Posted on 01/18/2020 7:27:06 PM PST by ebshumidors
I received a speeding ticket tonight coming up hwy 7 from Ole Miss to Memphis. Since I haven’t had one in ten years or so, I found a few tings interesting:
1. The police were in the opposite lane and must have locked on without sitting on the side of the road with a radar gun. I imagine they have some new stuff that uses their speed against an oncoming car’s speed. Not hard to solve, but I’ve never run into it before. 2. Since it was at night, after I pulled over, I put on the overhead lights, rolled down the window and put my hands on the steering wheel. When the officer approached, he made sure to stay at my 8 o’clock. This is also new. 3. All he asked for was my license. No insurance and registration. I guess those are in the computer. 4.. There was no ticket book. It was a computer printout. 5. The officer was polite and all of my USNA parent and Ole Miss stickers didn’t help. I’m wondering if Marshall county offers a veteran’s discount.
So maybe a mid-life crisis or just plain stupidity. I would drive to Wendover,NV to play cards from SLC pretty frequently. I had a newer Lexus sedan and I’m ridiculously anal about maintenance.
I would set the cruise control at 126mph on the way back. Got pulled over the first time after seeing the flashing lights maybe 1 mile or 2 behind me. Knew he was after me since I was only person on the road at that time of night. West desert of Utah is a desolate place. He could have taken me to jail but instead gave me a ticket that required an appearance in court. Judge asked how long it had been since I got a ticket, it was at least a couple decades. Let me off with fine and no points. It was a 1400 dollar fine though.
Didn’t go so well a few weeks later. Same cop, same situation. Went to jail, saw the same judge fi e and points. Impound fee paid too. I did learn my lesson from the second experience.
The cop on the way to the Toole police station told me the Bonneville Salt Flsts were right next to the freeway and I should go there to get my yee haws out.
Didn’t end up getting an increase on my insurance as my insurance agent still had my drivers license from a different state.
In South Texas you always get screwed. The cops, the officials, the judges, they all know each other.
Let me guess...kilometers? ;)
In the early to mid ‘80’s I was working part time in College for a general aviation parts place.
A guy comes in (regular) and we get to talking and he related that he was a radar geek at one of the local defense contractors and had built a radar transponder to use against PD radar of the time.
It seemed their units sent out a X watt pulse and obviously expected less than X return signal. There was no circuitry to prevent a huge return signal from smoking the unit. Hence the transponder. As he passed he said the cop would be looking at his radar gun with a rather puzzled look and maybe banging it with the heel of his hand.
I asked the owner later about the validity of the guys story and all I could get was a smirk and “I think the headlights dimmed when it pinged.”
My last speeding ticket was in Tennessee, July 1999. I had a Chevy Camaro, burgandy, big block, T-tops. Officer Ican Williams had stopped me the week before coming up from Knoxville doing 75 and this time he stopped me on the way to Knoxville, doing 128. It was two in the morning. He was furious, and got worse when I told him I had a call from TBI to get to an address near UT campus, asap. He went to his cruiser and called TBI. When he returned to my door he tossed my (threw, really, angrily) papers back in the car and told me to "back it down!" Never even asked about the 9mm Hi Power holstered on the front seat.
First thing you do when they ask you if you know why they stopped you is say..Yup, Going a little fast.
I have got out of quite a few that way.
The same thing I do. I peg it at 66 or 67, let the traffic move away from you slowly. You get to going faster than the speed limit-here its 75, and all you will be doing is bobbing and weaving to get around the semis who are fighting the hills.
If you were only going 10 miles over the limit, you shouldn’t be too bad off.
If you decide to take a driving class to lower the points, AARP gives them all over the country, and you don’t have to be a member- they’re cheap. I took one last summer. Wasn’t a bad experience & everyone there is older, so no young punks.
In a way he probably thought you were mocking him by doing that just a few weeks later in the same area...you were kind of on probation with him.
