Speeding ticket question

[Mr N8]

I took a long roadtrip with my wife and a couple of friends over thanksgiving. WI to WV to TX and back to WI. Anyway, while on the way home, I got a ticket in Oklahoma. I was on the freeway, and got picked out of the crowd. Most likely due to the tinted windows, etc, etc... Anyway, I had the cruise set at 77 in a 70mph zone. Traffic was moving about 75 - 80 along this stretch. I was pulled over and asked to come sit in their car while they got info from me. He writes me up for 80, and it was possible since they were sitting at the bottom of a semi-steep hill. I am very respectful to officers, as some of my friends are copsThe second cop is in the back, and keeps asking me questions about the car, and asking me what kind of exhaust I put on in. Things like that. I wasn't really in the mood at the moment to talk shop, but figured I should since I thought they may let me off. Wrong. I get a ticket for doing 80 in a 70. I admit, I was speeding. I didn't notice until later that he put the wrong address on my ticket. In WI, when you change addresses, you attach it to the back of your license, and I didn't remember to tell him. A ticket for only 10 over seems a little ridiculous, but then again, I'm from a different part of the country. The cops that I know say that they usually don't do anything until 15 over, unless the car looks suspicious.

I want to contest this, since it was a speed trap at the bottom of a big hill, and I was not the fastest moving vehicle in the area. The only thing is, it would end up costing more for me to go to OK, than it would to just pay the thing. Anyone have any recommendations? I feel like I've been used as part of the OK state patrol thanksgiving fung raiser, rather than being pulled over for a legit reason. The ticket doesn't go on my record, so my insurance won't be affected, but its the easy $100 they are getting from me that irritates me. I wasn't the only car pulled over along there. They had two other cops that had nailed people, too. All of which had out-of-state plates on them. Do I have any options?

[DFastLane]

I'd say pay it or take defensive driving to clear it - about the same cost either way - and drop back the cruise to 75 next time thru OK (especially on a holiday).

[sdkfz]

Point One: "speed trap at the bottom of a big hill" does this mean that you are going really slowly at the top of the hill because you do not hit the gas to get over? I don't think so, thus if you can hit the gas to go up you can hit the brakes to be lawful on the way down.

Point Two: "ticket for only 10 over seems a little ridiculous" granted the percentage of 'speeding' at 70 vs lets say 20 (school zone in Mass) is much smaller, but then when some one gets arrested for battery and they say "gee officer I did not him them really hard, only kinda hard" does that make it kinda battery?

Point Three: " The ticket doesn't go on my record", are you sure, we are not the only one with computers and a lot of states share information now.

Personal Note: I speed too, it is a risky behavior and I have been tagged before, but always been lucky, ( insert knocking on wood sound).
Yeah getting picked out of a crowd of like speeders is a pain, your out of state tags means you are likely not to go back to fight, your arguement against the ticket would be "traveling at an unsafe speed" and being a slow poke in the taffic would create a larger hazard (I hope the road was dry and clear of hazards like snow rain construction), not a great line of reasoning but pretty much all there is from my non legal back ground.
Maybe the officer won't show.
Last suggestion: dress to look professional (read laywer, doctor stuff), speak clearly and well, ie look like you got bucks. You see this all the time on TV where they show someone arrested looking like some one you would avoid in a the middle of the day and then in court they are all gussied up in a suit and haircuts etc.

[Hot Rod]

In Iowa, they usually stop you if it is 5 MPH over. My wife got issued a warning for "pushing" 60 in a 55.

It's their discretion. When a group of cars is speeding, they can just randomly pick a car to stop. With out of state license plates, you probably stood out a little more.

I'd say pay the fine and chalk it up as a learning experience.

[doctorgonzo]

I'd probably just pay it. The "I wasn't the only one speeding" excuse almost never works, because whether you were speeding all by yourself or you were with 100 other speeders, you were breaking the law. Sure, they arbitrarily picked on you, but they have to pick on somebody and it's a crapshoot.

Whenever I travel out of state and I don't know the area, I drive at or only slightly above the posted speed limit. If it is 70, I set my cruise control to 70. Who cares if other drivers are whipping past me at 85? They will be the ones pulled over, and there is no way you can be cited for driving too slowly if you are going the posted speed limit. Getting home 6% faster usually isn't worth the possiblity of paying hundreds for that privilege. I haven't gotten a speeding ticket yet, and I plan on keeping it that way.

