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."
Was discussing traffic citations with a friend yesterday. He said once his wife was pulled over for speeding. She told the officer bluntly that she was late for something and did "not have time for this." She then drove off, leaving the officer standing there. He did not pursue. Being acquainted with this guys' wife I can understand why the officer would just as soon let it go.
Anyone driving in such a manner that warrants being stopped warrants being arrested. Everything else is a shakedown and state sponsored highway robbery. Traffic cops are tax collectors and nothing else. When the mafia does it, it's extortion, when the cops do it for the insurance companies, it's traffic enforcement.
In Washington the statute expressly says that the worst that can happen if you contest a ticket is that you have to pay the fine based on the original citation.
In my limited observation, contesting a ticket has around a 40% chance of complete dissmissal and 100% chance of reduction in fine.
Its more like Stockholm Syndrome. Cops basically make people they pull over wet themselves in fear, humiliate them,and then make them "perform" for their amusement. Then when the cop shows the least bit of kindness (lowering the speed a little bit or giving them driving directions that any human being would do) the person pulled over thinks of them as "so nice".
LOL!
I got stopped once coming off a shift at a hospital in New Orleans. The trooper saw my coat and asked if I was a doctor. When I told him I was, he handed me my license back and said "Have a nice day; I don't give tickets to Doctors, Priests, or Marines"
Drove the wife nuts, as she hates how I drive. ;)
I would have appealed that for the rest of my life.
"But you got soccer moms and liberals and children's advocates, most of whom drive like maniacs, all over it if you ever try to get speed limit changes officially."
Yeah, it's funny...in the school zone near my home, everyone goes 15 mph except the soccer moms dropping their kids off. They have actually passed me in the school zone (guess I was going too slow!) to whip into the parking lot to disgorge their precious cargo. I guess they don't need to go slow...they're special!
Oh, he would not have done that. He was a police officer. :) Exactly what did you mean?
Your son speed THROUGH a SCHOOL ZONE, gets a speeding ticket and this is crap? As the father of 5 kids in those school zones, I can assure you that I do NOT share your opinion.
My parents made it very clear to me that if I ever sped through a school zone I would never drive one of their cars again. Though I own my own cars now, I suspect they would STILL be so upset my 70 year old dad would try to kill me.
I don't think I ever disagreed with so many Freepers.
"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."
Bravo for your son! If more people refused these kinds of searches, and told the cop to go ahead and try to get a warrant (which he couldn't get without some sort of reasonable suspicion that the vehicle contained contraband) maybe they'd stop wasting our time with such silly games.
It is never a good idea to let a cop search your vehicle. You never know what he might plant in your car. This is especially true if you drive a hot or nice car; they will seize it after they plant the drugs in your car, and it will end up as part of the department's "DARE" (Drug Awareness and Resistance Education) vehicle fleet. Beware.
"If you admit you know that you were breaking the law, you will be ticketed. That's why they ask you. "
Not always the case. I've admitted to going over, and was let go with a warning. If you're busted, you might just as well 'fess up; there are other ways to fight the ticket.
Right.
The law is bad, so we break it. We don't change it, we just break it and justify breaking it because we think it's bad.
"Everyone" is speeding so OBVIOUSLY the speed limit is too slow.
The same attitude goes for drugs. "Everybody does it, so the law MUST be bad." Sounds like teenager-think.
Relative morality.
Work to change the law rather than just break it and try to justify violating the law.
Or break the law, pay the fines and stop whining about it.
Or break the law, then don't bellyache or sue when someone gets in an accident and dies or becomes a quadreplegic from speeding.
What was even better, the tail lights blew out due to there being a stack of full 2 liter soda bottles in the trunk that I'd had to grab for someone for a birthday party or some such.
And when I made the turn, they slid and bashed into the assemblies for the lights, and the rest is history.
But at least I got my turn signals and one marker light back on.
The poor cop though, I have the hatch open, and it slowly comes down and then thuds into my back like a giant jaw.
""Everyone" is speeding so OBVIOUSLY the speed limit is too slow."
Yes, now you get it! If the LAW were followed, then everyone would not be speeding, because the speed would be set at what the 85th percentile driver drives.
Your moralizing is really not persuasive. Sensible people know the difference between malum prohibitum and malum in se, and can use their own moral compass to differentiate between the two. Why don't you use your head instead of being slavishly law-abiding?
Weary sigh.
It's more of a Libertarian mantra on this site. Government overstepping its boundaries, being bad, eevulll and unnecessary, as usual.
And we WILL have to go there again, whether we want to or not.
It depends on what kind of "school zone" it was. Many school zones are just actually speed traps. There is a stretch of road in front of an elementary school a few miles away that is a 25 mph school zone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The speed limit on that road is 45 before and after the school.
There is also a "school zone" near my house that is really just the entrance to a private preschool. The preschool and its grounds are FAR from that intersection - its just an intersection.
Many "school zones" I know of are just a stretch of road in front of high school. There are no sidewalks and students NEVER cross the street - they couldn't even if they wanted to as there is nothing on the other side to go to. What sense does it make to consider this a "school zone" for traffic?
Many people think "school zone" and automatically think of crossing guards escorting elementary school kids across the street. In reality, those are pretty rare.
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