Speeding ticket.. help please

ok heres the setup..

i live in california. my speedometer is broken so i always just go with the flow of traffic, and just guess if im all by myself. so im following my girlfriend home so its like (other driver) -> (me) -> (her) -> and i can tell shes going a little fast but im right behind her and the other driver is right behind me so im just going with the flow.

i was just about to slow down a little when i hear BEEP BEEP BEEP (radar detector) and i look over and theres a highway patrol driving along going the opposite way, i SLAM on my brakes and lose like 5-10mph but as the CHP drives by he flashes his red and blues.

gf takes the next offramp and i follow her, cop appartently flipped a bitch and came back so he was right behind me at the redlight on the offramp, light turns green, i start driving, so does she, cop turns his lights on and gets on his loudspeaker and is like "RED CAR PULL OVER, BLUE CAR PULL OVER" i had my windows down and stereo off and i could barely hear him, gf had windows up and music loud so she didnt hear anything, she turns on the next street to pull over but the cop follows me cuz i went straight.

im pulled over and he walks to my window and i yank my radar detector off my window and shove it under my seat, he asks for my license and i give it to him and he pockets it then says "what do you think it means when an officer flashes his lights at you?" and i say "it means pull over, like i did" and he says "FOLLOW ME". right after i start to follow him gf calls my cell and says "im so sorry you got pulled over" and im like "im following the cop, hes looking for you" and then the cop pulls into a parking lot and walks to my window and says "does she have a cell phone?" i say "yea im on the phone with her" and he runs over and yells into the phone "TELL HER TO GET OVER HERE OR SHES UNDER ARREST" so like 3 mins later she shows up and he talks to her.

in the end my ticket was written for "80+ in a 55" and hers was "85+ in a 55" cuz i slammed my brakes. her mom called the police station and found out that she also has a charge for reckless endangerment and a citation for music too loud (guess the officer assumed that because she said she couldnt hear him over his loud speaker).

this is my 2nd ticket but im doing traffic school for the first one this weekend. i heard that your 2nd ticket costs like twice as much as your first one, but im doing traffic school so will i get billed for the double price or the same price as the first ticket. i was thinking i'd get charged for the 2nd ticket because i got the 2nd one before i did traffic school for the first one.

do you get your license taken away for reckless endangerment (30mph over the limit)? also.. the car right behind me didnt get pulled over and he was going the same speed as me and my girl....

Paragraphs are your friend :)

edited... better?

I think you still need to make friends with punctuation :p and capitalisation too :D

my god people, this dude asked......."do you get your license taken away for reckless endangerment (30mph over the limit)? also.. the car right behind me didnt get pulled over and he was going the same speed as me and my girl...."

Allow me, depends, i would say you will get your license pulled. I know your in california, but a friend of mine was doing 12mph over the limit and got his jerked in ohio. thats besides the fact, 30mph over the speed limit is pretty damn fast. Also, are you going to say that your speedometer didn't work in court? You may hurt yourself if you say thats your excuse. As far as the car behind you, well too bad man, the highway patrol caught you not them, thats just the way it is. I have heard of people following another car at the same speed and the follower get pulled over and not the leader. :rolleyes: face it, you have a red car. Isn't it said that red cars are most likely to get pulled over????
:bandit:

Actually, I was thinking about this story last night.....

How the hell can a cop get an actual speed reading off your car when he is travelling in the opposite direction, does his radar gear take into consideration his speed relative to yours?

Regardless, I am unsympathetic to people that knowlingly exceed the speed limit and then cry because they got a ticket.

I wouldn't be surprised if you lost your license over that kind of speed. Blaming faulty equipment won't help the least bit. If you don't lose your license, you need to get your car back in proper working condition and stick to the posted speeds and thank your lucky stars.

You are also looking at skyrocketing insurance premiums.

girlfriends car is red, mines the silver one..

i was flowing with traffic...

cops in california arent required to use radar guns anymore, they are allowed to estimate your speed, theres not even a spot on the ticket anymore for radar readout

Originally posted by 90gs
girlfriends car is red, mines the silver one..

i was flowing with traffic...

cops in california arent required to use radar guns anymore, they are allowed to estimate your speed, theres not even a spot on the ticket anymore for radar readout

What a load of bullshit!!!

