Comments on "Things I learned driving home from Thanksgiving" - Faerye Net

Re: Traffic safety corridors

2003-12-02T10:31:16+00:00

Your dad has a good point. You don’t want to look desperate, but you do have a right (and some would say an obligation) to challenge the cop to at least prove your guilt. Remember, despite my cynicism about traffic court, this country’s courts do still pretend to hold to the “innocent until proven guilty” mantra. If you can whittle the cop’s case down, you’ll never have to say “I didn’t do it.” You’ll just have to demonstrate that he didn’t see you doing it and that therefore nobody knows whether or not you did it.

The fact that he didn’t mention radar and that he didn’t ask you if you knew your speed seems extremely odd to me. Your first question to him, at the very least, should attempt to discover how he estimated your speed. As your dad says, don’t argue, just question. Approach it as if you’re doing research, looking for information. Don’t Law & Order his ass, but don’t just sit quietly either.

Cops are actually trained to estimate the speed of traffic, and in most cases they can come up with pretty accurate numbers, but that’s nearly impossible to do if he’s traveling the opposite direction. Even with a fixed reference point to time you by, his viewpoint is still changing and screwing up his angle on the reference point.

Re: Traffic safety corridors

2003-12-02T10:21:38+00:00

Ack, never never never say anything that could be construed as an admission that you were speeding. You can admit that you weren’t paying attention to your speed, but don’t admit that you were speeding, since that implies that you knew you were speeding and did it anyway, which is exactly the thing cops and judges don’t have pity for.

I once made the mistake of admitting to a cop that I knew I was speeding, and he wrote it in big letters on the ticket. In Oregon, there’s even a box they can check labeled “Knowing”, which is like stamping a big red “Guilty” on your forehead. I never even had a chance of getting out of that one.

Re: Traffic safety corridors

2003-12-02T09:22:12+00:00

The papa he says what I was trying to say, but of course more concisely and eloquently!

Re: Traffic safety corridors

2003-12-02T09:18:51+00:00

I thought you could go to safe driving class and get it taken off your record or whatever.

Smokey says: there’s no good excuse for speeding! :P

Re: Traffic safety corridors

2003-12-02T08:48:56+00:00

What now? You think I can get it off my record? That is shocking!

You think that the fact I’m not used to driving the car with the good engine is a good lame excuse? :) It seriously feels like it’s going way slower than it is.

Re: Traffic safety corridors

2003-12-02T08:47:20+00:00

He did not mention radar, and he did not ask me how fast I was going (or the speed limit). Seemed odd to me.

See the thing here is, my dad says either I should have a reason why I’m innocent, or I should be contrite—and I can see the arguing going against my appearance of contrition.

How would I find out whether he had radar of me? I mean, he didn’t say he got me on radar, but it seems weird that he would come up with a number like 78 as an estimate.

Re: Traffic safety corridors

2003-12-02T08:18:19+00:00

I’m sorry you got a ticket. And I don’t blame you because I speed all the time, on and off the highway, and it is only random luck that has prevented me from getting a speeding ticket myself. My sweet pea often curses this luck, as he believes receiving a ticket would slow me down.

I always brake when I see a cop, too, no matter my current speed.

I recommend admitting you were speeding, then telling the tale as Wonko suggests, and throwing yourself on the mercy of the court. Arguing with the cop would piss him off. En general, it’s not a good idea to piss off Johny Law, and it’s entirely possible you might lose the argument and pay the full fine. Whereas, in my experience (extensive, with parking tickets) any kind of admission that you did it combined with lame excuses produces: REDUCED FINES! But, of course, your first priority, within reason, should be getting it off your permanent record so as to reduce: INSURANCE COSTS!

Re: Traffic safety corridors

2003-12-01T22:59:27+00:00

I wouldn’t be surprised if your hard braking drew his attention to you. It is kind of a dead giveaway that you were speeding. But there’s a catch: unless he has a radar reading that says otherwise, he can’t ticket you unless he observed you speeding. If, after braking, you were not speeding, and if he didn’t notice you until after you had braked, then he can’t have observed you speeding. He could infer that you were speeding, but if he didn’t directly observe it, he doesn’t have much of a case.

