Comments (73)

1. When I was in college I was continuously driving a long country stretch from Marshall, Texas to Beaumont, Texas to visit my fiance’. I always hated the town of Jasper, I guess because of the whole they drag people through town on a chain from the back of their truck thing.

   The whole town creeped me out, so I would make a deal with myself never to STOP in the town, didn’t matter how much I needed to strecth, eat or use… facilities. Of course I would speed too, after my second ticket I figured it is faster to get out of town going the speed limit.

   posted by Witty Nickname on 6-4-2008 at 10:41 am

2. The motorcycle guy was my boyfriend’s neighbor and best friend growing up… and his dad’s a cop!

   posted by Katie on 6-4-2008 at 10:51 am

3. Man, strange time for this article to pop up. I have to appear in court tomorrow morning for the first speeding ticket I’ve ever gotten! (I’m 27, quite a feat, huh?). Apparently, the jerkwad cop who pulled me over claimed I was going 70mph in a 50mph zone, which I think is way off, I was merging into a left turning lane that had a red light! I had forgotten about the court date until yesterday, & frantically searched the courts database for cases to find mine. Apparently I am up for Reckless Driving. Kinda freaked out about that, are they going to take my license away?! Btw, this was in Virginia Beach, VA.

   posted by Kathryn on 6-4-2008 at 11:05 am

4. I’m 25 and have yet to be pulled over. *knock on wood* It’s not because I don’t speed. I speed all the time. I figure it’s just a matter of time before I do get stopped. And then even if I’m not speeding, I don’t think I can get too upset since I’ve gotten away with it so many times.

   posted by Lisa on 6-4-2008 at 11:11 am

5. I find that 272 in a 75 zone a bit suspect, the fastest car around right now (SSC Ultimate Aero) will only do 257, and that’s on a track with lots of run up.

   D

   posted by Donovan on 6-4-2008 at 11:17 am

6. 103 in a 70, on I-35 in Texas. If memory serves, the ticket was only about $115. Not a bad deal, considering the out of control fining and ticketing in some Texas counties.

   posted by TheD on 6-4-2008 at 11:17 am

7. I once got pulled over on the interstate near a construction area slow zone. The ticket was pretty bad (as all tickets are) but I really panicked because it was in one of those “Speeding fines are doubled when workers are present” zones, so I figured the $200 (approx) ticket would be around $400.

   When I got it (and there was no talking out of it), I learned something about tickets (at least this kind). The actual fine for speeding was like $35, the other $200 or so were for court costs (I’d never thought about how it broke down), so the doubled fine was $70 – only a $35 increase over the ~$200 normal price. This is not an incentive to speed through construction zones, but it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting.

   The worst ticket anyone in the family got was my wife’s. She was pregnant and behind a truck belching smoke and gas fumes on a quiet straight road. The fumes were making her sick (as if the morning sickness wasn’t doing that already), so she waited until it was clear enough to pass (she could see a long way down the other lane). Unfortunately, she timed it right at the beginning of a solid yellow no passing zone and a cop saw her. He was mildly sympathetic but gave her the ticket anyway. Improper passing is a reckless endangerment type ticket and carries the same number of points on your license as a DUI, so our insurance rates skyrocketed and it took years to clear the points off her license. That’s definitely one to avoid.

   posted by Christopher Palmer on 6-4-2008 at 11:22 am

8. My first year in college I had to drive the 2 hours from Orlando to Jacksonville to go to the dentist. I was running late so I was hauling *ss down the highway when I saw the lights behind me. Since I was going a good 30 mph over the limit (a little over 100 in a 70), I immediately started crying because I thought I was getting arrested. When I looked in my rear-view after I had stopped I saw not one but TWO Florida State Troopers coming towards me, one on either side, with guns drawn. Needless to say that didn’t help the crying situation. When the officers got up to the car, the one on the passenger side started laughing and walked away while the one on the driver’s side managed to contain himself enough to talk to me.
   Turned out with my shiny (at the time) red sports car going over 100 mph, they assumed I was a drug runner and had prepared for a stand off or something. They felt so bad for scaring the ever-living crap out of me that they wrote my ticket for 95 in a 70, saving me almost $300. That was the last time I took my car over 100 mph!

   posted by Marta on 6-4-2008 at 11:29 am

9. I’m with Donovan – Pole Day laps at Indy only run about 225-ish, and street cars don’t make much faster than that. Did you mean to type 175?

   posted by Joanna on 6-4-2008 at 11:30 am

10. On the way to a craft show I was participating in. I cried because it ate up all my profits and then some. I could have slept in and made more money.

    posted by Sally on 6-4-2008 at 11:36 am

11. This isn’t necessarily my worst, but definitely the strangest series of events I’ve ever had involving a speeding ticket.

    My parents were out of town and I had to take a trip (with my younger siblings) to school for an event. On the way I was tapped by a cop for going 25 mph over the limit. It was December, so we wound up getting pulled over beside a house where a Christmas party was going on and the pary-goers decided we were the entertainment.

    That isn’t the insane part.

    When my mom got home, I told her about it and she said she would help me take care of it. She went to court with me and requested Defensive Driving School in lieu of paying the fine. She didn’t tell me the reason she requested it was so we could take the class together – she had gotten a ticket in a nearby town at about the same time.

    On the bright side, she couldn’t fuss at me about the ticket!

    posted by Jennifer on 6-4-2008 at 11:40 am

12. I’m 29, and I just got my first ticket a few weeks ago… for doing 73 in a 60. I was pretty lucky, because I normally drive closer to 80 on that highway. The officer also wrote the ticket for 65 in a 60, since I had no previous tickets on my record.

    What really caught me off guard was how much the ticket cost. Having never gotten a ticket, I had no clue what it would be… so the $76 charge made me pretty mad (especially since I had to pay the court fees, regardless of whether or not I showed up in court). My friends all laughed at me, calling my ticket “cheap.”

    posted by Kevin on 6-4-2008 at 11:51 am

13. I have been driving since I was 14, am 35 now and I speed ALL the time and have never had a speeding ticket. The only ticket I’ve ever had was for not wearing my seat belt, which is total bullshit.

    posted by Daethian on 6-4-2008 at 11:58 am

14. I got a ticket once. I was clocked going 62mph in a 35mph zone. I fought it. Of course I was guilty but it was a speed trap. I went back to the scene and noticed that a speed limit sign was not erected as you entered the road from a main artery. I brought that up in the conference with the judge and police officer. They sent a cop out to verify this (someone had knocked it over). I got off on a technicality. I am so grateful. I am not worried about a ticket as I am about points on my record. The cop was pissed off big time but what could she do?

    posted by Mr. T on 6-4-2008 at 11:59 am

15. I’ve only gotten one speeding ticket, when I was 24, for going 92 in a 70. I HATED getting pulled over and getting fined, but I have to agree, that was way too fast. It was really late at night and I was driving from Daytona to Orlando to visit my boyfriend (now my fiancé) and was really impatient, I guess!