"ummm, I don't like that silver car, it looks like it's going 85 in a 55"

er i meant blue car, mines blue hers is red... ya i cant stand pigs.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid61/p1855c4f35516a44a33557fba7fb034fb/fc2615d5.jpg

Picture title: Irony

they get to estimate your speed?! what a fuckin load of bullshit!!!:zx11pisse

yea theres not even a spot for radar readout on the tickets here anymore.. all it says is "Posted Speed" "Speed Approx" and "Safe Speed" (safe speed is probably for like icy roads so u might get a ticket for going the speed limit it it wasnt safe to go that fast)

That sounds like some liberal bullshit to me. They should be required to use radar or it's laser equivilant. I think the law here in WV reads that radar must be used under most circumstances unless the cop travels behind you for 5 miles with his dashcam recording (dashcam MUST have current speed recorded onto the tape, along with time, date, and something else). Most departments here have radar now though. Still yet though, you were speeding, and faulty spedometers are no excuse.

behind u recording for 5 miles, that seems a little excessive but if it keeps ppl from getting stupid tickets then its all good.

get a lawyer

Originally posted by Prelewd
get a lawyer

Can't see a lawyer being able to help.If you think it's o.k. to drive a car with a busted speedo and guess your speed,don't come crying when a cop guesses your speed a bit better than you did.

Originally posted by taranaki


Can't see a lawyer being able to help.If you think it's o.k. to drive a car with a busted speedo and guess your speed,don't come crying when a cop guesses your speed a bit better than you did.

Lawyers do know backdoor laws though (like if a cop doesn't file the ticket within 48 hours, it can be dropped, no matter what the charge), and there are some lawyers that will get the ticket dropped, or pay it. I would rather pay 400 dollars for a lawyer to fight a 350 dollar ticket than have it on my record.

Originally posted by 90gs
girlfriends car is red, mines the silver one..

cops in california arent required to use radar guns anymore, they are allowed to estimate your speed, theres not even a spot on the ticket anymore for radar readout

What the fuck? You guys have serious issues out there.

Last summer I got nailed on the July long weekend coming home from Niagara Falls. It was late at night, I was cruisin at over 180 Kph (100+ Mph), nobody ahead or behind me, when I noticed out of nowhere a car really gaining on me. Turns out it was the good olde O.P.P. - the guy had paced me in his Crown Vic for a few minutes from "less than a kilometer"(1/2 mile) away. And I thought this was bogus when I heard it, like "how the fuck reliable are those shitty Ford's speedo's with the steering wheels that lock up under heavy cornering (anyone else ever hear about that?).

I didn't say that to the cop because I knew I was in big shit - he came to my car and I was just waiting for him to tell me he got me going God knows how fast(I wasn't exactly sure myself). So when he said he paced me at 160 Kph I was a bit relieved, but still in shit. This guy was cool thank God and bumped me down to 149 Kph (90 Mph) in a posted 100 Kph (60 Mph), exactly 1 Kph away from getting an automatic suspension and a careless driving ticket (big time misery).

GETTING TO THE POINT: I ended up taking this ticket to court, met with both the prosecutor and the Cop again, who were both cool dudes, but couldn't reduce the charge anymore because he already had(he had to record that he already dropped it from 160 to 149 in a 100). They both said even the judge would never agree to a second reduction.

THE POINT: I don't know how your highway traffic offences work in CA, but take the ticket to court! The cops up here get overtime for showing up in court but you could get him on a day he can't make it in and have the charges dropped. Take it to court!! Talk to your prosecutor before the trial and ask him to kindly reduce the fine(give him a load of shit how you're a student and have education debts - they love that) - find the cop before trial and ask him to kindly reduce the fine. You'd be surprised, cops actually respect it(at least up here) when you take a ticket to court because A: they're getting paid extra, and B: you're showing that you are responsible and mature enough to actually take the time to do something about this ticket.

But don' t even think of fighting him in court cause you don't have a chance. If the prosecutor or cop won't do anything for you, you still will (or at least should I hope) get a chance to ask the judge for mercy - maybe you will get 90 extra days to pay the fine, maybe he will reduce just the fine or better yet the charge. Worst case senario even if nothing gets reduced - at least you've now tied that ticket up in court for several months! The minute you pay your ticket you are convicted. If its tied up in the courts its not on your record - this saved me several years ago when I had two tickets tied up in court and my insurance came up for renewal - my record was not the greatest but these tickets were not on - and I got a good rate for another year! By the time the next renewal came up and these 2 newest tickets were on, but one or two previous charges came off.



Take everything to court. For me it helped to get to know the local prosecutor by name. :)