, lots of experience.
 
buy a radar detector, and i mean a good one.

in alabama you can get out of a ticket by community service or taking a driver safety class. my friends have all done these.

the one time i got pulled over for speeding i got out of it cause it was on my birthday :bigok:
 
never feels good

but if you are like me you were perhaps overdue for one....

At least you admit you were exceeding the limit and may have deserved a ticket.

I was pulled over last Christmas time about 8 miles after leaving the small town of Hardesty OK.

Officer claimed I had driven 53mph through the entire town, with a limit of 35.

Certainly I knew he was in error but I held my tongue as I have been taught never to challenge the officer on the spot. My sons were with me and knew the officer was making up a story to justify pulling me over-claimed he could not catch us in town!!

I attempted to fight my ticket legally only to learn I would have to return to the location 3 times to schedule and attend a trial.

Hence- I reported the shakedown to the Okalahoma Highway Patrol judicial official and received their response of :

"Yep, that happens all the time in Hardesty-are your from out of state? Next time you come through just bypass Hardesty by using ......(and he named the routes to do so)

Paid my fine and posted up the location on SpeedTrap.com or some such website. I thought this type of thing only happened in the deep South and 20 years ago. Silly me. (No offense intended to you guys down there-but that is where it happened to me first...)

I am routinely about 7-9 over the limit regardless of what is posted, and it did keep me in check for a month or two.

I don't mind a ticket when I deserve one-but chicken^%$ hiding behind bushes or signs to step out and wave people over is a danger to the officer and to traffic. They pull that type of ambush here in town pretty regularly.

Try to fight it if your time and schedule allows it.

If your record is fairly clean you can give it a go. It most likely will cost you more to fight than just pay it and take your lumps.
 
polvadis said:
b) I wonder how that's gonna affect my L.A. Sheriff's department applicaction (taking the test tomorrow).

Normally this should not be a problem on most interviews. You just need a good answer. It is important to take responsibility, and tell them what you learned.

"Yes, I did get a ticket on the freeway. I was returning from a really fun day at the lake with my girl. I was just driving with the flow of traffic on the highway and got pulled over. I paid the ticket and it was a really good reminder to always carefully monitor my speed"

That type of answer will work for most tickets. For a DUI, you are on your own, they stick forever, and can cost your job opportunities for a lifetime.

If an interviewer makes a big deal out of it, they are probably unhappy with some other part of your interview and just using this as an excuse for some other objection they may have.

I hope the interview went well. ... and in some states a few hundred spend on an attorney will easily turn it into a non moving violation. But remember, an interview question might be "did you ever get a speeding ticket" not "did you ever beat a speeding ticket".
 
I was going 84 in a 55 and had one ticket previously, which was 62 in a 50. About a month after i recieved the first ticket they raised the speed limit in that section to 55. So when i was in court for my recent speeding ticket and the judge brought up the previous ticket i used that as an excuse and pleeded that im a safe good driver and i just got out of hand. He let me off with $150 fine and 2 pts instead of the 6 pts the ticket was supposed to be. No community servise or driving classes

I agree with one of the posts above, if you have a clean driving record you should be able to fight it no problem.
 
I have been through a few lame tickets in CA so far, window tint, modified exhaust, no front plate etc ..... you have a good chance the officer won't show up if you do a not guilty plea, and even if he does, they will ask you if you want to set it up for a traffic class rather than the ticket before the trial begins. Just go in on or before the due date and request a trial.

For anyone that doesn't drive the LA area freeways, 82mph is pretty normal most of the time, unless of course everyone is at a dead stop.
 
Sloan said:
in alabama you can get out of a ticket by community service or taking a driver safety class. my friends have all done these.


Over the past few years, me and my wife each have taken a driver safety course to avoid a speeding ticket being placed on our records. Granted the court cost and cost of the class totaled up to the price of the speeding ticket, but at least we did not have to pay for the actual ticket and neither did they go on our records.

When I took the class a few years ago for my ticket, I had to attend the class for 8hrs on a Saturday. My wife took the same class 6 months ago for her ticket, and she only had to go 4hrs on a Monday night...lucky her. :)
 
CA you can do it online, and just have to go in to a certified location to take a test ..... one of the good things about having way too many people in too little space.
 
As for a good Radar Detector, I have a Valentine One and haven't been pulled over for speeding since I bought it 5 years ago
 
I'll second the V1, i've been using them for years, first borrowing a buddies for road trips, and finally throwing down some money for my own... a bit pricey, but much cheaper than a ticket.
 
Re: Re: Speeding Ticket :(

jerseygeorge said:
Normally this should not be a problem on most interviews. You just need a good answer. It is important to take responsibility, and tell them what you learned.

"Yes, I did get a ticket on the freeway. I was returning from a really fun day at the lake with my girl. I was just driving with the flow of traffic on the highway and got pulled over. I paid the ticket and it was a really good reminder to always carefully monitor my speed"

That type of answer will work for most tickets. For a DUI, you are on your own, they stick forever, and can cost your job opportunities for a lifetime.

If an interviewer makes a big deal out of it, they are probably unhappy with some other part of your interview and just using this as an excuse for some other objection they may have.

I hope the interview went well. ... and in some states a few hundred spend on an attorney will easily turn it into a non moving violation. But remember, an interview question might be "did you ever get a speeding ticket" not "did you ever beat a speeding ticket".

Thanks for this info. I took and passed the written exam yesterday after which I had to fill out a background questionnaire. It said "list all traffic violations in the past 3 years". If it wasn't for this ticket it would have been blank. Damn it.

The female officer reviewing my paperwork had a chuckle when she saw the date of the ticket. My interview is this coming Saturday so we'll see how much it will matter. I also had to put down that I smoked pot 3 times in High School 9 years ago, that I got into a fight once, and that the only crime I've ever broken was downloading music... :p It seemed pretty boring compared to the essays the guys around me were writing about their past.
 

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