    Ever since then I’ve been using cruise control to monitor my speed. I still go over the limit (on I-4 in the Orlando area, pretty much everyone goes at least 10 over, so if you don’t do the same you’re more likely to disrupt the flow of traffic) but there are so many people whizzing by me that I doubt I’ll get pulled over again.

    posted by Celeste M. on 6-4-2008 at 12:08 pm

16. A couple novembers ago, I, my best friend her brother and her fiance all decided to drive down to Hilton Head Island for some Fun/Sun/Zany good times. Her brother and I are friends, so he rode shotty for me. He kept bugging me about getting pulled over, just kidding around. We drove all night, leaving at 8:00 pm. We pulled over in Lexington KY at a Waffle house to use the facitlities. While we were off the road, we grabbed some caffinated beverages in glass bottles to help make it through the night (some of us *cough* had worked that morning).

    So now the scene is set. A car with 4 20-somethings, two of which are for all intents and purposes passed out on the back seat, and two sipping out of glass bottles in the front, plus it’s the end of the month = quota time!

    So I’m cruising (litterally, on cruise control) down the highway at the posted speed limit and we pass a lone police car on the right shoulder. No one is outside the car. There is no one pulled over. There’s no scene. I assumed it was your standard, run of the mill speed trap. I’m driving and the guy riding shotty goes, “you’ve got a cop following you.” “Shut up, that stopped being funny in Cincinatti.” “No, seriously”

    So I pull over and flip on the dome light and have him pull out the registration, so that by the time Joe Q. Law Enforcement Officer gets up to the window I can hand it all over and ask why the heck he pulled me over in the first place.

    “I’m sorry officer, was there a problem? I know I wasn’t speeding.”

    “You didn’t get into the left lane when you passed my car.”

    “I what?”

    “There’s a law in Kentucky that says that if you have to get into the left hand lane if you pass a stopped emergency vehicle.”

    “Guzzah Huh? Well… We’re from Ohio.”

    “There are signs posted ever 100 yards.”

    So he writes me a $150 ticket. I think I seethed all the way to North Carolina. By the way, we counted all the signs that we saw for the rest of Kentucky. Total count 1. Compare that with the zillion signs saying “Keep Right Except to pass.”

    Hicktucky sucks.

    posted by Ashley on 6-4-2008 at 12:10 pm

17. I have yet to get an actual ticket…I’ve just had 2 written warnings. One was for accidentally leaving my brights on when driving by a cop and the other was for running a stop sign. I’m not normally a stop sign runner…in fact I think I’m a pretty conscientious driver…but there were lots of cops around and I was nervous (and just over 16–newly licensed). I had just gotten gas and I came up to an intersection, where there was a cop sitting. In my nervousness and extreme care not to break the law, I drove right through the stop sign he was sitting at! Once he saw that I was just a terrified 16-year-old, he let me off with a warning :)

    posted by Fruppi on 6-4-2008 at 12:21 pm

18. Actually, the ticket getting wasn’t as funny as the court appearance.

    Understanding that I was driving a ‘96 Ford Aspire at the time (tiny egg shaped car), that only got up to about 65 before it started to shimmy, I was pulled over by a state trooper for doing 60 in a 50, while coming down a hill.

    He was very nice, and told me to go to court, as this was my first offense.

    I showed up, and was the last name called. Everyone before me, the judge asked what kind of car they drove, and reviewed how fast they were going. Most were doing 80-95 in a sports car. The officer got a lot of people that day.

    The judge asked me the same questions. When he found out what I was driving, how fast I was going, and that there was a hill – he busted out laughing, and then looked at the trooper and asked, “YOU PULLED HER OVER? She only got up to that speed in that car, because she was on a hill!” It wouldn’t have been too bad, but all of his trooper friends were laughing at him too, which had him bright red.

    I only had to pay court costs, and had PBJ, but it was an experience I’ll never forget.

    posted by Amy on 6-4-2008 at 12:25 pm

19. A seatbelt ticket when i was 25 mph. It is ridiculous.

    posted by Nathan on 6-4-2008 at 12:35 pm

20. Great just the thing I need to vent about. Alrighty lets get started, Im 23 live in Virginia where they take driving to a different level I mean ask anyone theyl tell you people have both thier feet on the brake at all times!!!
    So heres the list of “enfractions” I have accumalated in my mere 5 years of driving”

    18:
    Speeding 10 above speed
    Fail to obey highway sign (I PASSED through an HOV lane)
    Fail to wear a seat bealt (because the big strap was behind my back)
    Fail to obey another highway sign (stop sign!)

    20: In one night!
    Fail to signal
    Tailgating
    Speeding about 20 (which was reduced to 10)
    Fail to wear a seat belt
    Illegal U turn (s)

    21: After almost a year of suspended license and only a week left.

    Driving on a suspended
    Fail to protect an animal (need some sort of thingy for my dog)
    Speeding 5 over

    this ones funny!

    FRIEND WAS DRIVING IM IN THE PASSENGER SIDE!
    Having an open container (alcohol)
    After throwing it in the trash upon officers request…DRUNK IN PUBLIC!

    23: Another year of suspended
    Fail to obey highway sign (another Stop sign!)
    This one needs a lawyer going 95 in a 25…

    So after a history like this I have been recommended to trade me Evolution in for a either a minivan or Geo!

    posted by foxy on 6-4-2008 at 12:38 pm

21. I have only received one speeding ticket and totally deserved it. I was driving home from university going insanely fast. Mainly I was just trying to get home but there were also a ton of big trucks on the road so I was trying to get through them quickly. Unfortunately I got pulled over and used all the trucks as my excuse. The cop however wasn’t buying it – he said he had been following me for 20 minutes. He said that although he clocked me going 165 (in a 100 km zone) he knocked it down to 149 so my car wouldn’t be impounded – he did however give me a $350 fine. In the end my insurance never went up and I never lost any demerit points – no idea why but that was a huge relief!

    posted by Katie on 6-4-2008 at 12:45 pm

22. I was driving from Ontario to New Brunswick with my father to gather all my worldly possessions from my home in New Brunswick and move them back to my new home in Ontario. We’ve done this trip back and forth a number of times, and we have become accustomed to taking on the 17-hour trip in one day, switching off driving duties every couple of hours.

