Posted on 07/16/2007 5:52:36 PM PDT by MosesKnows
July 14, 2007
By Seth McLaughlin
The first paragraph
Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has no plans to call a special General Assembly session to consider repealing new fees against bad drivers, despite public outrage, a potential lawsuit and a lawmaker's demand that he do so.
The last paragraph
The governor's office estimated the new law would affect only about 2 percent of Virginians.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
All the more reason for an appeals process.
A friend of mine just recently had a reckless charge dropped down to just a minor speeding offense, right here in Virginia. The ticket had been issued prior to this law taking effect, so the "fees" would not have applied, however it goes t show that you can fight/appeal traffic tickets in Virginia.
Oh yeah, reckless driving, always go to court.
I was in an accident (my fault) and had a reckless driving charge dropped down to “failure to yield” by offering to go to driving school.
And you can do driving school online now (couldn’t when I did it).
You should have stayed in the right lane if you were going to clog up the passing lane. If you want to enforce speeding laws, join the police force. From where I sit, you were the horse's behind
How about if he just wants to obey the speeding laws?
Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with punishing seriously bad drivers, I just don’t see this as a way to accomplish that.
Here on the Shore I have to deal with driving on Rte 13 on a daily basis, the vast majority of the road abusers do not have VA plates on their vehicles, and of those the majority are illegals with Tennessee plates. They’re easy to spot, the vehicles are older model pieces of junk with more passengers than designed for. when VA starts cracking down on them, then I just might reconsider my opposition to these “fees.” That idea, of course, has the proverbial snowballs chance........
How about if someone has a legitimate emergency and he decides to park his ass in the left lane next to a slow moving truck?
Agreed. This is the wrong way to handle it.
Whatever.
I’m not sure about where you’re from, but most of us around here don’t call 65 mph “parked.”
I’m pretty sure you understand what I’m talking about. Then again, maybe not
We got the government we deserved.
I undertand that 99.9% of the time those barreling down on the bumpers of others in the passing lane are not experiencing a legitimate emergency, but are perhaps just compensating for...something...
>You should have stayed in the right lane if you were going to clog up the passing lane. If you want to enforce speeding laws, join the police force. From where I sit, you were the horse’s behind<
Look in the mirror, dearie. The truck I was passing slowed down to 50 mph in a 65 zone. I don’t want to pay the state of my birth thousands of $$ in tax, so I stayed at the posted limit while I legally passed the truck.
The tailgater didn’t have to worry about Governor Kaine’s confiscatory tax, so he had no reason to slow down.
This is an implicit admission that the new tax (let's call it by its right name; the purpose was to squeeze more money out of the citizens, not to enforce traffic laws) will bite perfectly ordinary drivers -- if it only affected truly bad ones, then keeping them away would be a net benefit (the loss of a few tourist dollars would be more than offset by reduced accident cost).
There are quite a few places where the speed limit drops by 10-20 MPH with grossly insufficient warning. Given that drivers on major roads need to exceed posted limits by 5-10 MPH in order to safely keep up with traffic, that means they will inevitably be 20-30 MPH over when they first hit the speed trap.
That's what you should have done sweetums before you pulled out into the passing lane. If you were going 15 MPH faster than the vehicle you were passing you wouldn't have been out there long enough to hold up traffic.
What is the proper way of dealing with chronically bad driving alludes me, but like you, I agree this is not the way to handle it.
Another group of “bad” drivers this will do nothing about are those with “government” plates and we know there are tons of those in NoVA, the Hampton Roads/Tidewater area as well as here on the Shore.
That's interesting. I have similar thoughts when I see drivers cruising along in the left lane holding up traffic.
>you wouldn’t have been out there long enough to hold up traffic.<
I wasn’t holding up traffic, just one fool going over 80.
Same here - I'm maxed out on "Safe Driver" points, which I could use to offset "Bad Driver" points if I ever did get a moving violation, but it's the principle, dammit.
Both my assemblymen voted for this mess - I'm voting for anyone running against them, including Satan.
If he was going 80, and you were going 65, you were holding up traffic. You sure showed him
I’m amazed that you have such a hard time understanding someone’s desire to just obey the law.
Please let us know the next time you drive through Virginia so we can all drive five miles under the speed limit just to piss you off.
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