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  #1  
Old 11-19-2000, 10:41 PM
Aaron's Avatar
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Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
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Well, the Ohio Highway Patrol finally nabbed me in the 300SD! Was on the Turnpike on my way to South Bend, Indiana for the Notre Dame/Boston College game (GO IRISH!) and we were into some heavy cruising (for a diesel, that is) at around 100-110mph. Came over a little hump in the road and there he was sitting in the center, BS-ing with another patrolman when I saw him. Had the Passport on full volume but his laser must have been way to quick because my fuzzbuster didn't even register a tick! He pulled out behind me and the lights went on. Said he clocked me at 90mph in a 65. Oops! Automatic court appearance! Oh, did I mention maybe a 60 day license suspension?!?! Well, perhaps some of my lawyer buddies can help me out here. Anything 25mph over the limit is wreckless operation and that means four points! I have no points on my license now and believe it or not, have only been nabbed one other time in my life and that was way back when I was a minor. So my record is clear and has been for a very long time. My court date is the day after Thanksgiving so maybe the 'ol judge will take it easy on me. Wish me well boys. Oh, I was very much relieved when he told me he 'only' clocked me at 90! We had been cruising at around 110 for one helluva long time! He was probably shocked that he got a diesel going that fast! Well, at least Notre Dame won that day and we made it back home (a 250 mile trip) in about 3 hours and 5 minutes with my buddy at the helm. BTW, this buddy of mine got himself a 90 in a 65 just yesterday in his BMW Bavaria! Cops must really love us German car drivers. Good thing we weren't driving my 745i or the Jensen! I'd still be in jail!

------------------
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Aaron Greenberg
MB technician
Mercedes-Benz of Cincinnati
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'77 450SL
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  #2  
Old 11-20-2000, 12:04 AM
roas
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Sorry to hear that Aaron,

I have little advise in the Legal area except to always fight it, I can totally relate to your feelings! I have received to many tickets in the last year and a half, 3 for speeding to be exact! (highway only) Ouch!!! Needless to say, I've had surgury to remove the lead, now where lightweight shoes and stay out of top gear! J/K

That really hits you in the old wallet too, the insurance companies are right there with thier hands out as well, democracy.., you gotta love it! I consider myself a responsible citizen, I don't steal, lie or cheat, but if speeding where a felony, I'd be locked up for LIFE! That is one topic that really, "Chap's my hide!".

If you where to Poll the populace, I bet 4 out of 5 would admit to speeding at 55mph, and maybe 3 out of 5 would amit to speeding at over 65mph, and everyone (90%) would agree that limits should be raised. Now last time I checked (not recently), the laws on the books are supposed to reflect the will of the "People", not the Insurance Industry profit motive!

I mean, we are past the 60's when highway speed limits where really necessary. The average newer car can easily cruise at 80mph all day long, and with the advances in Emissions Technology it should be a non-issue. Yet we are still going at "training wheel" speeds, how funny.

Challenge it and you could get the ticket thrown out, I wish you LUCK!

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Ross
96 C280, Greenish Black
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  #3  
Old 11-20-2000, 02:25 AM
unkl300d's Avatar
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Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: San Francisco, Ca
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GOOD LUCK Aaron!
First time offense, just go to driving school
and have it dismissed. Bring Alka Seltzer
for the judge (post fowl meal relief) rather than an apple for the teacher!
Cheers.

------------------
1979 300D
133K miles
1989 300SE
1995 C280
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  #4  
Old 11-20-2000, 08:52 AM
LarryBible
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Aaron,

This should be very simple to beat. Simply demand a recount, if that doesn't come out in your favor, demand another and repeat the process until they give up or you find that you were actually going 65 MPH.

My daughter wants to go to Notre Dame. One of my best friends got his Bachelors at Notre Dame and his MBA at Boston College, it's a strange game for him I think, although he always claims to be for the Irish no matter what. When my daughter began talking Notre Dame, he started throwing gasoline on that fire. She's not Catholic, so I don't know where this got started unless she saw "Rudy" too many times.

It sure is fun going fast though.

Good luck,

------------------
Larry Bible
'01 C Class, Six Speed
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  #5  
Old 11-20-2000, 10:54 AM
Sasfied
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Got a speeding ticket for doing 75 in a 45 (late for a tee time). Got a lawyer and went to court trying to reduce reckless driving to speeding by offering to go to driving school. Judge said I could go to driving school if I wanted buy GUILTY non-the-less. I appealed on advice of Lawyer and verdict held. Its now off my record and ins co never found out--whew.