    I was in charge of handling a long, boring stretch of Quebec highway just after Montreal, a simple straightforward drive that I happily take given I am a less experienced highway driver than my father.

    There was no one else on the road, so even though the speed limit was 100km/hour I was ripping through there at about 120. At one point my Dad noticed I was *slightly* over the speed limit and commented “You’d better watch it…I saw cops patrolling the highway back when I was driving.”

    No sooner were those words out of his mouth then I saw the dreaded red and blue…a cop was pulling me over.

    Having never been pulled over in my life I was mortified, and sat there terrified as he approached the car.

    I had just changed my New Brunswick license over to a Ontario one that week, so all I had was a temporary piece of paper saying I was a licensed driver…I hoped it was enough.

    The cop comes up and my Dad rolls down my window from his side of the vehicle (gee, thanks Dad.) I personally didn’t want to roll down the window the whole way, as I was feeling vulnerable enough and wanted to keep SOME kind of barrier between me and this cop, even if it was just a couple inches of glass. I felt exposed with the window wide open.

    Then the nightmare started; the cop started blathering to me in French. With a deer in the head lights look I told him I didn’t understand and he mumbled some broken English, took my license and registration and went back to his car where he made us wait 30 minutes while he wrote up the ticket. I swear I saw him reading a book while I waited. In retrospect (and without trying to stereotype), I do believe he was punishing me for being English (but not as though the Ontario plates couldn’t have given that away.)

    The cop comes back and he has an issue with my license…he misread it (or perhaps was as limited in English as I am in French and just didn’t understand it) and thought I was driving illegally, so I had to fight to prove to him that I was allowed to be driving on the highways of different provinces. Then he handed me over my ticket, where I couldn’t contain it no longer…I burst into tears, mortified by my first ever driving infraction (save for a minor fender bender a year earlier.)

    I switched seats with my Dad and told him I never wanted to drive again, and sat there partly upset and partly furious at how rude the cop was when he found out I couldn’t speak French, and how his attitude changed towards me.

    In retaliation, when I returned after the trip (my father ended up making me drive again) I wrote a very polite, but strong letter to the Quebec police department, stating that since French AND English are the two primary languages of Canada, I deserved to be ticketed in the one I understood and would happily pay my bill as soon as they sent me a translation of the bill in English (it was entirely in French!) I mean, I knew I was at fault, but wanted to see it in writing.

    Months went by and I heard nothing, until about 6 months later when I received a letter in the mail with an English version of my ticket. No letter, just the translation. Accepting the fact that I had made my point (and had gotten away with it for this long) I paid and haven’t thought of it since (until this comment.)

    Now, on the rare occasion when I drive through Quebec in the future, I am going to be especially careful with my speed. I would hate to be pulled over again for, in my theory, DWO: Driving While Ontarian.

    posted by Kyla on 6-4-2008 at 12:50 pm

23. being a recent transplant to Montana, I haven’t gotten a speeding ticket here- let’s face it when I moved here 3 years ago it was still legal to drive with an open container in your possesion! I live in the county seat, which happens to be on an Indian reservation- so we got state troopers, city cops, and tribal police. 3x the chance of getting pulled over. I did get stopped once, but the cop gave me a seatbelt ticket instead of a speeding ticket. Just lucky I guess.

    posted by qt314159265 on 6-4-2008 at 12:52 pm

24. Driving from Baton Rouge to Little Rock with three college friends, I was pulled over in the one the poorest parishes in Louisiana. The person in the car behind pulled over too, for reasons I didn’t understand until she opened her door and the reefer smoke visibly poured out. I’m leaning on my car door on this little two-laned highway, freaked out because I can’t afford a ticket; the other girl actually laid down on the hood of her car. Amazingly, and for reasons I don’t understand, the cop (a state trooper, I think) let us both off! Maybe he had a contact high?

    I’ve also been pulled over in a tiny Louisiana town (Baskin – population probably 150) by the Chief of Police! 70 in a 55. His first words to me where “We don’t submit tickets to the state/insurance companies.” They just wanted my money, and I was glad to give it to them, although I maintain that an 18-wheeler blocked my view of the “speed zone ahead” and speed limit signs. He was right, that ticket didn’t show up on my driving record.

    Right now, I’m waiting to see if I can get out of a ticket I got on the I-10 Bonnet Carre spillway just outside of New Orleans. I maintain that I was merging around an 18-wheeler (a concrete wall being my option for another place to go). The worse part is the FLAT TIRE I got pulling back onto the interstate. I had to call State Police when I realized my tire was flat, as the spillway is not a safe place to be disabled on the side of the road. The 18-wheelers literally left my tiny Nissan Versa rocking. The office (not the same one who pulled me over) had to put out flares and slow down passing cars to give us room to work. Single handedly creating traffic on the spillway is now one of my greatest accomplishments.

    posted by Lindsey on 6-4-2008 at 1:05 pm

25. I have to say
    I have never gotten a speeding ticket. I will go about 5 over the speed limit. There’s just no place I need to be so *rightnow*. To me it’s not worth the risk.
    Also:
    @ Ashley
    The reason why you are required to pull into the left lane when passing a pulled-over police vehicle is for their safety. My husband is a police officer and people who don’t or won’t pull over endanger his life. We just lost a deputy in January who was struck by a passing car who chose not to slow down and move over. It’s a serious matter, and one I am unapologetically passionate about.
    PLEASE
    If you come up on any type of police squad car pulled over on the side of the road, SLOW DOWN, and give them room, as long as you can do it safely.
    *PSA off*

    posted by mrs.djs on 6-4-2008 at 1:13 pm

26. I should mention the Bonnet Carre Spillway is about 10 miles of bridge, with Lake Pontchartrain on one side and wetlands on the other.

    posted by Lindsey on 6-4-2008 at 1:14 pm

27. In my youth, I was driving on a deserted remote highway (10 miles between exits) in the dead of night, in the NYC suburbs. I was playing around in my 60s musclecar. I wanted to see how it would accelerate. I noticed a car behind me and decided to let it pass. I slowed down and the other car slowed down, I slowed some more, so did it. Finally I stopped and it stopped about 1000 feet behind me. I figured it was a dangerous nut and I wanted to get away. I nailed the gas and took off. I did not ease up until I was going about 125. The other car could not keep up and was way behind me but still trying to catch me. I figured I wasn’t going to drive 125 for 10 miles. When he finally got close, he turned on his lights. Got 3 tickets, 110+ in a 55 zone, speed not reasonable and prudent (from when he first saw me but couldn’t clock me), I forgot the last one. Had three ways to lose my license (points, three speeding, 110+). I hired a good lawyer and got off with 1 78mph speeding ticket.

    posted by itwassomebodyelse on 6-4-2008 at 1:17 pm

28. Looks like you’ve got a few comments on this one.

    My worst is that because it happened in a speed trap: leaving town (where, mind you, the speed limit is a whopping 15 mph), out in the open, woods on either side, no driveways, no nothing…can’t remember the numbers but I missed a mandatory court appearance by 1 mph. When I went to pay, I asked the clerk about the ticket, said I was surprised at the speed limit. She asked where it was, I answered and she just rolled her eyes, said most of the speeders in town get caught there. I started noticing and there was nearly always a cop tucked into a bare spot in the weeds right on a curve. Somehow, this sort of thing irritates me. One would suspect that they are simply increasing their revenue. I, too, was surprised to note the cost breakdown- by far the biggest part of the ticket went for court costs.

