Speeding Tickets?

tara g

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Well, at 23 after nearly 7 years of driving on my own, I finally got my first speeding ticket
I knew that Mustang was gonna get me in trouble eventually
Was driving with my friend, and the Stang rides VERY smoothly. We were chatting away on I-95 in Summerton, SC about everything and anything and I came over a hill and saw a black Charger sitting facing the wrong way on an on-ramp ... I looked at the speed on the GPS, saw I was doing 84 ... in a 70. Really hoped it wasn't a cop, said as much, and as soon as I did he flipped on the lights! So I just pulled over, knew it was for me since I was the only car going by him at the time!


He asked me if I knew I was doing 86 (what he says he clocked me at). I said no, because I really hadn't realized how fast I was going until I saw him and looked at the GPS (my speedo is off a little so I go by that usually) and saw him. So he took my license and registration and went back to his car. I was hoping he'd be easy on me because we were both very polite and my record is clean - no accidents or tickets. He came back finally with a blue piece of paper - darn! Told me he didn't give me the $445 fine, just the $185 ... and FOUR POINTS if I pay it out and don't go to court. If I go to court, he said he'd give me a point reduction for being pleasant, and that he understood Mustangs were easy to lose track of speed in. Suggested I use cruise control (which I HAD been using since I got on the Interstate, but had turned it off behind slower cars and never turned it back on a few miles earlier), and that I keep my speed "in the 70s". Saw A LOT more cops along the way sitting in the median, unfortunately I had to get caught by the first one we saw
Getting a traffic lawyer and hopefully they can get it knocked down to a non-moving violation, which will probably be a higher fine, but that's better than higher insurance and points on my driving record. I certainly didn't forget cruise control after that!

So, have you ever gotten a speeding ticket? How old were you for the first one? Did you pay it out, go to court and plead it down, or get a traffic lawyer?

My friend that was with me is notorious for speeding. She's insisting on paying me half the fine since she said "if I were driving, it would have been like 90 in a 70 instead!" (Which is true, the previous week she averaged 88mph on a trip we took!) I told her not to worry about it, but she keeps insisting
Its very nice of her, I'm grateful to have a wonderful friend but don't want her paying for my mistake, I was driving and speeding, not her. She was lucky and didn't get caught (and usually does
she's gotten about 4 tickets this year already), I was overdue for one I guess.
 

gailc

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It will be 3 years earlt February. I was coming home from errands and grocery shopping.
Wasn't paying attention and too late. I was "clocked" going 54 in a 35 mph zone.
He knocked it down to 10 over with a $328 (close to that) fine and 3-4 points. I paid within a few days. The area was 45 mpg for years and years then was lowered and I don't know why. Its a rural area just out of the small town I live close to.

For many months I have watched to make sure I didn't get caught again as the cops still sit in that spot! Sometimes with my cruise control on!
 

sharky

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No in 11 years that I was able to drive never got a ticket.. Can you go to a class to avoid the points( which will Raise your insurence )?
 

frankthetank

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I have never had a speeding ticket *knock on wood*
I have only owned older cars (drove an 88 honda til it died in 04, started driving a 99 saturn til 09 then I got a 99 jeep) and they were all loud when I sped too much so I always knew when I was going to fast. In my husbands car though, I lose track of my speed pretty easily! I didn't know speeding tickets were so freakin expensive! That is CRAZY.
 

KittenKrazy

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Stopped once as a teenager (40 in a 35) and once in my early twenties (70 in a 55) and succeeded in talking the city police and state trooper out of a ticket......got a ticket when I was 39 for doing 60 in a 55 (county deputy)......sigh.
 

carolina

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Never got one... The closest I got to get it was warning when I was moving from California to Dallas, driving at 80 on the FWY... It was completely empty, and not even that fast... so ridiculous

I explained to him that I was driving for 2 days and just wanted to make it to the hotel during the daylight, and he let me go... Thank goodness!
 
