got a speeding ticket tonight, on my way to thunderhill raceway ... Options

[SirAndy]

Giving you the ticket for a "lower number" and making you feel like he did you a favor just never felt good to me.

well, here's the deal:

i was doing 96 in a 70 zone. according to the cop, they don't stop you unless it's 10 miles over or more.
so, the least amount he could write me up for was 80. like i said, short of letting me go free, that was the best he could do.

the way he explained it, the 80 in a 70 zone won't get me in much trouble ...
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif) Andy

[fiid]

I did well over a hundred mph from Palo Alto down to Morgan Hill and back again today with no attention from the cops whatsoever. Powered by an aircooled flat 4 no less.

[Cjllong]

don't try this at home.

i *completely* spaced out. going from 505 onto 5. it's central valley boredom, completely empty freeway in the middle of flat nothingness.

i didn't pay attention to my speed and was doing what i thought was just casual cruising.
i see the cop sitting on the other side of the freeway on an offramp and i look down on my tach,
4200 rpm, oh shit, that's gotta be too fast.

15 minutes later he catched up to me and pulls me over. had me clocked at 96 (!) ...


i got lucky, the cop turned out to be a car nut. he aksed if i was going up to the raceway. so we talked cars for some 15 minutes or so.

he wrote me up for 80, which is the minimum he could do (short of letting me go free) ...

so here's to the cop on I5, whatever your name is, i owe you a cold one!
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif) Andy

WOW! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/thumb3d.gif)

I gotta tell ya, the fact that you got a ticket speeding and you STILL want to buy the cop a beer is great! I have been in law enforcement for almost 10 years now and not one person I've ever given a ticket to has EVER offered to buy me a beer! Then everybody else writes good stuff about cops. This site kicks ass! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/aktion035.gif) And if you can't find the cop that cited you, I'll drink his beer for him!

Chris

[porschecb]

Hey Sir Andy my SO works for the court system and had this to say in response to all the advice about Trial by declartations and court trials. They are options to you however if you are found guilty then the option of traffic school may not be given. Since traffic school is a pre-trial diversion and is solely up to the judge after a trial. So do traffic school on line!!!!! By the way the officers name is listed on the ticket so you can locate him and buy him that beer. My SO probably knows
the officer if you were stopped in Yolo County. Also be happy the officer cited you for 80 instead of 96 because traffic school is not an option if you are cited for more than 25 miles over the speed limit. ( SO=Significant other) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer3.gif)

[smj]

I gotta tell ya, the fact that you got a ticket speeding and you STILL want to buy the cop a beer is great! I have been in law enforcement for almost 10 years now and not one person I've ever given a ticket to has EVER offered to buy me a beer! Then everybody else writes good stuff about cops.

In many years back East and a number of tickets, I only had a few bad experiences with state troopers. I'm always polite, hands on steering wheel, announce it if I'm going to open the glovebox or reach in a pocket before removing hands from the wheel, etc. I recognize the amount of stress a lone officer can build up in these situations, and don't want to make it any worse.

Jersey was always a bad time. People must abuse those guys every time they pull somebody over.

Connecticut was hit-or-miss. Generally good/professional, but one guy pulled me over in '97 in my new-to-me 85/1 944, inspected the car in detail for 20 minutes or so, and complained that the only thing he could do was write me a fix-it ticket for a light bulb.

New York -- well, I didn't get pulled over much in NY. Which is surprising given the number of high-speed, late-night runs out to Watkins Glen for track events.

I got one ticket in New Hampshire, many years before I started zooming up to NHIS for track days. A friend and I stopped in a diner or something off I-91. A trooper decided to follow us onto the highway a few cars behind and pace us. Massachusetts plates were a red flag for him, I guess...

But Massachusetts is where I drove most of the time, and where I got pulled over the most. And most of the time, the troopers were very pleasant people to deal with even when they wrote me up. On several occasions I was warned off and turned loose. In general, I came away feeling like we had some very decent, reasonable human beings serving the public -- not because I got out of a few tickets, but because they all seemed to genuinely care about the safety of the motoring public rather than relishing the opportunity to punish somebody.

That said, I did on one occasion get pulled over by a complete d*ck of a lieutenant who decided to play Iron Jack with me. Twenty questions: "Why do you think I pulled you over? ... Why didn't your fancy radar detector warn you? Do you think it's broken? ... I'll tell you, it's because I was behind you in this SUV. You weren't expecting that, were you?"

Anyway, I've always held the boys in blue in high regard despite a small number of counter-examples.

I'll tell you the one problem I have here in California -- unified jurisdiction. Despite all the fancy computerized automatic reporting that was supposed to happen, speeding tickets I got outside MA never showed up on my record. Never. But I think there are counties here as big as some of the states I used to pass through, and it's all the same system. Feh.