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Automotive News & Views Traffic Laws & Enforcement Tactics
540 messages, Last post on Sep 21, 2009 at 12:22 PM
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Replying to: andre1969 (Apr 01, 2007 5:13 pm) He wasn't really serious of course, but it was pretty funny. My last ticket only ran me $35, so I'd have little trouble drinking that, as long as it wasn't a dive college bar that charges $1 per drink... 
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Replying to: davv62 (Apr 01, 2007 5:31 pm) The ticket I was thinking of when I made that earlier comment though, was about $275. 80 in a 50. I was coming out of one of the Baltimore Harbor tunnels, and somehow managed to get so far in between the packs of traffic that I was the only car visible on the road! I lost track of the speed, and as I rounded a gentle bend and started down a slope, a coppette on the other side of the highway nabbed me. This was one of those areas where the road was nice, wide, and smooth, and that 50 mph speed limit was really artificially low. Oh yeah, I tend to be cheap, so chances are I'd be at a college dive, or happy hour somewhere, so with $275 worth of booze in me, I imagine my next of kin would have to sign on here to let y'all know about funeral arrangements! 
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Replying to: andre1969 (Apr 01, 2007 5:41 pm) Did you go to court on that one, or just mail it in? I imagine going that far to court would be a major PITA. You're right about the other ticket, though. $275 is a kick in the 'nads. When did you get that ticket? Drinking that much worth of liquor would surely land you in the Betty Ford Clinic...  BTW, I had the most fun speeding experience of my life in Maryland a while back. I was driving back from Myrtle Beach (I live in Connecticut) and I had stopped for the night on Saturday in Rockville. My brother was with me and had to be back home early for some reason, so we left at 7AM on Sunday morning. There was nobody on the road, and man, was I flying. There were a few staties out and about, but they were always on the other side of the road, or busy with another driver they had pulled over. I slipped right through. Honestly, the drive was so much fun that even a ticket like you got would have been well worth it.
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Replying to: davv62 (Apr 01, 2007 5:50 pm)  Anyway, they rescheduled that ticket for January, 2006, and made me pre-pay the fine in advance, which I'd get refunded to me if I was found not guilty, so I figured I'd better go down to Emporia on the off chance I could get off with just a fine or whatever, and hopefully keep it off my driving record. No such luck. That place is a speed trap, pure and simple. Just about everybody in the court room was from Maryland or someplace further north, like PA, Joisey, Connecticut, etc. A few days before my court date for the $275 ticket, I pulled my driving record, and saw that the Emporia offense was showing on it. So I figured hey, the court already has my money, and there's no way they'd reduce a ticket like that especially AFTER getting another one, so why waste more money and time by taking off work, just to get the book thrown at me? Rockville's not too far from me, maybe a half hour. U ever get back down this way?
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Replying to: andre1969 (Apr 01, 2007 6:09 pm) Do you get a lot of tickets in general? I get you feeling you drive a good amount, and that puts you at greater risk. I know a few guys who seem to be ticket magnets -- they do pretty much what everyone else does, but always seem to get nailed more often. I haven't been down to Rockville for a few years now, but I always stop there on the way back from Myrtle Beach. I used to go every year, but now it's been a few years. I hope to get back there soon.
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Replying to: davv62 (Apr 02, 2007 3:04 am) Also, I could never prove it, but I think I also got pulled over because of an attempt at racial profiling. I'm white, but have a somewhat dark complexion. And while my hair is a medium brown, for some reason my mustache and goatee grow in black. Anyway, put a baseball cap on me, hiding my hair, and I get mistaken for Latino pretty regularly. Until I open my mouth, I guess, and my slightly southern, rural Maryland drawl comes out! It was almost amusing, when the cop got up close to me, he kind of did a double-take, almost as if to say "OHMYGOD...you're WHITE!!". Anyway, he asked me to consent to a drug search of the car, seeing as I was so far away from my home state and not all that far from the Mexican border. His drug search was haphazard at best, though. Heck, I could've thought of a few dozen good places to hide something, and I'm not even all that imaginative! I was on my way again in something like 20 minutes, with a ticket for $189.75. I hate thinking like this, but I just have a gut feeling that if I was Latino, black, or some other minority, I would've probably been detained a lot longer. Before that, I got a ticket back in August 1999. I was driving a 1989 Gran Fury at the time that was an ex police car, and I remember the speedo read about 56 mph. A cop nabs me in a 50 mph zone, trying to tell me I was doing 69 mph! He ended up writing it up for 67 though. I was miffed, because I was POSITIVE that I was only going 56. For one thing, the car was almost out of gas, so I was limping it to the nearest gas station! In fact, I was so sure that I was right that I took the car to get the speedo checked and recalibrated. Well, imagine my surprise that the speedo really was off! Not quite enough to make 67 mph only register as 56, though. IIRC, according to the printout the shop gave me, I think 60 mph on the speedo was 67 in real life. I do remember 81 was really 90 though, and 91 was really 100. Needless to say, I felt pretty dumb at that point. However, the judge was pretty cool about it, and since I went through the trouble of getting the speedo checked and fixed, he let me change my plea from "guilty with explanation" to "Not guilty". I swear though, ever since that speedo got recalibrated, that car just seemed slow! I used to drive a lot, but moved to about 3.5 miles from work a few years ago, and I don't run around a whole lot anymore. And most of my driving is local/residential these days, where I'm more likely to drive the speed limit.
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Replying to: davv62 (Apr 01, 2007 5:50 pm) where abouts in CT are you located? im 10 minutes south of hartford, in newington. -thene
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Replying to: thenebean (Apr 02, 2007 6:23 am)  78mph and covered the first 900 miles and decided it was time for honey to drive. She is 58 yrs old and never had a single ticket. I warned her to be careful in Pennsyvania due to a few past experiences of others and my own close calls. She hadn't put 12 miles on the Prius when I adjusted my pillow while staring at a State Trooper pointing the deathray gun at "US". 83 in a 65 zone. As we pulled over my wife confidently professed ..."He'll check my driving record and see I'm a virgin with an unblemished driving record." I snickereda bit, trying not to say I told you so, and told her she was about to be de-flowered. She told the officer that the speed got away from her while "running with the pack." What was amazing tho was the officer was so very thoughtful and considerate it almost seemed like he was doing her a favor. Cost was $106.00 and no points to my surprise. He said he'd do her a ticket for "failing to obey a traffic sign."nver heard of that one b/4) My criticism of my wife is for failing to use the cruise-control. She says she doesn't like cruise. We still bicker about this from time to time. I tend to be on constant lookout for police with a bit of uncanny accuracy and a bit of Irish luck. I'll get mine too someday (it's inevitable), although I'm running close to 13 yrs without a ticket and I drive with my Locomotive Engineer's License at stake if I get a number of tickets and/or DUI's in a one yr period. This is another reason for cruise.
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Replying to: thenebean (Apr 02, 2007 6:23 am) I'm in Fairfield, down on the coast right next to Bridgeport. Nice to meet a fellow nutmegger here. My last ticket was also in 1999. It's been too long -- I think I need to go out and get another one....
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Replying to: andre1969 (Apr 02, 2007 4:47 am) I only drive about 8,000 per year at this point. I park at a train station and take the train to work, so I'm only driving about 4 miles each way per day. I have been to Boston a few times, but that's only a 2-1/2 hour drive from me. Try to stay out of trouble, man....
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