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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: 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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Replying to: davv62 (Apr 02, 2007 6:29 pm) there are a few of us nutmeggers on here - which is kind of neat! CT is such a small state, so sometimes its hard to find people from your area online at a big national website like this! and you're right - i need to get another speeding ticket...im feeling naked without one!  -thene
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Replying to: thenebean (Apr 03, 2007 5:42 am) Fairfield is definitely a nice town. I hear Newington is also. You definitely need to get another ticket. So do I, man. It's been too long; we're really slacking...
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Replying to: davv62 (Apr 04, 2007 7:04 pm) newington is pretty nice - centrally located to everything, which is good.
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Replying to: thenebean (Apr 05, 2007 8:55 am) Have you ever noticed that on Connecticut highways, the state troopers are either completely absent, or out in tremendous force? They seem to favor special details over day-in, day-out enforcement. One thing I've learned is that if you see one smokey on those roads, watch your a&$, because you'll probably be seeing a lot more. I rode to Boston once a while back with a buddy of mine. He got nailed a short distance into Connecticut on I-84 (I lived in New York at the time), and nearly got busted three more times before we made it through Connecticut. Man, that was a harrowing trip... Not harrowing enough, of course, to get him to slow down, but you know how that goes... Most of the time though, you could drive for hours and never see a trooper. Sometimes, the state police even announce publicly when they'll be having a crackdown. Maybe that's because they'll prefer to nail out-of-state drivers who won't have access to local news about the crackdown.
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Replying to: davv62 (Apr 06, 2007 4:02 am) -mike
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