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tara g

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Originally Posted by sharky

No in 11 years that I was able to drive never got a ticket.. Can you go to a class to avoid the points( which will Raise your insurence )?
They didn't say anything about a class, the officer told me I could go to court and plead down the points and get a reduction on it, and that he would recommend they give me less points because my friend and I were very polite when dealing with him. I was hoping that since we were, and it was a clean record that he would just give me a warning. He certainly led us to believe he would until I saw the ticket, fine, and him telling me it was 4 points!


I will just be calling a traffic lawyer in that area instead, usually they can get tickets knocked down to non-moving violations if you have a good record, AND they go to court for you. I'd rather pay a lawyer fee and higher fine than higher insurance. Hubby turns 25 in December so its supposed to go down anyway, I'd rather not have a ticket keep it high. I don't know how he always ends up with warnings and I end up with a darn ticket. Hubby got one in NC once on a trip to NJ from SC, it went 70 - 55 - 70 (nice little speed trap), we got clocked at 71 in the 55, they marked it down to 69 in a 55 for him. Turns out my TL at work got one in the same spot a week earlier and got a letter from a NC traffic lawyer a few days later. We used the same guy, sent him $60 to go to court for us, and paid $135 in court fees for an "improper muffler" fine, dont know how he got it changed to that, but it worked for us
My brother just got one for 90 in a 65 (and he even knew that the cops radar'd from the overpass DAILY), supposedly his lawyer is getting it knocked down to nothing also (I'll believe it when it happens - that'll be his 5th or 6th ticket in 4 years).
 

kara_leigh

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In total I've had 3 tickets but pulled over 4 times. I got my first speeding ticket when I was 17 b/c I was out past curfew and I was hurrying home from my boyfriend's house at 10pm on a school night. I didn't have my license on me, so the cop called my parents. I wasn't even supposed to be with my boyfriend that night, so I got in BIIIIIGGG trouble when I got home. I was able to take a class and get the ticket waved.

I got the next two within a couple months of each other, back in 2005. The first one I was doing 11 over the limit on the interstate and was able to take the class again (you can take it every 3 years here). The next one the cop said I was clocked doing 51 in a 35mph construction zone. It was a $472 ticket. YIKES!! The cop was a jerk, and if he had written the ticket for ONE mile per hour less I could have taken a class to wave that ticket also, but nope. There are two classes you can take, and can take each of them every three years. They are divided by how much over the speed limit you are going. I was JUST over the limit for the higher class. *sigh* I also had expired plates at the time, so it didn't help the price of the ticket. lol Being broke and not able to license your car sucks.

The next one was just two days after that, and she said I was speeding but I SWEAR that I wasn't. I had just looked at my speed two seconds before she pulled me over. I even saw her sitting there and thought to myself "good thing I'm not speeding!" HA! The cop that pulled me over was a parent at my son's school (I was pulled over just blocks from his school) and I think she saw the newsletter sitting on my front seat and went easy on me. She never did say how fast she clocked me going. I told her I already got a ticket for my plates so she didn't give me another ticket for that.

I haven't had a speeding ticket since then, and I hope to never get one. I don't speed anymore, and it ticks people around me off most of the time, but they won't be the ones paying for the ticket, right?? lol
 

mrblanche

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Back in "the day," the Mustang Shelby GT350 and GT500 were nominated by one of the magazines as "the cars most likely to get your license suspended."

Policemen deny it, but with the loss of tax revenue, a lot of areas are stepping up their enforcement in order to recover some of that revenue. A policeman sitting by the side of the road, watching a radar readout, is not involved in law enforcement or safety-related enforcement, but rather in revenue enhancement. The one thing that really improves road safety is a rear-view mirror with a police car in it.

As a CDL holder, I can't use any of the usual tricks to get tickets reduced, other than having a lawyer work on it to get it thrown out or reduced in miles over. For a trucker, a 15-over ticket is a "kiss of death" violation. Get two in a three-year period, and you're not driving for 6 months. Get a third one, and you're not driving for a year.

I haven't had a moving violation since 1983. I've driven about 2 million miles since then.
 