I got a few tickets for going over 55 on Interstates back when the Double Nickel was in force. A couple of traffic school instructors were real a-holes. One of them used the class as a soap box for promoting his fanatical belief in seat belts. Among other things, he told us that not wearing a seat belt counted as a moving violation, which it does not. However, another instructor invited a cop to address the class and answer questions--and, of course, he knew the law.
Interestingly, it was a "conservative," Richard Nixon, who imposed on us the Double Nickel and a liberal, Bill Clinton, who finally got rid of it.
The 55 mph limit was rescinded in February 1987 (President Reagan). I know because the day before it ended I was traveling in Colorado from business in California back to my home base in North Dakota. I was in a new Corvette and had the speedo set for 59 mph when my radar detector went off. Quite a few miles later some young, pimple-faced Colorado State trooper pulled me over and gave me a ticket for 59 in a 55. He was on an overpass and saw my Vette so he lit me up, but he had to drive over ten miles to get to an on ramp so he could actually pull me over.
I learned the Governor of Colorado had ordered every state trooper out on the roads for the last two weeks and to hand out tickets for every infraction, even for one mph over the limit.
Fifty odd years ago I moved from a large northern city to a much smaller one in the South to go to work for my Dad.
He gave me a small truck to use with the company logo on it.
Within a few days I got pulled over doing 35 in a 30 zone. I still had my original DL and the cop looked at it, then at the registration, and then he looked hard a the logo on the side of truck, and said “Are you Terclinger’s son from up North?”.
I smiled and replied yes; he smiled back, wrote out and handed me the ticket and said “have a nice day!”
I went home and told my Dad, and he said to fight it in traffic court.
I went to court the week later, stood in line and then sat around for a few hours, and finally they called my name.
I walked up, handed my DL and the truck registration to the clerk, the judge was reading the original of the ticket in his hand, then he looked at the registration, and then at my DL, smiled, and said “Are you Terclinger’s son from up North?”....
I pled guilty.
“... Last one I got was in Washington state in ‘87...”
Last time I got one was 1978, on Eglin AFB, Fl., 32 in a 25 zone going around the east end of the runway, soaking wet, in a nearly-freezing February, having been too close to the guy who got wet down during his going away party. Drivers window was down, and not coming back up without a new regulator, and I was trying not to freeze to death before I got back to base housing. Not thinking of wind chill, either. ;)
Do not be out in front of everyone else, nor the last in the line, and mostly you’ll get ignored even if they are running radar with multiple chasers to catch people.
The last thing you want right now is a lecture, but ask yourself:
Is speeding, putting your life and the lives of other drivers/passengers on the road in more danger, plus the cost of the fine plus insurance increases plus the embarrassment and feeling lousy about it, really worth getting somewhere a couple minutes sooner?
The result isn’t worth risk.
Got a warning and told to get the inspection updated as soon as I left.
One time I got pulled over for havening my left foot on the dashboard!(long drive and 40 years ago when I could actually do it)
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
The ‘answer’ to the age old question...
Why would she be driving with her foot on the dash?
Because she can!!!!!
Heard or saw an article last week over LEOs in my area (VA) telling how they ‘allowed’ 10 over the speed limit before they would write one up.
My cynicism kicks in and says watch the county fill its coffers the next few months by ticketing anything over 2 over the limit.
Of course, those that are now doing 9 over will start doing 19 over
On the local Is with a 70 MPH limit, there are signs posted ANYTHING over 80 is automatic Reckless Driving...guess ‘they’ figure people can get to 90 before ‘worrying’ about that.
Finally I'd had enough and said, "Hey, count the number of MEN in this class (there were 18), NOW count the number of women in this class (there were 3), NOW tell me again how bad women drivers are."
He puffs up and says, "guys...THIS ones got an ATTITUDE". I said, "just stating the obvious". No more cracks about women drivers after that.
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