[reboot]

My lawyer once told me, "Fight EVERY ticket, no matter how guilty you feel."
The idea is that most of the time, the arresting officer won't even show up in court, and if he does, you only have to cast "reasonable doubt" in the judge's mind.
He's NEVER paid a speeding ticket in his life, even ones he gets on photo radar, or camera controlled intersections, and he's definitely a lead foot type.
I've taken his advice more than once, and have since not had to pay a dime.

[Mr N8]

As for the dressing professionally thing, sdkfz, I was actually dressed nicely. We were stopping at a nice hotel in St Louis that night, so we didn't want to walk in looking like we belonged at the Motel 6. I had on Dockers Khakis, nice AE shoes, and a nice looking sweater. The officers seemed to look relieved when I got out of the car. I took off my sunglasses before leaving the car, so as not to look intimidating. I get a lot of people saying that my car looks like a "Mexican" car, so I also wonder if that had something to do with it. I have prejudices towards Mexicans, as a couple of my really good friends are Mexican.

I do admit that I was speeding, and it is against the law. I guess I just need to slow down in places I am not too familiar with. In OK, the speeding tickets are deferred off record if they are 10mph or under, or at the officers disgretion. He told me that he was deferring it off of my record, and it was also stated on the ticket.

I want to fight it, and I think I could, but it would cost me more to fight it, than it would to just send a check.

[ylen13]

Originally posted by doctorgonzo Whenever I travel out of state and I don't know the area, I drive at or only slightly above the posted speed limit. If it is 70, I set my cruise control to 70. Who cares if other drivers are whipping past me at 85? They will be the ones pulled over, and there is no way you can be cited for driving too slowly if you are going the posted speed limit. Getting home 6% faster usually isn't worth the possiblity of paying hundreds for that privilege. I haven't gotten a speeding ticket yet, and I plan on keeping it that way.

Actually u can be sited for going to slow.Well i was driving on 101 from los angeles to san francisco and the traffic was doing 80 with me doing 70. got pulled over and was given a warning for holding back traffic. You have to drive at the speed the traffic is going.Even if it mean going 20 miles over speed limit or more.


To the person that got the ticket

Pay it, and get a radar detector. No it will not totally safe u from getting tickets.Not all cops use radar detectors but the ones that do,which are alot,will give enough time to slow down to speed limit.

[doctorgonzo]

Originally posted by ylen13 Actually u can be sited for going to slow.Well i was driving on 101 from los angeles to san francisco and the traffic was doing 80 with me doing 70. got pulled over and was given a warning for holding back traffic. You have to drive at the speed the traffic is going.Even if it mean going 20 miles over speed limit or more.

Now that is a ticket I would fight. Maybe the laws are different in CA, but that is just a ridiculous ticket. Speed limits are there for a reason, and making it simultaneously illegal to speed and illegal to not speed defies all logic. Going 40 on an interstate is one thing; doing the speed limit while idiots whiz by around you is quite another.

[sdkfz]

N8, I meant to look professional in court should you go that route, having no way of knowing how you look I was just trying to give some advice, no ill will meant.

[Computer Hobbyist]

I suggest you contact a lawyer in the county in Oklahoma where you received the ticket. See if the lawyer can get the ticket amended to a non-moving or non-point violation (probably twice the money plus the attorney fee.) Don't think for a moment the states don't share speeding ticket information and that Wisconson won't make sure the ticket "goes against" your license. You might get lucky, but I wouldn't bet on it.

CH

[wilder]

I would say that if it happened in your home town and you wouldn't have to go through the expence and trouble, fight it in court. A hundred dollars is alot of money, and it would keep your driving record clean. It is a technicality you could most likely get off on. Drug dealers walk away every day for those very same reasons.

But Since it was so far away, I'd just chalk it up to experience and pay it.

I feel like I've been used as part of the OK state patrol thanksgiving fung raiser, ....

You should feel good...
you may have helped feed alot of hungry kids, and you made it back alive to tell about it.