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tara g

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Originally Posted by kara_leigh

The next one was just two days after that, and she said I was speeding but I SWEAR that I wasn't. I had just looked at my speed two seconds before she pulled me over. I even saw her sitting there and thought to myself "good thing I'm not speeding!" HA! The cop that pulled me over was a parent at my son's school (I was pulled over just blocks from his school) and I think she saw the newsletter sitting on my front seat and went easy on me. She never did say how fast she clocked me going. I told her I already got a ticket for my plates so she didn't give me another ticket for that.
I got pulled over in 2004 when I was 17 for "careless driving". The cop said that I had been speeding, which I certainly had NOT been doing, because I was stuck behind a line of cars going UNDER the speed limit! I knew, because I was complaining that they were going slower in typical NJ-yell-at- the-car-in-front-of-you-even-if-they-cant-hear-you fashion. He pulled me over when I accidentally chirped my tires on a hill (I had a 5-spd manual, been driving on my own for 2 months at the time). I was trying not to hit the car behind me (some weird kid who showed up at my job that had a crush on me and decided to follow me, stopped right on my bumper on the hill, and I didn't want to roll back into him when I let my foot off the clutch). The cop pulled me over AND him over. He got yet another ticket, which was higher than mine because he already had 10 pts on his license. He gave me a careless driving one for chirping my tires and kept asking if I had a problem because that happened and because I was apparently speeding since I left work. I was pretty sick at the time and just wanted to get home (plus my restricted license said I had to be home by 11:30pm - I didn't get out of work until 10:30 that night, now he had me pulled over wasting my time til curfew!) He told me I was going to lose my license and yadda ya. Went to court over it because a friend of mine knew all the cops on the force, and all of them didn't like this guy because he was very arrogant and made a quota for himself every month. I looked at the roster at the court house, and EVERY ticket was from him, or another guy. Some were "not stopping before the line at a stop sign", "3mph over", etc. One woman filed harassment charges against one for pinning her against the car after stopping her for "not stopping long enough at a stop sign."

The person we had to talk to about lowering our ticket knocked mine down to "unsafe driving, 0 points, no show on the driving record" and it was $137. The other guy somehow got his knocked down to that also, but his fine was $237. In NJ you can get three unsafe driving knockdowns I believe, but on your 4th you get 6 points and a hefty fine.

Usually I keep my speed 1-9mph over the limit on the interstate, since most troopers wont pull you over if it's under 10. I was so mad I forgot to reset the cruise control to 78 again
On the way home I was pretty paranoid about the speed limits changing back and forth from 65 to 70. Even the cop that pulled me over told me if the speed limit is 70, keep it somewhere in the 70s
(Not "keep it at 70!")
 

otto

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My first speeding ticket happened when I was 41 years old. I was driving on an unfamiliar section of expressway, having offered to transport a co worker to the where her car was being serviced.

I found myself behind a construction vehicle that was spewing gravel, and he was going about 65-70 (speed limit 65), but co-worker was anxious to get to her car before the place closed, so rather than just drop back, or exit the freeway and then reenter (like I normally would have done) I opted to pass the truck. So I swung into the other lane and accelerated and just as I did my eye fell upon the state trooper sitting on the exit overpass, in fact our eyes met, it was kind of weird.

I said (expletive) and the co worker said "Oh don't worry those cops are always sitting there" and as I saw the lights flash in my rear view I turned to her and said "Well why didn't you TELL me that?" (I was really ticked off that she hadn't told me, as she drove that way every day)

So I got my ticket for going 78 in a 65 (thank goodness he shot me before I had accelerated any further!). I paid it and took the defensive driving course, which I was due for anyway (I take it every three years) which did not remove the conviction but did remove the points. The co worker did not offer to split the bill. I never liked her after that.


My second ticket was less than 18 months later, and man I was ticked off at MYSELF! There is this long stretch of busy road on my way to a friend's house that is 45 mph, though rarely does any one go that slow. I needed to get over into the right lane to exit, and found myself next to one of those drivers who like to play cat and mouse. He wouldn't slow and let me in, and continued to speed up and drop back to prevent me from getting into the lane.

