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Speeding Tickets - and the protesting therof.
Legoman05
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So - Was driving this morning on the freeway, cruising speed at 70-1. (Speed limit 65) I come around a bend, and there's a speed trap, not 200 feet past the beginning of a construction area - speed limit 55.
I get clocked going around this turn at 74 (A little high, but still within the bracket, that even if I were clocked at 70 - it'd still be the same fine.) In the fine state of Ohio - speeding in a construction area at 10 o clock on a Saturday morning obviously means that you're endangering the lives of the construction workers.
The ticket cost is $130 , doubled for the construction zone.
While I can probably afford a $260 hit - there are some things that this poor college student would rather spend his money on. Like:
Tuition.
Rent.
Etc.
So - do I bother going to court with this one, or just put in a few extra hours at work for the next couple weeks?
I get clocked going around this turn at 74 (A little high, but still within the bracket, that even if I were clocked at 70 - it'd still be the same fine.) In the fine state of Ohio - speeding in a construction area at 10 o clock on a Saturday morning obviously means that you're endangering the lives of the construction workers.
The ticket cost is $130 , doubled for the construction zone.
While I can probably afford a $260 hit - there are some things that this poor college student would rather spend his money on. Like:
Tuition.
Rent.
Etc.
So - do I bother going to court with this one, or just put in a few extra hours at work for the next couple weeks?
Legoman05 on
0
Posts
CHESS!
Pay off the ticket and learn your lesson. There are much worse things that could've happened, i.e. you could've actually hit a construction worker.
Are you saying that you couldn't see the signs indicating the reduced limit until it was too late to reduce your speed? If the speed trap was placed right at the start of the area where the reduced limit applied, you could possibly make the argument that you weren't able to safely reduce your speed in time. Assuming this is the case, it might be worth adding that since you're a student with limited finances, the fine is disproportionate.
If you knew about the reduced limit, and simply couldn't slow down for the speed trap in time, you're probably pretty much fucked.
Yes and no. Can't tell from the OP, but some areas ARE set up so you don't have enough time to safely slow down when the limit changes. If that's true, you can get it reduced in court.
If its not, see if they have a defensive driving class open. Its usually cheaper and removes the hit to your insurance, etc premiums.
He was still going 74 in a 65 when the speed trap hit.
All you can really do is go to court, appeal to the judge, he'll very likely lower the ticket and maybe even extend the period you have to pay the fine because, as you mentioned, you're a student with an income problem.
Electronic composer for hire.
If you're in a rather large city, there could be some attorney's who specialize in traffic offenses. I know the ones that I saw during my time in Houston were (around $40) and you'd end up getting off when a non-moving violation and a fine. Total, you would be paying less than you owe now.
Or you could take it to court and hope you get a very, very nice judge.
Was it Highway Patrol or City police? If it was City, look up the city's court clerk. You may be able to defer the ticket (and court date) in favor of traffic school.
Also, road construction does take place on Saturday mornings since there's typically less traffic then, so it's pretty likely you would endanger their lives by speeding at that time.
In other words, do it. When you go to Court, you usually just talk to a representative of the particular police department that pulled you over. Explain the situation. They will barter with you. They don't want to waste their time and the city/county/state's money on a stupid little speeding ticket. And neither do you, nor does any taxpayer. They want to offer you a deal that will make you just pay the fine instead of drawing it out. They will cut you a deal except for the most egregious of circumstances (and even then, they will at the very least listen).
Two things help to have it go your way. One, dress nice. It both shows respect for the court and the officials you'll talk to, and says that you're a respectful individual. Two, if you're younger (teenagerish), bring your mom. Every little bit helps.
As for the moralists here, it has nothing to do with "being a man" or "admitting fault." Although there is a direct correlation between fatal accidents and speed, there is no correlation between the act of speeding and being immoral. Everyone speeds. Including every poster in this thread.
This was 10 AM on a Saturday morning, when all construction at this particular interstate is all night-crew stuff, and I was cruising, speed of traffic, at 70-72 miles per hour. I happened to be in the left hand lane when I came around the bend, staring right into the radar gun and a sharply reduced speed limit. Gun's margin of error clocks me at 74 in a 55.
I wouldn't have been so pissed about it had I not felt completely and utterly entrapped by the situation.
I went in to talk to someone to find out how much my fine would be (Website said $130 but varies basically - another reason I was pissed off, that they didn't even tell me how much it would be until I was in the office) and the clerk did not apply the "LOL x2 MULTIPLIER!" So, I'm not particularly happy about the loss of a car payment when it comes time to buy a new car later this summer - but at least I'll be able to make rent this month. I went ahead and paid the fine - thanks for the advice about negotiating tickets in court - hopefully I'll not have to use it, but I'll keep it in mind.
Now - the question - when, and how badly, will this smack up my insurance?
If it is, probably not that much. My second ticket is what fucked me.
Also, you should have the option to go to traffic school so your insurance doesn't even catch wind of this.
Yeah - first.
How, exactly, does the insurance find out? I went to one of those rate-quote things, and the only things they asked about were 'major violations'. This category included things like vehicular manslaughter.
Major violations (things from Vehicular Manslaughter to OWI to Reckless Driving) cause your insurance to go up more depending on the violation, but minor violations cause it to rise as well. That's why a lawyer would have negotiated with the state to have this turned into a non-moving violation (something like littering) because those don't get reported to the DMV and thus, insurance never knows about.
Well, see... what this tells me is that you knew there was a construction zone there in the first place if you knew the workers would not be there, therefore you couldn't feel "trapped" knowing what was coming up. What's the normal speed limit on the highway? If you were above it, especially in a curve, you pratically deserved what was coming for you. Also, a lot of construction companies pay workers overtime these days to work on weekends, due to more and more cities enforcing deadlines and bonuses for finishing early (and it also gives them a buffer zone for rainouts and such).
Try and defer to traffic school, but if they don't let you, just pay the ticket. Work the extra hours. Congratulations, you've learned your lesson. Now stop speeding. Going an extra 15mph only saves you about 4 minutes on a trip.
No one ever claimed there was, dipshit. We claimed there's a direct correlation between speeding and getting a fucking ticket, as your stupid ass should perhaps have figured out after getting one of your "many tickets"