[juppy]

Hi N8,

Sorry to hear you got a ticket from one of our cops. Normally around here, you *usually* won't get a ticket unless you're going at least 10mph over or more (note the asterisks around the word usually. We have our share of jerks that'll give you one for 5 over too). During the holidays though, they do put out more of a presence on the highways and pull more people over because they're trying to keep the amount of fatality accidents down. I'd probably just pay it and go on because, like you said, it'll cost you more to travel back down here and fight it than to just pay it and go on.
One more thing. Getting a radar detector as ylen13 suggested is not a real good idea here in Oklahoma. Don't get me wrong, I've had one for 14 years now, BUT, in Oklahoma, if they pull you over and were actually only going to give you a warning, if they see a radar detector hanging in your car, you just changed their minds and you're getting a ticket instead. The reason I've never got a ticket is not due to having a radar detector, it's due to the fact that I don't break the speed limits very often (I've never been pulled over since I started driving, actually. *Knocks on wood*). They don't like detectors, and radar jammers are totally banned here. We're one of only a few states that do this. Next time you see an ad for a radar jammer and how the company will "Pay the ticket if you get one while using the jammer", read the fine print; it'll say something about "except in Oklahoma, blah, blah, blah......and list a few other states.

[glc]

If the ticket is "deferred" or whatever they call it - as long as it doesn't go on your record, just pay it. It's gonna cost you a lot more than $100 to fight it - and there is no guarantee that you will get off if you do. Look at it as a donation to the OK public safety program.

[Reedimus]

I'd definitely pay it. think of it as a tax. or better yet, a toll. you have probably paid many thousands of dollars in taxes so far this year already. what's another 100 bucks? it may seem different, because they are accusing you of doing something wrong, but you, they, and everyone else knows you weren't a threat to anyone. They just had to say you were doing something wrong because people would get mad if they had to pay a large enough toll to raise the kind of money that tickets such as yours raise.

[RayH]

Mr N8 Were you had? Ya. But what are you going to do about it? It'll cost you more than it's worth. But the bottom line is that it doesn't matter they were picky. You were in the wrong. Just be glad they'll keep it off your record.

In California, the CHP gives at least 3 miles to compensate for an error on their speedometer, but are instructed to stop at 5 over. But they usually wait until 10 over to "make sure" and deduct 5 MPH.

In San Francisco, there is a 6 lane street named Geneva Ave whose speed limit is 40 MPH. About 1/2 mile of this street is in the adjacent county. It is 25 MPH in that county, although the street is still 6 lanes and if you don't know it you'd think you were still in SF.

Like all good motorists, people are probably doing 45-50 on Geneva in SF. The uninitiated are still traveling that fast over the county line in the 25 MPH zone. The adjacent county makes big bucks tagging people for being 25 over the speed limit.

If you make it past that stretch, 1/2 later, you're back in the 40 MPH San Francisco!

[LawyerRon]

"I want to contest this, since it was a speed trap at the bottom of a big hill, and I was not the fastest moving vehicle in the area."

Nate, you're a nice guy so I'm gonna give you a bit of advice: don't use the aforementioned quote as your defense.

Computer Hobbyist's advice is right-on IMO.

But these matters have to be balanced against other factors; do you have other tickets? Will your insurance go up? Can you afford the Attorney? Is it cheaper to pay the ticket. Do you have the time?

[Mr N8]

Thanks for the advice. I wan't going to use that as my reason in court, it was my own personal reason. Anyway, I think that I am just going to pay it. I haven't had any other tickets, and from what I have been told by the officer and the clerk, this kind of ticket is just like someone said, I was paying a toll. I am pretty confident that it won't do anything to my insurance, and I really don't have the time to drive 15 hours to take care of it. If I did, I don't think I would be allowed back home, since my court date turns out to be on our anniversary.

Anyway, I guess I should have taken the toll road, it would have presumably been cheaper.

[ktkendall]

I also got pulled over for going to slow in California. Was coming Westbound on the 91 Freeway just west of Anaheim Hills on that curve, was in middle lane and was slowing down to try to shift into right lane as my exit was coming up fast. Traffic was extremely heavy and as I was still trying to negociate a right lane shift, Motorcycle cop pulled right next to me in far left lane and signaled for me to pull over and wrote me up for too slow, impeding traffic, under 40mph.