In frustration, not wanting to end up on the (toll road) thruway, I gunned the gas, shot ahead and moved into the right lane, just as I stepped on the gas I saw the sheriff's headlights flash and knew I'd been shot.

He caught me going 62 in a 45. This one I went to traffic court for and got it reduced to failing to obey a traffic sign.

Traffic court was the most humiliating thing I've ever experienced. All of us losers sitting there hoping our cops wouldn't show up. When they did, we'd sit there and hope we'd be one of the ones they called out into the hall to bargain with.

I was lucky and he did call me out and ask me why I was fighting the ticket. Going by the "deny everything" creed, I said because I wasn't speeding. He asked me how fast I thought I was going and I said "45" at which he snorted and laughed.

He then gave me the option of accepting the reduced charge and I accepted. It was still expensive, but it was fewer points on my license, and don't forget I already had one speeding ticket still on my record less than 18 months before that (3 speeding tickets in 2 years will lose you your license in my state).

My insurance was not affected, thank goodness, and none of that remains on my record now as the conviction disappears 3 years plus however many months after the January 1st passes after the third year.

I take the defensive driving course every three years because it gives me a big discount on my collision portion of my insurance, AND, if there's a good instructor (which doens't always happen) I actually learn something and it makes me a better driver.

However those two speeding tickets did their job, I am much more careful about accelerating in frustration. (As for speeding as a way of driving, I've never been much for that, I set the cruise for about 70 on the expressways and stay within the speed limit always residential and other areas)
 

catkiki

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My first and only speeding ticket was in 1977 (I think). I was taking a car load of my friends to Hart Park, a big park that has a lake in the center. Just before the entrance to the park was a speed limit sign saying 55, which I was going. Just after you entered the park there was a sign that said 25 mph. This sign was behind a tree and another big sign and I never saw it. I got pulled over by a park ranger! As I was pulling over, one of my friends was saying, "Not here! Don't pull over here!" I just told her to look behind me and she was like "OH!" I knew the speed limit was 25 but I thought I was still on the highway that runs beside the park!

I went to court on it since it was mandatory at the time. I pled guilty with a comment. I explained that I had never driven out there myself (true) and the way the signage was. My fine was reduced to $55. LOL I don't remember if there were any points or not. So one speeding ticket in over 30 years is not too bad.
 

calico2222

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I got quite a few with my first car (78 Firebird
). I got my first one when I was 18. It was on a road I wasn't very familiar with and the speed drops from 55 to 35 for a 1/2 mile stretch going through a very small town, but it still looks like a highway. BIG speed trap. This was over 20 yrs ago so it was $55 and 2 points. I went to court, plead guilty and they dropped it to 1 point and $25 court costs.

I was terrified to tell my father though. I was still living at home and under my parents insurance. I decided the best way to tell him was to put it into perspective, so at dinner I said "Dad...how do you feel about being a grandfather? No, don't worry, I'm not pregnant but I did get a speeding ticket today"
. After he started breathing again I got the speech I was expecting but mom said that he laughed his butt off after I left the room.
 

kara_leigh

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Originally Posted by mrblanche

Back in "the day," the Mustang Shelby GT350 and GT500 were nominated by one of the magazines as "the cars most likely to get your license suspended."

Policemen deny it, but with the loss of tax revenue, a lot of areas are stepping up their enforcement in order to recover some of that revenue. A policeman sitting by the side of the road, watching a radar readout, is not involved in law enforcement or safety-related enforcement, but rather in revenue enhancement. The one thing that really improves road safety is a rear-view mirror with a police car in it.

As a CDL holder, I can't use any of the usual tricks to get tickets reduced, other than having a lawyer work on it to get it thrown out or reduced in miles over. For a trucker, a 15-over ticket is a "kiss of death" violation. Get two in a three-year period, and you're not driving for 6 months. Get a third one, and you're not driving for a year.

I haven't had a moving violation since 1983. I've driven about 2 million miles since then.
My husband used to have a Class B CDL license and used to drive a straight truck when we met. He's only had one speeding ticket, back when he was 18. Hasn't had one since.
He's a very safe driver, I think b/c of his history of driving a truck for a living.
 
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