    Later, driving through that same spot, I saw a local cop come flying up on me from behind; it gave me enormous satisfaction to crawl along at not 1 inch over 15 mph while watching him in the rearview… he rode my bumper all the way to the bare spot in the weeds and then pulled in. Stuff like that makes me not like cops a whole lot.

    I’m surprised, too, when I hear someone say they’ve never had a ticket (or they just got their first one) in xx years of driving. I try to avoid the dangerous things, but I can’t stand to putz along like a grandma.

    posted by ann on 6-4-2008 at 1:30 pm

29. Just a comment about getting into the left-hand lane when approaching a cop car that’s on the side of the road. I thought that was the law in every state. It should be. In fact, if possible, I try to get into the other lane no matter what kind of vehicle is pulled off on the side of the road. I do it in Ohio, too, fyi…

    posted by ann on 6-4-2008 at 1:46 pm

30. Born and raised in LA, and taught to drive/antagonize by two stereotypical LA drivers, it’s really a miracle I don’t have more tickets than I do. I got my first speeding ticket when I was 17, trying to get around a rickety pick-up truck stuffed with gardening equipment going about 27 in a 35. I whipped past him in my own rickety ‘92 Explorer at about 55, and got pulled over 3 streets down, by a cop on a bike.
    Scared out of my mind, I gave him my license, trying to hold it together and not cry. He looked at it, and asked me for my real license! He thought mine was expired, and that I was older than 17…why would someone lie about that?
    After convincing him it was real (scary that he couldn’t tell a real license when he was holding it, especially when the expiration date was 3 years from that time), he gave me a ticket for 57 in a 35. California also requires juveniles to attend court with their parents for these types of charges, and you HAVE to go, it’s not optional like normal tickets. I tried to explain to him that I would be gone for college when the court date came up, and he simply replied “Oh well. You’d better figure it out.” Thanks LAPD.

    I went on my way to work (which was helping my parents at the time), and burst out crying to my mom that I got a ticket….and she laughed at me and said “About time!”

    Needless to say, she was a good mom and helped me call the courts and negotiate a way out of court (I went to college in a different state, would have been difficult to come back for one court date). Still, it came out to be about $300 for the ticket. That was definitely the most traumatic ticket experience, but not the last.
    Since then I’ve racked up another speeding (93 in a 70), a “careless driving” one, and a run of the red light/two no lane change signals knocked down to one no lane change signal. Luckily, two of those were in Colorado, which somehow didn’t communicate them to California, as they’ve never showed up on my record or insurance.

    posted by jamie on 6-4-2008 at 1:49 pm

31. Regarding international tickets: I’ve received two of them, 20 years apart, both in Australia. I didn’t pay either of them. I’ve been back Down Under several times since the last ticket and even rented a car from the same car rental company.

    After getting the second ticket (also via a robot camera), I received notice of the ticket via email from the rental car company. I emailed back, telling them to let me know what the fine would be. I never heard back from them.

    When I rented the next car from the same company, I expected them to pull out some paperwork and say, “Aha! You never paid your ticket five years ago. You owe us $250 plus interest and fines for a total of $5,000.” But they didn’t. The previous ticket was never mentioned.

    Based on my experiences, I would say you don’t have to pay the tickets. But I doubt that the rest of the world works the way Australia does, so don’t base your decision to pay/not pay based on my experiences.

    posted by John Smith on 6-4-2008 at 1:49 pm

32. Ransom,

    about 6mths after I returned from a trip to Italy, I received a ticket in the mail from the Florence PD. The ticket was in Italian, which I neither speak nor read, not to mention that it was ticket so it wasn’t as if there were even complete words (mostly abbreviations). To this day, I have no idea what it was for.

    I never bothered to pay for it and stuck it in the photo album.

    posted by Florida on 6-4-2008 at 1:52 pm

33. This isn’t a speeding ticket, but I once got a ticket for not having my insurance on me while swimming in a river about 500 feet from where my car was parked!

    My friends were shooting off fireworks in a public park/beach and a cop came down to tell us to stop. He asked for all our licenses and insurance cards and since I didn’t have one he gave me a ticket!! My friends who were shooting off the fireworks got off scott free.

    I’ve since come to learn that the cop had no right to give me that ticket since I was not operating my vehical at the time nor anywhere near it…thats what pisses me off the most. I have respect for cops for the most part, but when they LIE to you? Thats just wrong!

    posted by Laura on 6-4-2008 at 2:06 pm

34. I was traveling from NYC north to Newburgh on the NYS Thruway. One one long stretch of a straightaway just below exit 15 I noticed a car behind me that was catching me rapidly. I was doing 80 (it was 55mph then), 2am, no one else near me. The car caught me and pulled alongside. The passenger nodded at me and continued on the way north. The car was a Sunoco Special, the bright yellow and blue cars used by the NYS Police. The passenger was a state trooper. Must have been a coffee and donut run.

    posted by Owen on 6-4-2008 at 2:15 pm

35. Driving north to Seattle over Labor Day weekend a few years ago, there was a speed trap set up in Olympia, literally at the sign where the speed limit goes from 70 to 60mph. I got a ticket for doing 71 in a 60.

    There were three other cars pulled over on the shoulder at that spot. My car had California plates, the other three cars had New Mexico, Utah, and California plates.

    (There’s also the time down on CA-505 I got pulled over for doing 115 in a 55 and got a warning, I think because the CHP officer and I were the only folks on the road for 30 miles in any direction, you can see down that road for 30 miles in any direction, and we were both surprised a Dodge Neon could go that fast.)

    posted by Mary Sue on 6-4-2008 at 2:18 pm

36. Where my parent live there is a speed trap that is set up right on the other side of a highway off ramp. So as everyone is coming off the highway, still a little lead footed, they get nailed by the cop for going the slightest bit over 40.

