Another Speeding Ticket Thread

DeathPrawn

So I was pulled over for a speeding ticket today. 74 in a 55 zone (thought it was a 65 zone and thought I had cruise control set to 70, both of which I told the cop).

There are a few things. The ticket was given in New York, but I go to school in Massachusetts. Going to court over the ticket would take me about 4 hours in driving time, and probably about $60 worth of gas. Arguing 'not guilty' is pretty stupid, since it is on paper that I thought I was going 70 in what turned out to be a 55 zone. He says the ticket's probably gonna be around $100, which if true is small enough that I won't lose too much sleep about it. What do I have to gain by going to court?

I'm also worried about stuff like insurance. Does arguing to get things reduced help me out here at all? My license and registration and all that are from CA - since they're different states, is there a chance things'll just go away after I pay the state?

VisionOfClarity

DeathPrawn wrote: »

So I was pulled over for a speeding ticket today. 74 in a 55 zone (thought it was a 65 zone and thought I had cruise control set to 70, both of which I told the cop).

There are a few things. The ticket was given in New York, but I go to school in Massachusetts. Going to court over the ticket would take me about 4 hours in driving time, and probably about $60 worth of gas. Arguing 'not guilty' is pretty stupid, since it is on paper that I thought I was going 70 in what turned out to be a 55 zone. He says the ticket's probably gonna be around $100, which if true is small enough that I won't lose too much sleep about it. What do I have to gain by going to court?

I'm also worried about stuff like insurance. Does arguing to get things reduced help me out here at all? My license and registration and all that are from CA - since they're different states, is there a chance things'll just go away after I pay the state?

Pay the fine. You're lucky you weren't given a ticket for reckless driving. They're not going to plea down a ticket this large. You shouldn't be affected points wise and if this is your first ticket your insurance shouldn't go too wacky either. I'd be surprised if the ticket was only $100 though. You can look that up online.

RUNN1NGMAN

From my experience, there is a small chance that they will allow you to plead guilty to a non-moving violation that has the same fine. I once got a speeding ticket and they let me plead to double parking. Same fine, no points.

Usually you can write to the court rather than appearing, if you are from out of state. That's what I did.

The other option is if it was over 20 mph over the limit, they might let you plead to 19 mph over to avoid the reckless driving. You're already there so it's not an issue.

Scrublet

Check your state laws. I don't know what VisionOfClarity's talking about...in almost every state speeding ticket = points. The points are what drives your insurance up. But it won't be THAT bad for a first offense.

From Runn1ngman's post...that is true FOR YOUR STATE. In my state, reckless driving happens to be 15+ over. State laws are very different. You can try writing to court and it may help.

The one useful thing I can suggest is to see if there is a deferral program. Many states offer an incentive to drive safe kind of deal where you can keep your first ticket invisible to insurance if you pay more money and don't get another for a certain time period. Usually you have to have a clean record, and it may not apply to a 15mph ticket.

Grimm

Scrublet wrote: »

Check your state laws. I don't know what VisionOfClarity's talking about...in almost every state speeding ticket = points. The points are what drives your insurance up. But it won't be THAT bad for a first offense.

From Runn1ngman's post...that is true FOR YOUR STATE. In my state, reckless driving happens to be 15+ over. State laws are very different. You can try writing to court and it may help.

The one useful thing I can suggest is to see if there is a deferral program. Many states offer an incentive to drive safe kind of deal where you can keep your first ticket invisible to insurance if you pay more money and don't get another for a certain time period. Usually you have to have a clean record, and it may not apply to a 15mph ticket.

I guess i just got lucky but both my speeding tickets ( 61 in a 45 zone and 93 in a 65 zone) were just written up as a failure to obey posted signs. I just had to pay $107 but the insurance company never found out about it since it didn't count as points on my license. Is there any way he could somehow get a hold of the cop and see if something like this could be done?

Bowen

Scrublet wrote: »

Check your state laws. I don't know what VisionOfClarity's talking about...in almost every state speeding ticket = points. The points are what drives your insurance up. But it won't be THAT bad for a first offense.

