It pays to avoid a ticket -- or fight one

MSN Money ^ | July 15, 2003 | Chris Solomon

[newwahoo]

"But almost everytime I get pulled over, I get just a warning. I do sport an American flag on my back window and a Marine Corps bumber sticker. Maybe that has something to do with the cops giving me a break. Or maybe it's that I'm unfailingly polite to the officer"

I would leave out the part where you admit guilt but otherwise you make good points. It may be wrong in a way but I don't write NRA stickers, pro-GOP stickers, vets and the like. I also won't write someone with their kids in the car. "Free Mumia" stickers get whatevever I can toss at them. I guess I'm human and I work in a target-rich environment so I can be picky.

[mvpel]

If I get a ticket for speeding, I wouldn't fight it unless I WASN'T speeding.

That's certainly your perogative, as it's your insurance premiums and and your drivers license at risk.

[Gunrunner2]

>>If you are a nice looking lady a LEO, you will get a break. <<

And you base this insightful statment on. . .what?

As an ex-police officer from many years ago in a previous life, I ALWAYS ticketed a nice-looking woman if I pulled one over.

I did so for two specific reasons:
1) She did something wrong to begin with, and,
2) If I let her go then yahoos (like husband/boyfriend/or both, would make a charge like you did; i.e, she was only pulled over because she was good looking and let go without a ticket because she was good looking.

Heck, a police officer can't win. . .pull someone over and give a ticket and the cop is a dick, and pull someone over and not give a ticket and the cop is oogling the female driver.

Safest course of action these days for a police officer is to ticket everyone they pull over, especially good-looking women and minorities.

'Nuff said.

[discostu]

That's the boring solution. And will get you run off the road in Tucson, there are chunks of road here where 15 over will get your doors blown off.

[Feiny]

Another tip to use when in court is to tell the judge that you were driving in a reasonable & safe manner. I once got a ticket for not using my turn signal to change lanes....I was the only one on the road besides the cop who was at least a half a mile behind me....on a clear stretch of highway....I didn't say anything when he gave me the ticket. But, once in court I asked him...."Who was I supposed to be warning with that signal that I was changing lanes?" "Was there anyone else on the road?" "How far away were you from my car?"

The officer stammered, blushed and the ticket was dismissed.

In Ca, even if you don't beat the ticket in court....they give you the option of traffic school. There are plenty of one day classes...the best are the Comedy Traffic School classes.....unless you can find one that will just sign off for you and you don't have to attend at all.

[newwahoo]

Cops use their discretion for each others friends and family for things like moving violations.

[demsux]

Best advice is don't get pulled over.

Get a GOOD radar detector, such as an Escort or Passport.

I haven't been pulled over for speeding in years...ever since I got my Passport.

[mvpel]

In California the law specifies that you're only required to use your turn signal if there's someone else there who might be affected by your maneuver. We're lucky in that respect, I suppose.

[mvpel]

Just got myself a Cobra 6870 11-band, and bought my brother a 10-band Cobra for his birthday a month ago. Just yesterday he managed to avoid a CHP Ka gun on his way to Sacramento - the detector paid for itself right there.

One interesting thing, though, is that the San Francisco Bay Bridge seems to generate a large amount of X-band hits. Our theory is that they're using automated X-band devices for traffic flow measurement, so they can tell when and where traffic suddenly slows down due to an accident or some such.

[Who dat?]

To top it all off, our insurance premiums are already sky-high because we have 2 teeneged drivers!!

I wouldn’t expect your husbands ticket to have much impact then.

It would usually depend on whether you have more drivers than vehicles, believe it or not. Most people don’t realize it but it’s nearly universal that auto insurance companies assign the highest-rated driver to the highest-rated vehicle.

So if dad has a new Lexus and mom has a new Lincoln and the two kids share an ’88 Supra, the way the insurance company will typically determine the rates is to assign kid #1 to the Lexus, kid #2 to the Lincoln, and dad to the Supra. It’s nearly universal. It doesn’t matter that the kids primarily drive the Supra.

Some preferred carriers don’t do it that way. Some companies will assign you to your “primary vehicle.” Some will even let you specifically exclude junior from being assigned to dad’s car – but they generally require you to sign a waiver.

In essence, with a single violation he’s not going to be rated higher than a teen. So even though he’d now be rated higher than he was, he’ll (~97% of the time) be assigned to one of the lower rated vehicles. That assumes he’s assigned to one at all.

It also assumes his higher rating doesn’t bump everyone into a different tier or something. That was all the rage a few years back – designing a ton of different tiers.

But by all means, fight it if you want. Sounds like a lot of work to me though. Ha.

[newwahoo]

I think you can postpone two or three times but check with the court to make sure. Bring the proof with you. It can't hurt and maybe it'll help.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

I also won't write someone with their kids in the car.

The one and only time I got pulled over, I was driving in a rural area northeast of Austin, chatting with my wife and young son as I drove. I happened to miss the speed limit drop from 65 to 50 at the edge of this wide-spot-in-the-road town, but as soon as I realized where I was, I slowed down immediately -- but too late. The officer who pulled me over asked if I realized how fast I was going. I explained what had happened -- that I had been getting quality time with my family on the way to a camping trip (the car was loaded with camping gear as well), and didn't notice for a couple of seconds that I had crossed the city limits. He looked in, and saw that everything appeared to be as I told him. A big smile, then: "Ya'll have a nice day!" We did, after that. :-)

[B Knotts]

Sure-fire method to avoid speeding tickets:

Don't speed.

That usually works, but not always. One time I got a ticket for exceeding 55 in rural San Luis Obispo county, even though I was not speeding. I think he gave me a ticket just because it was 2:30 in the morning (I had just gotten off work).

I went to court, and was found not guilty, as the CHP officer who was driving (and could read the speedometer) couldn't remember all the details, and was relying on hearsay from his partner.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Our theory is that they're using automated X-band devices for traffic flow measurement

I wonder -- would it be cost-effective for a city to set up x-band devices in problem areas just to "ping" cars with radar detectors and get them to slow down? Dunno if anyone does that already.

[longtermmemmory]

remember

were you speeding is a yes or no question.

The rate of speed goes to dollar penalty.

[BrooklynGOP]

Ok, will do. Thanks.

[cinFLA]

I have to say though that the scariest drivers I've dealt with so far are the ones that can't speak english. How they get licenses is beyond me.

A lot of states administer the tests in the native (non-English) languages.

[cinFLA]

I have to say though that the scariest drivers I've dealt with so far are the ones that can't speak english. How they get licenses is beyond me.

Getting my DL in Korea required an interview with the district 'magistrate'. It was touch and go as I spoke no Korean and he spoke very little English. He wanted to 'test' me but finally just pulled out his stamp and sent me back to the clerk's window. One photo and a few won later I had my license.

[MineralMan]

"That's the boring solution. And will get you run off the road in Tucson, there are chunks of road here where 15 over will get your doors blown off.
"

Not really. I'm in Tucson every year, and I obey the speed limits there, just like I do everywhere else. I keep to the right, except to pass, and obey the law. Why would I do otherwise?

[MEGoody]

"That's certainly your perogative, as it's your insurance premiums and and your drivers license at risk."

Indeed. And if you are so concerned about these things, the answer is simple. Don't speed.