    As to tickets- yes, I’ve had a few. 96 in a 55, another one for going 70 in a 55 (the cop was crawling up my butt as I was going the speed limit in the slow lane. I thought he wanted to pass me so I sped up to let him by, and got a ticket) and one for an illegal left turn (thank you Manhattan) that was doubled because the woman who’s car I was driving didnt have her insurance card in the car. My pride and joy, though, is the killer ticket I _should_ have gotten for flying over an 8 lane bridge on 95S. I saw the cop, started to pull over for my deserved ticket, and he lost me in the traffic. I didn’t intend for it to happen, but…

    My uncle is a cop and he keeps telling me I should use his name to get out of tickets. However, I figure I am doing something wrong so it is only fair that I pay the price.

    posted by Karen on 6-4-2008 at 2:18 pm

37. The strangest ticket I ever received was for throwing rocks at an undercover cop car… a year ago.

    My roommate and I were sitting on our porch watching people crawl home from the bars (very entertaining by the way) when a car stopped in front of our house. We did not live in the best part of town and decided to head inside (the car looked really suspicious, dark tinted windows etc and there had just been a drug bust a couple of weeks ago on our street).

    We checked a little while later and the car was not there anymore so we went back out on the porch and all of a sudden this big dude moves out of the shadows and glares at us. It was seriously right out of a horror movie.

    Then he started to become belligerent and challenge my roommate’s manliness and such. He then told us he was an undercover cop. We called the police department to make sure because it seemed rather doubtful. To make a long story short we got a $500 ticket for a noise ordinance violation. I guess they don’t have tickets specifically for rock throwing.

    When we went to court he asked us to look into his eyes and tell him whether or not we threw rocks. Of course we didn’t and we told him so. He dropped the ticket. I think that he just did not want to try and explain the whole ridiculous thing to a judge.

    To this day we still don’t know quite how to explain the whole episode. The best we can tell is acorns from the big oak tree across the street may have dropped on his car while he passed under it or something was kicked up in the road by another car. Who knows.

    Cops from my city aren’t really known for their restraint. A couple years ago our police chief had to “retire early” after he was busted for drunk driving in his squad car.

    posted by stephW on 6-4-2008 at 2:41 pm

38. i was on my way back home from college on a break, but took the opportunity for a late nighter the previous night with a bottle of canadian mist and a buddy. so i was a little out of it while motoring across 80 in PA. cresting a hill, the guy in front of me moved from the passing lane to the right lane. i assumed he saw a cop ahead. so i checked my rearview to make the same move. the cop was already there. he had said that he had been following me for about four miles and that he originally clocked me at 87 in a 60, but that i got up to 93 along the way. asked if i was on drugs and told me that i was about 30 seconds away from him calling in for a road block. three points, $275. i never listened to rage against the machine while on a road trip again…

    posted by theYerg on 6-4-2008 at 2:53 pm

39. I’ve only ever had one speeding ticket. I had only had my license a few months and it was Christmastime. I was passing our largest shopping mall when the driver in front of me realized that was their turn and locked ‘em up. I plowed right into him. The cop gave me a speeding ticket for doing 35 in a 0.

    posted by Judy on 6-4-2008 at 2:58 pm

40. I got pulled over on Puerto Rico on my way to the airport. The cop was standing on the side of the road and pulled me over by waiving a clip board at me. I got a ticket but I didnt pay it there because i was trying to catch my plane. When I got back home, there were no details with payment instructions by mail and being that PR isnt a state, there were no points on my license, so going on 4 years later, I still havent paid it. I returned to Puerto rico since then on a cruise and I thought that they were going to be waiting for me at the pier to collect but no one came after me. I hope they dont track me down years from now with some astronomical bill with late penalties.

    posted by Sam on 6-4-2008 at 3:04 pm

41. I’m one of those people who barely speed; I drive 4-7 miles over the speed limit. That’s only because you need to go that fast to hit timed lights or to even remotely keep up with traffic. Anyway, I’m the anomaly in my family. All the other women have lead-feet.

    I’ve been pulled over and ticketed three times, all in the first 5 years of driving.

    First: I had been licensed for about four months. I was driving to school and I had to go through a school zone for the middle school on the way. As you leave that zone, you have to go up a hill. I got pulled over and ticketed for going 17mph in a school zone (15 mph limit) when I was actually in a 25mph zone (since I had just exited the school zone). I was completely mortified. I went to court (to fight it) and went up, shaking and practically crying as I explained what happened. The judge took one look at the ticket, saw who had issued it and on what date and told me I just had to pay court costs ($10). He threw out the rest. I had been pulled over by “Radar Bob” three days before he retired after over 30 years on the (small-town) police force. The judge thought it was ridiculous that Radar Bob was trying to get in as many tickets in that last week as possible.

    Second and Third were tickets for going 71 mph and 72 mph in a 65 mph zone (interstate). Yep. And I was especially upset about the 72mph one (the last of the three). I was in a city 90 minutes from home when I found out my grandfather had passed away. I was trying to get back so I could find a sub for work and to go to my family. The cop didn’t care and ticketed me anyway. B*****d.

    The funny thing is that all the other women in my family get out of tickets. My 60 year-old mother was pulled over for going 92 in a 65 and talked her way out of it. She’s talked her way out of at least 5 other tickets that I know of.

    She even played leap-frog with an unmarked car when she was younger (she thought he was checking her out and thought he was pretty cute) and still talked her way out of the ticket.

    posted by Joy on 6-4-2008 at 3:04 pm

42. My worst was 128 in a 50. I got arrested, and in order to keep my license, I had to do 80 hrs of community service on top of my very steep fine. The cop was laughing beacuase his radar gun actually showed me slowing down before he could get the laser to lock on his video equipment. Could have been higher.

    posted by JK on 6-4-2008 at 3:16 pm

43. I’ve had my license for about two years, and I’ve never gotten a ticket… but I drive like a madwoman. I know it’ll hit me eventually, so I’m milking it for all it’s worth.

    posted by Mary on 6-4-2008 at 3:25 pm

44. @Marta – I’m sorry, your story sounds scary, but it was so funny!

    I’ve only been pulled over once – on 93 in Franconia Notch, NH. I was easily going 60 in a 45, and the frustrating thing is I was following a friend, and KNEW I was in a speed trap. So he pulled us both over and came up to my window. I gee-whiz’d him and said,”Yes, sir, I know I was going way too fast. I should know better. I come through here all the time, and I know it’s a 45. It just got away from me. Here’s my info and I won’t dispute the ticket.” He let me off with a warning. I’ve only been pulled over two other times – tail light, HOV. I pulled the same routine every time and never got a ticket.