From Runn1ngman's post...that is true FOR YOUR STATE. In my state, reckless driving happens to be 15+ over. State laws are very different. You can try writing to court and it may help.

The one useful thing I can suggest is to see if there is a deferral program. Many states offer an incentive to drive safe kind of deal where you can keep your first ticket invisible to insurance if you pay more money and don't get another for a certain time period. Usually you have to have a clean record, and it may not apply to a 15mph ticket.

Generally, if you're out of state, they don't tend to count on your license. My friend was doing 90 in a 65 and got a speeding ticket with no points on his license because he was out of state. YMMV and he might be lying to my face and paying $1000 a month for insurance.

Scrublet

Again, state laws are different. In my SPECIFIC case, I got a nice healthy 14 mile/hr ticket in one state (and was lucky that was all it was). First, the points DID go on my license and my insurance increased. Secondly, I was not eligible for deferral in that state's program because of my previous speeding ticket in my own state. THIRD, since these tickets were in quick succession, based on my state's laws I got to do a mandatory defensive driving course (which I did online while drunk, awesome).

Grimm you must be lucky as shit.

This link provides some resource on specific state laws regarding reporting out-of-state speeding tickets, but is not comprehensive and could be out of date for all I know: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Will_a_speeding_ticket_from_another_state_affect_your_auto_insurance

VisionOfClarity

bowen wrote: »

Scrublet wrote: »

Check your state laws. I don't know what VisionOfClarity's talking about...in almost every state speeding ticket = points. The points are what drives your insurance up. But it won't be THAT bad for a first offense.

From Runn1ngman's post...that is true FOR YOUR STATE. In my state, reckless driving happens to be 15+ over. State laws are very different. You can try writing to court and it may help.

The one useful thing I can suggest is to see if there is a deferral program. Many states offer an incentive to drive safe kind of deal where you can keep your first ticket invisible to insurance if you pay more money and don't get another for a certain time period. Usually you have to have a clean record, and it may not apply to a 15mph ticket.

Generally, if you're out of state, they don't tend to count on your license. My friend was doing 90 in a 65 and got a speeding ticket with no points on his license because he was out of state. YMMV and he might be lying to my face and paying $1000 a month for insurance.

Actually I checked for NY and CA was not one of the ones it will definitely affect. It could but it's unlikely.

Bowen

VisionOfClarity wrote: »

bowen wrote: »

Scrublet wrote: »

Check your state laws. I don't know what VisionOfClarity's talking about...in almost every state speeding ticket = points. The points are what drives your insurance up. But it won't be THAT bad for a first offense.

From Runn1ngman's post...that is true FOR YOUR STATE. In my state, reckless driving happens to be 15+ over. State laws are very different. You can try writing to court and it may help.

The one useful thing I can suggest is to see if there is a deferral program. Many states offer an incentive to drive safe kind of deal where you can keep your first ticket invisible to insurance if you pay more money and don't get another for a certain time period. Usually you have to have a clean record, and it may not apply to a 15mph ticket.

Generally, if you're out of state, they don't tend to count on your license. My friend was doing 90 in a 65 and got a speeding ticket with no points on his license because he was out of state. YMMV and he might be lying to my face and paying $1000 a month for insurance.

Actually I checked for NY and CA was not one of the ones it will definitely affect. It could but it's unlikely.

Yeah my friend was visiting Ohio and got the ticket and said it didn't affect his here in NY. I'm sure he could be lying but I don't see what he'd gain from that.

Scrublet

That link I posted mentioned that NY only posts out-of-state if they're bad like reckless driving, etc. Of course, I'm pretty surprised Ohio cops didn't write the reckless for 25 over.

Bowen

Scrublet wrote: »

That link I posted mentioned that NY only posts out-of-state if they're bad like reckless driving, etc. Of course, I'm pretty surprised Ohio cops didn't write the reckless for 25 over.

Maybe they didn't because it was a rental. Not sure, but I was surprised too.