bguernsey

I got ticketed last night in my S2000 for driving 80 in a 55. Its a $135 ticket, plus a mandatory court appearance. I've been told that 25 over the speed limit in Kentucky is considered wreckless driving and they may threaten to revoke my license if I don't accept 'driving school'. I'd be perfectly happy to go to driving school if it was at the Mid-Ohio speedway!

Before you jump to flaming me, I think I deserve a ticket. I was speeding, but wreckless it was not. I was on a wide 3 lane freeway with no traffic in sight. By my estimation there was 1 mile ahead of me and 1 mile behind me with no cars. There was a 5-6 foot concrete divider in the center of the freeway which I could not see over. Who in this situation could resist turning up the juice a little?

The cop was wrecklessly parked on the inside of the freeway, next to the concrete divider, around a wide curve such that he was hidden from view until you approached the curve. I immediately braked and slowed to around 65 as I pased him. He waited over 20 seconds to come after me. I saw him pull out and drive for a while about 10 car lengths until he decided to pull me over.

I don't mind paying the ticket so much as having the wreckless driving charge increase my insurance. It looks like I'll have to hire a lawyer to get the charges reduced.

What really bugs me is that I rarely speed over 70 mph on the freeway. The route I typically take home each day goes through construction where the speed limit drops to 45mph and people drive 30. It takes 60 minutes for me to travel 25 miles each day. So when I had a late dinner meeting on the other side of town and found the freeway there completely void of traffic at 8:30pm, I naturally took advantage of it..

Speeding should be fined...especially in crowded stretches of road or construction, but its not justice to sentence someone to indefinitely inflated insurance rates for driving 25 mph over the speed limit on an empty 3 lane freeway.

I think I'll be buying a V1.

-B

21wS2K

I highly suggest a lawyer.

JonBoy

I was also nailed for reckless driving when I first got my license. Some guy ran me off the road and I tried to chase him down to get his license number. A cop saw us and nabbed me...

Anyways.

You can beat this ticket. "Reckless", as I was made to understand, is exactly that - reckless, driving without consideration for yours or anyone elses safety, taking risks for no reason, etc, etc. Driving on an empty 3-lane freeway with no traffic at 80mph in a serious sports car is not reckless. If you are polite and clear with the judge, s/he will probably either a) drop the charge or b) reduce it to a speeding ticket. Also, you're exactly at 25mph over the limit - you're not OVER 25mph over the limit, so it shouldn't constitute reckless driving. If you do a bit of research (call the police station or department of motor vehicles and ask) you should be able to clarify that point. Unless it says OVER 25mph over the limit, you're clean.

Of course, if the cop lies, you're screwed. When I was charged with it, the cop said I was AHEAD of the car I was chasing and in the opposite lane.... He also said I was drag racing and that I knew the people in the other car (a tiny old beat up Chev Cavalier). I was on my way to work at 7:00pm in the dark on a "normal" four lane (two each way) road .

In short, keep your story simple, bring a copy of the statute regarding reckless driving for reference (if it "proves" you to be right), and stay polite. Attitude doesn't go over well at all. Also, hope the cop is honest and doesn't embellish facts. Don't let him say "Well, he was actually doing 85, but I said 80 on the ticket" because you're there for doing 80, not 85. Watch for things like that.

Good luck!

QPhox4

Don't count on a V-1 to have prevented this. I hate completely open roads. With no one in front of you for the cop to "strobe," the newer instant-on radars will come up and bite you before you can react. I slow it down when I can't see what's in front of me, and there's no other traffic. Just a word of advice.

Good luck in court. I got a ticket once for 85 in a 65, and I was only going 70. Went to court, and it was the cop's word vs. mine & the wife's. Guess who won. That lying sack of sh1T! Watch out for Madison County in north Florida, on I-10. Talk about your crooked, back-woods, hillbilly justice system. I think the judge was the cop's father and grandfather, if you get what I mean

RU2KREDY

First of all - EVERY speeding ticket should be a mandatory court appearance, as demanded by YOU!! You should always go to court for every speeding ticket, even if (as it is in Milwaukee Co.) to just show up and be offered defective speedometer or some other lower non-moving violation charge. Get into the courts, clog them up and make speeding tickets as a source of county/muni/city revenue a thing of the past. Courts aren't set up to deal with 90% of people fighting speeding tickets, but they are set up for 5% - which is about the number that actually do fight a ticket rather than just paying it.

For your specific case first of all write a letter to the court or county sherrif, etc. re: your ticket and request "discovery". This request will get all of the information they have on your case INCLUDING most importantly a copy of the BACK of your ticket where the officer wrote thier notes. Many times things there are things written that can be used against them. Next do some research on line or in a library - go and look up the statute the you violated on the ticket and get a copy of it. As noted above if you were going exactly 25 over and the statute states OVER 25MPH over the limit you may have a case based on that. You may also get the exact wording of what they consider wreckless. From there, you can determine what to do - a couple of options would be 1) fight it all they way and try to get the ticket dropped 2) appear and hope they plead it down to something lesser - hopefully a NON moving violation. If the county/state's case looks pretty good against you, #2 might be the best route.

Lastly, if you do get a lawyer (if you go route #2 I doubt a lawyer will get anything better than you could yourself so save the $$) make sure they don't just show up and plead down to something you could have gotten yourself. Go here - http://www.motorists.org/ and check out Fight your Ticket and Traffic Attorney referrals section. They've got a list of attorneys who will fight for you and aren't just after a quick $100 or so.

QPhox4 is right, a V-1 would have done nothing for you IN THIS SITUATION most likely unless the cop was a serious dolt and just left the radar on all the time. However, a V-1 (or any other detector) WILL help in determining patterns and how the law dogs in your area generally act. By me, almost all the sherrifs drive around with radar on constantly - even as they are just crusing - so even if I don't have the detector in the car I know they are shooting me. I still think detectors are an excellent investment - because we are going to speed. And the times that seem the most safe are the easiest for you to get caught.

Good luck, keep us posted. If nothing else others in your area will become aware of what they'll be offered if they head to court.

CoralDoc

I'm glad that you were "wreckless"; sorry to hear about the ticket though. The other suggestions are good ones, take it to court and be polite and honest with the judge.

airgate

[QUOTE]Originally posted by bguernsey
[B]He waited over 20 seconds to come after me.

RU2KREDY

[QUOTE]Originally posted by airgate
[B]

DarioManfretti

Hey guys the law is the law. He admits to going 80 MPH. Some people might consider that reckless whether there is anyone on the road or not. And the fact that it is in a sports car means diddley squat. What if a deer had jumped in front of him. Doing 80 would surely cause an accident while trying to avoid hitting it. At 55 he might have a chance.
Believe me, I am always tempted to wind her up on a clean open road at night. But, let's be honest, you're taking a chance.

Euclid

you got that right... As I always say. When you're driving late at night.. The only people on the road are you and them(cops).