    I have heard from cop friends that when you’re pulled over, roll your window down, keep your hands at 10 and 2, and tell the cop every move you’re going to make – e.g. “I’m going to get my registration out of my glove compartment, ok?”

    Also, this may be overkill, but I’ve heard if you get zapped going way over the limit (100+) or doing anything obviously reckless, it doesn’t hurt to take your keys out of the ignition, reach out the window, and put them on the roof of your car before the cop approaches. It’s a sign of respect, and a signal to the cop that they should feel safe that you’re not going to bolt.

    Being a cop, regardless of whether they’re cool or a jerk, is a dangerous job. If you act conspicuously contrite and respectful of the dangers they face on a daily basis you stand a much better chance of getting your ticket reduced on the spot or maybe even let off altogether. At least that’s been my experience.

    posted by burgeon on 6-4-2008 at 3:43 pm

45. Fortunately I have yet to receive a speeding ticket. I’ve only gotten one ticket and that was for turning left into a shopping center during hours you are not allowed to turn left. Silly ticket really… they only do this during rush hour so you don’t impede traffic I think.

    This is not to say I have not sped. I speed all the time. I live in Orange County, CA and I get tailgated a lot even if I’m doing 80 on the freeway. Our speed limits are much higher here and there is an overabundance of flashy cars that rich people like to tailgate you in.

    I’m a bit surprised, however, at all the people who think wearing your seatbelt is a stupid reason to get a ticket. While it really is your funeral if you don’t wear one, there are reasons why you get ticketed instead of cops just letting you fly through your windshield. First off, no one wants to see that. Second, you can really endanger others when that happens. For instance, you can hit them as you fly out of your windshield. I’m not going to be too happy if you hit me on your way out.

    posted by CK on 6-4-2008 at 3:43 pm

46. Ransom – I would simply put “return to sender, not at this address” since they spelled your name wrong! They are not going to extradite you to New Zealand, but you can also never go there again. If you are planning on going back during your lifetime, I would just pay the ticket.

    I did just recieve my first ticket ever (at 27) although I have been pulled over 6 times! It was a speeding ticket in my home town but I was only given a seatbelt ticket to “save me on the points” but I wasn’t going as fast as the cop said. But with my odds of being pulled over so often, I guess I was due to pay something!

    posted by Mavis on 6-4-2008 at 3:59 pm

47. I find this one funny because I grew up in DC and would always drive about 80-85 on I-95 (everyone does).

    Anyway, my boyfriend and his roommate were driving my car (an older model BMW) along I-10 in the desert near El Paso. They got pulled over for going 1 over the limit. Yeah. The cop at first thought the car was stolen and quizzed my boyfriend about the car’s owner. The cop then proceeded see if his roommate was on drugs, then tore the car up (literally) for nearly an hour trying to find said drugs. Needless to say, no drugs, and he got the ticket thrown out.

    posted by Nicole on 6-4-2008 at 4:01 pm

48. Riggs, call the State Department, they can probably get you out of your ticket. I was ticketed in Australia and went to the embassy before I left the country. They got the ticket dropped, but I had to pay a paperwork fee which was much less than the fine on the ticket.

    posted by Rob Hogan on 6-4-2008 at 4:04 pm

49. How the heck do you people drive so fast? I don’t drive (the scariest thought in the world is me ‘controlling’ a half ton of metal going down the road), but when I sit in the front seat of a car I won’t let the driver go over fifty because anything else just feels far too fast.

    posted by S on 6-4-2008 at 4:07 pm

50. The worst ticket I ever received was not because of the less-than-impressive speed I clocked, but because I’m a journalist and I was driving a work car – and yes, us journos listen to the police radio while we’re on the job. The cop was pretty puzzled that I was so accepting of the speeding ticket, on the proviso that he didn’t check my licence details over the police radio! Of course he was pretty suspicious of my behaviour and made a point of checking my record with comms. When I returned to work everyone had heard my (unusual and recognisable) name and relayed back my history of run-ins with the cops, much to their amusement and my shame!

    posted by Hack on 6-4-2008 at 4:20 pm

51. I got pulled over in PA for going 85 in a 55. I was on the way home to Ohio for my ‘family’ wedding reception and so I had my dress in a big honkin’ bag in the backseat.

    The cop chatted with me for a bit about why I was driving so fast, then he said “Please tell me there isn’t a body in that bag.”

    I said, “no, Officer, that’s my wedding dress. I got married yesterday and I’m headed to Ohio to celebrate with the rest of my friends and family.”

    He laughed and said “well, since you’ve already ruined your life once this week, I’m just gonna give you a warning.”

    So, not a ticket, but close enough. :)

    posted by Rachel on 6-4-2008 at 4:22 pm

52. I forgot to mention the time that I was driving with my boyfriend on Indian Rocks Beach (near Tampa) trying to find his friend’s condo where we were going to visit. There was no one else on the road and we were going pretty slowly trying to find the right street number. All of a sudden this cop comes up behind us and pulls us over. Luckily after we explained the situation he let us go, but you know what he wanted to cite my boyfriend for? EXCESSIVE BRAKING. What?

    posted by Celeste M. on 6-4-2008 at 4:27 pm

53. S, it always feels faster when you’re not the one driving. Or, more accurately, the other way around. Either way, you never feel like you’re going as fast as you are, which is one reason why speeding is not really that great an idea. You’re pretty much guaranteeing instant death on the slightest impact if you’re going 125. Plus, aren’t you burning through your gas, like, twice as fast?

    posted by Celeste M. on 6-4-2008 at 4:36 pm

54. my one and only speeding ticket came when i was 17. i took my friend’s car, piled in a few friends, and took them down this street in town with a hill in the middle that if you go fast you catch air. i’ve ridden as a passenger for this feat several times, but this was the first time where i was driving. i slammed my foot on the gas, and barreled for the hill. i hit it and got a good 5 feet in the air, when i looked to my right, in midair, and saw a police speed trap. i screamed some obscenities, landed, then slammed on the brakes and pulled over even before the cop had pulled out, knowing i was busted. the cop pulled me out of the car and i thought he was going to hit me. he asked me how fast i was going, and seeing as my friend’s speedometer was broken, i said i had no idea. 79 in a 30. the cop promised i would never drive again.
    so i went to court, and told the judge that i was unaware of how fast i was going because the speedometer wasn’t working and because i had only had my license for 2 months. i showed him the repair bill for the speedometer, and the judge dropped the charge. the officer was so mad that he kicked open a door and got contempt of court.
    i thought i won a great victory, but seeing as i pissed off a cop in a small town, it turns out i would have been better off with a fine. he gave me many, many more tickets over the next few years that cost me thousands. and he used to arrest me for underage drinking if i was found at parties. in fact, he’d walk in and just ask if i was there, take me, then leave everyone else alone.
    good times.

    posted by elih on 6-4-2008 at 4:45 pm

55. When I moved to Colorado I got two tickets in the first month.

    Number 1: $15 for parking within 5 feet of a driveway. Really.