Some more questions: Did the cop state that he caught you on radar? When he asked you how fast you were going, did you give him a number?

It’s entirely possible that he did in fact have the radar gun pointed vaguely in the direction of oncoming traffic, set to sound an alarm when it caught someone speeding. That’s what I’d bet on. However, if he didn’t catch you on radar, you should question him in court about how he estimated your speed. Ask him what he used as a reference point, and ask him how fast he himself was going. If he states that he used other traffic around you as a reference point, he’s a lying weasel and hopefully you have a good judge who won’t play along with his games. If he states that he used a stationary object as a reference, ask him how fast he thought you were going in relation to that object, and then ask him how he arrived at his final estimation of your speed. With a little luck, you may trip him up on the math or a technicality (but don’t try too hard).

If he did, in fact, get you on radar, your only recourse is to ask for mercy. Tell a believable story in an informative (as opposed to whiny or pleading) tone of voice about how you and your husband were returning from a long, tiring Thanksgiving holiday and were eager to get home, and that you’re very sorry for losing track of your speed, and that it won’t happen again. It won’t get you out of the ticket, but if you’re at all pitiable (and especially if you smile and make eye contact with the judge), you may have a shot at a reduced fine.

Technically, the law says that the officer must visually estimate your speed before using radar, but I’m a monkey’s uncle if any police officer has ever followed that rule, and I’m an uncle’s monkey if any judge ever cared that an officer didn’t follow that rule. Remember: in traffic court, you’re guilty until proven innocent, and even then you’re still probably a little guilty.

Re: Traffic safety corridors

2003-12-01T18:17:19+00:00

0. The cop says 78. I say 75. It’s kind of horrible and ironic, really, because ever since a motorcycle cop made me cry at the age of 17 or so, I keep to within 5 mph of the speed limit when not on the highway. At any rate, it was dead straight, dry pavement, and I must admit that I probably hadn’t noticed that it was 55—a bit is set in my head stating that the speed limit in the boonies is 65 mph, even though that’s probably no longer the case.

1. Male cop

2. Did not cry. Did not feel like crying—more like rocking back and forth muttering, “This is not happening, this is not happening.” No doubt if I had started to cry Matt would have been annoyed. He seemed kind of exasperated with how upset it made me.

3. I desperately want to speak to you about radar, o ticket-man. I was going in the opposite direction from him and braked when I noticed him (rawther heavily). Matt thinks he probably wouldn’t have noticed me if I hadn’t braked, and I think he probably wasn’t bombing along Rhododendronward with a radar gun pointed at oncoming traffic.

4. Yes, in VW.

5. No, you freakin’ crazy man! I am lawful good! LAWFUL GOOD! I wouldn’t run from a cop…unless I were wearing a mask and had a frickin’ Waynetech prototype. But then it would be for the greater good, AND my car would be bullet-proof.

6. Weather—overcast but dry. Roads wet at margin but beaten dry in lanes.

7. Traffic was moderate. I was overtaking people in the right lane in case the blessed 2-lanedness was going to evaporate. They were probably going 60 or so.

8. Left lane. All by my lonesome, too. Have you ever considered that the traffic cop operates like a predator in that he targets those who are most easily picked off from the herd?

9. No.

10. No pie was left over, and I have been directed by my cousin to send pie to Christmas since I’m not coming. Not to mention the whole LAWFUL GOOD thing.

11. See above.

Random fact: the term for “bribe” in French means “pot of wine”

Traffic safety corridors

2003-12-01T17:35:44+00:00

Agh! You got a ticket in a traffic safety corridor? Agh! How fast were you going?

Traffic safety corridors are the high-speed highway traveler’s worst enemy. They exist for no reason other than to provide an excuse for the courts to double your fine. And woe is you if you get a ticket in a traffic safety corridor that’s under construction! That’s exponential fineage!

So, was it a boy cop or a girl cop? Did you try crying? Did he/she catch you on radar/lidar? Were you in the VW? If so, did you consider running? What was the weather like? Was traffic heavy? Were you in the right lane or the left lane? Did you try to bribe the cop with leftover Thanksgiving pie? If not, why not? If so, why didn’t it work?