Posted on 04/10/2005 8:43:30 AM PDT by Dan from Michigan
Drivers quick with an excuse
Sunday, April 10, 2005
By Larry O'Connor
When confronted by a traffic cop, motorists will say the darnedest things to dismiss their misdeeds.
Last year, police agencies in Jackson County doled out 47,005 tickets. In return, officers writing those dreaded citations heard at least that many excuses.
Few are original and even fewer are legitimate, officers say.
"Only in about 2 percent of the cases will they tell you the truth," said state Trooper Dave Clark, a 16-year road patrol veteran.
At least in one instance, the oft-repeated claim of urgently needing to go to the bathroom was no snow job.
About 21/2 years ago, sheriff's Deputy Dan Deering stopped a driver who was zipping down U.S. 127 well over the posted 55 mph limit.
The driver claimed she had to go to the bathroom.
To flush away doubt, she bolted past the deputy, ran into the adjacent woods and proceeded to relieve herself, Deering said. In the passenger seat, her husband sat dumbfounded.
"I handed him the ticket," said Deering, a seven-year road patrol veteran.
Another speeding driver claimed to be on his way to Foote Hospital to deliver vital organs for transplant surgery.
With no heart or kidney in the front seat, Jackson police Officer Chuck Brant was somewhat dubious and ticketed the driver. Another driver later offered the same excuse but at least produced a bag of blood products.
"I let him go," said Brant, the city's top traffic enforcement cop.
For the ticket writer, part of the fun is poking holes in the concocted claims.
"I put (the excuses) into the top of the funnel and keep pushing them down with questions," Deering said. "Pretty soon the funnel is upside down."
This sounds very much like Mr.&Mrs.BeelzeBubba's utter contempt for Law and Order!!We don't want to go there again,do we?
I was wearing camo at the time since I was coming back from a hunting trip. I looked like some "militia" type. LOL. I did get written up for 5 over, no points though. Could be worse.
A Dallas police officer once told me that traffic enforcement is their most productive way of catching crooks. A certain percentage of stops will turn up someone with an outstanding warrant, stolen vehicle, possession etc.
I was riding with a buddy several months ago on the Fla. Turnpike in his new red muscle car. We were not even close to speeding because the dealer told him to take it east for about 500 miles. We were stopped by an FHP trooper. When he approached the driver's side he at once told my friend that he did not pull us over because we were speeding. He explained that a red Corvette on a high speed highway is presumptively speeding. But more important, he stopped us to find out how the driver liked the vehicle because his son, a stock broker, had been looking at the same type Corvette and was planning to buy it the next day. He stopped us for a consumer report.
Shhhh. You're not supposed to know this.
My last "violation" was on a stretch of road that featured a junk yard on one side, an undeveloped wooded area on the other, with a few scattered factories and residences thrown in. The road is straight and wide. No one can convince me that the 25 mph. limit there is reasonable, let alone legal under the standard you cite. It is a speed trap, pure and simple.
The cop who gave me the ticket for speeding put an arrow pointing up next to the 74 and told me that it could become a criminal offense if I decided to fight it.
I told the officer all this, he looked at the speedometer gage to confirm the first fact and radioed the first cruiser to confirm the second fact (that the other car had been driving too slow.)
He then handed my license back and said, "Have a nice day."
Talking your way out of a radar ticket cannot be a common occurrence.
Oh, man. See my post #19. It appears as if cops like corvettes.
Erring on the side of caution would be for the officer to write the ticket. If the driver really does know the CO, the CO can always 'fix' or expunge the ticket. This should result in no inconvenience or enmity on the part of the CO because the officer is simply doing his assigned task.
Sounds like my 1971 Gremlin! Did I sell you that thing?
Wow. I only managed to talk my way out of a ticket once. I was married at the time, and my wife had blown the engine on my car, so I was driving hers. (I had to do quite a bit of work on hers to get it fixed first). I got pulled over by an unbelievably cute lady trooper.
I gave her my best smile, and she informed me that my tabs were expired, the tires were probably illegal, and the exhaust was sticking out the side instead of out the back. I gave her the whole schmiel about my wife blowing up my car, etc.
She felt sorry for me, and didn't even ask for my license. That was a good thing, because I didn't have a license, and had two bench warrants out on me at the time (motorcycle related).
I think that's a ticketable offense by itself.
Please tell me you were able to beat that in court.
I wouldn't disagree, as most guilty folks are inclined to think someone is after them. I do think most "speed traps" especially the dubious ones on downhill slopes are mainly for revenue productions, especially in areas which have a large throughput of out-of-town/county/state traffic. Again, just my opinion.
My son was stopped for speeding in a school zone. The cop, for no real reason asked to search his truck. My son refused the request. This immediately raised the question "What are you hiding?'. My son, who is well over thirty (no kid), told the cop he wasn't hiding a damn thing. The cop informed my son he could get a court order to search the truck. My son told the cop that he was late for work, but in this case he had all day, so get on and get a court order. Then my son sat down on the curb. The cop went to the patrol car, came back two seconds later, gave my son a the speeding ticket and told him to have a nice day. What crap!
Wow did those people come up with lame excuses. I'm not telling what line I use to get out of them, but it has worked three times.
LOL!
This was an 89 VW Golf.
It had issues.
Liek the oil pressure warning sensor buzzer would sound, and there was nothing wrong with the oil pressure.
Driving down the road was accompanied by an awful buzzing from the dash.
I'd wanted to replace it with a voice module from an aircraft so it would say "Pull up" instead.
Giving 47,000 tickets in one county in one year gives me all the reason in the world to mark your statement 'True'.
It was in Eastern Washington, and I lived in Western Washington. If I had had a tape recorder on at the time I would have gone over there to fight it. No way the cop would tell the truth about this in court, and the judge would have said "it is your word against the officer's, and I have no reason to believe that the police officer is lying." I'd heard that one too many times before.
I have a new accessory for my vehicle which has recently gotten me out of a speeding ticket.
It's an FOP (Fraternal Order of Police) sticker on my back window. My father-in-law is a retired police officer and gave it to me. When I was pulled over, the officer asked me for license and registration, looked them over and then asked, "What's with the FOP sticker?" I replied, My father-in-law is a police officer in Rhode Island. He handed me my documents and said, "Take it easy will ya? Slow down and enjoy the drive."
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