    Number 2: $286 for going 43 in a 40.

    But this part is very important, it was a safety zone. What is that you may ask? A safety zone is within some distance of a school and the speed limit drops to 20 mph during certain hours. But the speed limit change is only noted on some signs and not others. So a new kid in the state, I thought, “Safety Zone, ok, I’m being safe.”

    Dag nabbit.

    posted by Nicole on 6-4-2008 at 6:03 pm

56. I was driving around France with my mom one summer on vacation (actually, she was driving and I was attemping to keep us on track with my limited French) on a backcountry road when we came upon a huge truck barely making it up the hill. My mom obviously decided to pass him and behind us came another car who ended up passing us and then slowing down. So my mom decided to pass him again at which point the other car sped up, passed us and slowed down again. We had no idea what was going on but we kept this up for about 20 minutes. All of a sudden we come up to a HUGE roadblock, with 4 police cars in the middle of the road, police officers standing next to them… Turns out the “other litte car” was actually an undercover cop who had been trying to pull us over for 20 minutes while we blissfully continued our journey. Anyway, once we had stopped, the cop came over to the window and started yelling all manner of obsceneties at us (I understood about half with my limited French but the half I understood was pretty bad). Long story short, I burst out crying at which point I guess he felt bad and let us go with a warning. My mom laughs about it to this day.

    posted by GTT on 6-4-2008 at 6:06 pm

57. while driving in toronto, i was pulled over for a 110 in a 60 (although there was noone around and i KNOW i didn’t top 105) – so court for that, plus, he gave me a “driving without a license” ticket, even though my license info was written on the ticket! dang OPP…

    btw, the no license ticket i think was supposed to be something like $350, and the speeding shoulda been $400, from what i found out talking to people about. luckily, the Virgin Islands license i had is now long expired… oh yeah. i never paid those. it was late feb of 2000, and haven’t heard a thing since…

    my personal favorite is when people here in utah slow to 15 UNDER when they see a cop. you try to go the speed limit (rare for me) and here are 2 lanes backed up for half a mile just because a highway patrolman decides to go 60 in a 65. i throw it on cruise at limit, and roll on by in the fast lane. it’s awesome!

    posted by church on 6-4-2008 at 6:09 pm

58. I passed an unmarked cop on a double yellow (I thought those double yellow lines were just a suggestion not to pass), speeding on an Indian Reservation. Not only did I get a ticket for speeding and passing on a double yellow but I got a extra fine of 90.00 bucks for being on a Indian Reservation.

    posted by Donna on 6-4-2008 at 6:17 pm

59. I was driving from New Braunfels to San Marcos- only about a 15 or 20 mile drive on I-35, and I was running late.

    I got pulled over for speeding unsafe lane change, and I had insurance, but couldn’t find my card, so no proof of insurance.

    You can bring your insurance card in and get that dismissed, which I did. For the other two, I took defensive driving and deferred adjudication (which is like probation,) so it didn’t affect my insurance rates, but after fees and court costs, I think it cost close to $400.

    I drive like my grandma now. I just don’t have the money to speed in case I get caught.

    posted by Beth on 6-4-2008 at 6:24 pm

60. oh, and I forgot to add that I’m a New Zealander and unmanned speed cameras are par for the course here – if you ever see a white or maroon-coloured van with tinted windows parked next to the motorway, you know it’s a speed camera.

    It’s always *cough* fun trying to guess who was responsible for the speeding tickets which arrive in our letterbox – they will only provide photographic evidence of the driver at your request, and even then it’s usually hard to decode the blur speeding past the camera.

    posted by Hack on 6-4-2008 at 7:15 pm

61. I *love* to tell this story, it’s actually pretty funny now that it’s over.

    I am from Texas, near the Gulf Coast, where the roads are overwhelmingly flat and straight. But here I am in Pennsylvania, where the roads are overwhelmingly three-dimensional. So I had gone to the local theme park, and at ten pm I was driving down a road I had only been on twice before, and never in the dark. So I was doing what I thought I good driver would do. I slowed down when I couldn’t tell where the road was about to go, I hit my brights (they helped me!) but turned them off when someone was coming towards me, and my top speed was actually under the speed limit. So I get through all that, and I turn onto a road I drive every day of my life, thinking I am home free. I see lights behind me, and I pull over, even though nobody else is on the road, because that’s what I was taught. To my incredible shock, the police car pulls over behind me. He apparently thought I was drunk. I was most definitely not. BUT… I got busted for my car’s inspection being out of date. The car I was driving wouldn’t have passed inspection if I’d tried. I had to get around somehow, although I guess the park was an option, not a necessity… The real clincher? I was less than a week from having enough money to put my other car in the shop, which had already passed inspection and would become my only car once I got it fixed so it stopped overheating on me. Oh well. At least he didn’t add some more for not having my proof of insurance, although my mom had offered to bring one to me. (As near as I can figure, my glove compartments eat proofs of insurance.)

    I am still the only person I know who has gotten pulled over for driving too *slow*

    posted by peacefulvalley on 6-4-2008 at 10:09 pm

62. oy! For shame! Speeding is a big deal here in NZ – most of the deaths you see in the paper are due to people car wrecks due to speeding (or cars running over people).

    Like someone said above, clearly the government ministries are talking to each other in order to get your address. So, if you don’t pay the ticket, don’t try to travel here. I’m surprised they let you out of the country – they have a mechanism now that catches people who don’t pay their fines; they are forced to pay before getting on the plane!

    posted by Dawn on 6-4-2008 at 11:34 pm

63. Top speed: 117 in a 60. This was a number of years ago, and here in Texas, the actual speed you were driving was only reported if you went to court or disposed of the ticket with a defensive driving course (my wife says I should have a PhD by now…) If you just paid up, the info reported to he insurance company was just “Speeding” rather than “Speeding 117/60″, making it way cheaper just to pay it.