[smokealotapotimus]

My brother just got a $50 ticket last night, apparently for being parked in front our house for more than 48 hours. Bunch of crap "new" city bylaw, or something... Him being pissed right off would probably have been an understatement. I would like to know how it is possible to charge someone for that... especially when the cop judged it by looking at the snow, didn't mark the tires or anything.

[ylen13]

Originally posted by smokealotapotimus My brother just got a $50 ticket last night, apparently for being parked in front our house for more than 48 hours. Bunch of crap "new" city bylaw, or something... Him being pissed right off would probably have been an understatement. I would like to know how it is possible to charge someone for that... especially when the cop judged it by looking at the snow, didn't mark the tires or anything.

was their a parking restriction sign posted?

[smokealotapotimus]

No there wouldn't be.

It was parked directly in front of our own house on a residentual street. The only reason I could think of for a bylaw like that is to stop people from parking their old junkers that don't run on the street. But this is a '95 Nissan 200SX in perfect condition, which is a beautiful car. It was parked properly and there were no complaints from anyone about it being parked there.

We weren't the only ones ticketed either, there were a number of other vehicles ticketed in my area as well. Even a brand new Dodge pickup just down the street from me.

[ZANEY123]

we have townships that you have to have a parking sticker for the township you are in and if you dont and park overnight you get a ticket,,,and there is no sign posted there..

Zaney123

[Parangles]

Why don't you guys give me some ideas how to fix my computers instead of chatting about speeding tickets !!! I got 2 threads running with no replies ! Cheez !
Don't talk to me about speeding tickets- just got one for doing
29 mph in the parking lot of a Federal Building which I didn't know is 15 mph nationwide, and does not need to be posted. Cop hiding in the bushes making lots of money. I paid the $75 and only got good advice similar to Reboots too late. Don't pay unless you have to- Its just another form of taxation.
Chris.

[Tuf]

It is almost impossible to beat a speeding ticket in Oklahoma. Depending on the County you recieved the ticket in you may have to make two appearances to fight it. I guarantee if you plead not guilty the Officer will be there or they will postpone it until he can be.

But really if you want to keep it off your record and minimize the cost call the DA's Office in the appropriate County and see if you can negociate the penalty. Often times they will reduce it even more if you pay it before the Court Date and don't make them put it on the Dockett. I agree it is sort of a scam here. You could drive fifty thousand miles speeding like a mad man here and never get a ticket or just have bud luck like you did. I really don't think they tend to pick on out of state tags here in Oklahoma.

Good Luck with it and sorry you got a bad tase of our state while you were passing through.

And yes I have had my share of tickets here. And No I wasn't happy either. If you are friendly when you call they will probably drop it all togethor but they will charge you sixty to eighty dollars to do so.

[mbossman2]

The old jail house adage comes to mind: "If you do the crime, do the time"

See if you can work something out, call the DA and see if they will change it over to a $90 parking ticket (or whatever happy horse charge they change moving violations to in OK to settle the case)

[Hot Rod]

Originally posted by smokealotapotimus My brother just got a $50 ticket last night, apparently for being parked in front our house for more than 48 hours. Bunch of crap "new" city bylaw, or something... Him being pissed right off would probably have been an understatement. I would like to know how it is possible to charge someone for that... especially when the cop judged it by looking at the snow, didn't mark the tires or anything.

Does your town have a parking ordinance in effect during the winter. This town that I used to live in did. You had to park on the even side of the street on even days and odd side of the streets the odd days or something like that. It was to make room for the snowplows so each side of the street would be assured to be plowed within 2 days. They could ticket you if you were parked on the wrong side on the wrong day.

[doctorgonzo]

A $50 ticket for parking in the wrong spot is nothing. Around here, if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, especially during a snow emergency, it will cost you at least $140.

[raftero]

i have been driving for 55 years ,could have been stopped thousands of times for speeding, have been stopped maybe 10 times and only given two tickets.i knew better than to speed so i just thought how lucky i had been and paid, i dont feel sorry for anyone who is ticketed for speeding,they took a chance and it didn''t work out.grin and pay and decide next time if it's its worth a hundred dollars for the extra time you may save by speeding,thats my advice.

[sunflyer]

Hi, it reminds me of a notice in AAA brochure a few years back to
avoid OK because of speed tickets given to out-of-state cars. Are they back at it or just a coincidence?
In the future stay away if possible.

John