    Best escape: turned onto a twisty back road and put the cop in the creek. Second best: Long ago while trying out a friend’s hot car after mods, we crested the hill at warp speed to see an oncoming DPS car at similar speed. The road was straight with no cross roads for miles (hence our choice of test track), so the only thing to do was just pull over and wait fo him to loop back. His words were jaw-dropping: “Our closing speed was over 200 MPH, so I really don’t know how fast you were going.” (The Texas DPS is scrupulously honest.) After checking out the car and verifying we were sober and trying to be reasonably responsible under the circumstances, he wrote a ticket for EXCESSIVE NOISE (we were running with open headers), and just to make sure it would’nt be contested, he entered “speed” in the “contributing factors” box. There was no complaining about paying that one…

    posted by Otto Cross on 6-4-2008 at 11:41 pm

64. There are international law enforcement agreements to allow countries to impose penalties on drivers who have foreign licences. It doesn’t always work, but clearly New Zealand and the USA are talking to each other, and it’s supposed to be very easy in the EU (we even have unified driving licences, although the databases are separate). Of course there’s a vast difference between ’supposed to be’ and ‘is’.

    In response to peacefulvalley: I know someone who got pulled over for driving too slow, for the same reason – the officer thought they were drunk. As it turned out, they had nearly as much alcohol in their breath as you’d find in a nice gin and tonic, so the officer was right… you still did the right thing on that road though. I recently had my first real experience of driving in truly hilly terrain and I was doing the same thing. This is what happens when you learn to drive in Cambridge and then go to Derbyshire.

    posted by MaW on 6-5-2008 at 1:52 am

65. wonder what would would happen to gas prices if everybody pulled their “oh-my-god-i-gotta-be-there-NOW” panties out of their butt and drove the speed limit? driving slower is actually more fuel-effecient. i understand that sometimes there are emergent situations, but if you’re running 5 minutes late to an appt. the situation is rare that you’ll be able to make it up.

    posted by bob on 6-5-2008 at 8:43 am

66. Only one speeding ticket – for 120 (km) in an 80 (km). Ended up with a suspended license due to an excess of “points.” The excess of points was due to the fact that a few years previously, when I was 17, the town alderman’s wife jammed on her brakes right in front of me and then lied about it. The cop took pity on me and made some “mistakes” on the ticket so that if I went to court and fought it for any reason, I’d win. My father gave me no choice but to plead guilty anyways. I’m still cleaning up messes with regards to my insurance because of this. And I’m still pissed off about it.

    posted by Lerren on 6-5-2008 at 8:47 am

67. I seriously didn’t get my first speeding ticket until I was 28. Although my favorite ticket I’ve ever gotten was an eviction notice from a campground in AK

    posted by Twitchings on 6-5-2008 at 9:41 am

68. I’ve never gotten a ticket myself (in 8 years of driving… but I’m sure I’ll get one eventually) but my boyfriend has gotten a couple. I don’t if its the same in other states, but here, if you decide to go to court and the cop doesn’t show up, you can enter a plea of “not guilty” and get off completely (I guess because the cop isn’t there to argue). So, my boyfriend took both of his tickets to court and the cop didn’t show up either time, so he hasn’t paid any fines or gotten any points.
    I think its all a little shady. But, the boyfriend is much more careful now. Cruise control helps a lot.

    posted by Heather on 6-5-2008 at 9:53 am

69. $135 – I was doing 60 in a 35. I went to court and got it down to $70 and NO points – that’s the most important thing.

    posted by Scott on 6-5-2008 at 6:22 pm

70. My worst ticket was one that I got for going UNDER the speed limit.

    I was coming home from work one afternoon and heard one hell of a BANG under my hood and suddenly I was just coasting at 10 mph. No oil leaking, timingbelt was still fine, motor was rough but working so I limped back towards town.

    This is on a long road with weeds on each side of the road that were at least 6 feet tall. Piggy was sitting in the weeds waiting to pounce. I come by, piggy pulls me over with a pretty rude attitude (complete with a couple of “boy”s thrown in.) I get my ticket and a lecture that included a comment about how “Stephen King had his Children of the Corn- you have your Police of the grass fields.”

    That night I took my buddy’s pick up out there, found the spot where piggy was hiding and spread two 50 pound bags of salt all along the area. We got rain a few days later and within a week piggy’s hiding spot a 50 foot x 50 foot swath was no more.

    My buddies and I made a game of it from then on that whenever we saw a piggy hiding in the weeds we would invest in salt or Round Up and clean up the area where they were sitting. We did this for about 2 years until there was pretty much a wasteland every 2-3 miles marking where the piggies used to hide.

    posted by June Yer on 6-5-2008 at 9:47 pm

71. so i’ve never gotten a speeding ticket but i have gotten 2 for rolling through a stop sign.

    the first one was bogus. i always fully stopped at that stop sign because i knew the cops liked to sit there.

    the second one i did roll through because i was late to class. the best part is that the person in front of me completely ran the stop sign. i was pissed.

    posted by britnish on 6-6-2008 at 1:41 am

72. i would not worry about it. i just got sent a parking ticket for a car i did not own anymore, from 2 years ago, after they sorted my address becuase i shifted house between the new owner getting the ticket and them sending it out.

    so now i am waiting for the bureacratic machine to decide if i have to pay it or not, which they think will take a month.

    considering they can;t even find us and i only moved 100 metres, i can;t see how they will find you especially considering they got your name wrong.

    Glad you enjoyed your time over here, i hope you left before the weather went septic :)

    posted by Alan on 7-8-2008 at 3:52 am

73. I have gotten two speeding tickets… one was okay, valid, haah, the other was not but it was handled well:

    A few years ago, my late husband and I were driving from Las Vegas to Wisconsin to fetch his iguanas. On the way back, we were driving through Iowa and I tend to speed on freeways, especially when the speed limit is only 65, hah, so I had the cruise control on specifically to avoid a ticket.

    Well, a local trooper pulled me over and said I was going like 15 miles over and I said no way, I have the cruise control on to avoid that but he still gave me a ticket for 5-10 miles over…

    Well, I couldn’t exactly go to court for it so I sent in my check. A week or so later, it was returned, uncashed, hah. I have no idea what happened or why, there was no explanation included.

    My very first ticket, when I was 18/19, was completely bogus. I had gone out early on New Year’s morning to 7-11. On the way back, there is a right turn restriction that you can’t turn right during like 7a – 9a because there is an elementary school and they don’t want people speeding through it, using it as a short cut on their way to the freeway.

    I figured that it was exempt because it was a holiday… no school was in session and most businesses were closed. Plus, on my license it shows my address is just a couple streets away so I had a legitimate reason to go that way.

    I still got the ticket and am still bitter about it almost 20 years later.

    posted by Sarah in CA (formerly just Sarah) on 1-21-2009 at 3:41 am

Comment