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Jerry O
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  #6  
Old 11-20-2000, 01:37 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: California
Posts: 209
Oh, those Ohio traffic laws are the worst! I grew up in Columbus, my first speeder got me a fine and a 30 day suspension. What I have learned since is to always fight your ticket. There are many books out there on the subject. Here in California, a wreckless operation charge is a misdemeanor. With a misdemeanor, the defendant can demand a trial by jury (remember, you can defend yourself, you can demand this yourself). The court will not want to send this to a jury trial due to cost (there still are REAl criminals out there), so you can use this as a means to plea-bargain, admitting quilt to a lesser charge (maybe just a speeding ticket - far fewer points). You can also sometimes get lucky and have the cop not show up to trial, and then the charge will be dropped, even on a misdemeanor. If I remember correctly, Ohio does not give the option of traffic school, so there is absolutely no good reason not to fight your ticket.

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Dave
1982 300TD Wagon 211,000 miles
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  #7  
Old 11-20-2000, 01:58 PM
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Location: Lansing, Michigan, USA
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He "clocked" you at 90 in a 65? YOu said yourself that you were going 100-110. Sounds like he saw you going "fast" and then estimated the speed.

I would fight it, because you know he didn't clock you for real.

Good luck.
Josh
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  #8  
Old 11-20-2000, 03:08 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: Orange, OH, USA
Posts: 56
Bummer, Aaron.

Be sure to ask specifics on what device you were clocked with; name of mfg, last date of calibration, and most important the standards used to calibrate. I have a buddy who got out of a ticket in Ohio because the radar unit was not within the calibration interval - his lawyer added that he could have gotten off if even the "standards" used to calibrate were not within their their calibration interval.

Ohio does have provision for remedial drivers course, but only for point reduction, and only once per lifetime . . . I burned mine back when I was a dumb young kid. Guess it helped - I have not had a ticket for several years. But I sure like to push it with my 300SD - seems to glide at about 90!

Good luck.
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  #9  
Old 11-20-2000, 04:28 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2000
Posts: 530
Get a real radar detector.

www.valentine1.com

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  #10  
Old 11-20-2000, 05:26 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: San Antonio, TX
Posts: 388
The best 2 I heard about getting out of a speeding ticket:

1) This one's from a Judge friend of mine, and he swears it works in Texas: When you get the ticket, insist that you be taken in to the station house. When there, demand that the radar gun be impounded for evidence. Most places won't want to lose the radar up until the trial...

2) I'm sure this is an urban legend. You know, a friend told me this story and swears he knows the guy that was pulled over by a sheriff's deputy. When the deputy asked him if he knew why he got pulled over, he replied, "yup, you want me to buy some tickets for the policeman's ball". To which the deputy replied: "I'm a sheriff's deputy, and we don't have balls"... The deputy then realized what he said, handed back the license and registration and walked away...

Bill Streep
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  #11  
Old 11-20-2000, 05:37 PM
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Location: Raleigh, NC, US
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I've heard that you can pay your fine by check and tack on a few extra dollars. The state cannot accept the over payment and must issue a refund for the difference. Don't cash the refund check. The transaction will not be complete until all funds are accounted for and therefore not only will points not show with the state but your insurance company will not be informed.
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  #12  
Old 11-20-2000, 05:40 PM
Q Q is offline
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Last time I checked, you would have to be pretty quick with the brake pedal to slow down in enough time to not be caught by a laser gun. A little math please professor:
Speed of light ~ 300 million meters / second
One mile = 1609 meters
Speed of light ~ 186,451 miles / second
If the cop was 1/4 mile away, you would have to hit the brakes and slow down in 1.34 microseconds. But WAIT, if the beam of light has already reached your car so that you were able to detect it, it must then be on its way back to the gun for measurement.

The reason radar detectors work is because radar guns cast a huge dispersion pattern. If you are to poor sucker out front, you are having to rely on the fact that the guns emit trace radiation when they are in standby mode. If you have a good detector, you can pick this up. If not, you are toast.

Best bet, make sure you have some sucker out in front of you to take the heat. I used to run with a detector, but since laser has become prevalent, you never know when you are going to get hit. It's not even worth spending the money on if you ask me.
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  #13  
Old 11-20-2000, 06:01 PM
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Location: Sherman Oaks, CA
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Maybe the reason your radar never alerted you is because he didn't have the radar on.

If I ever get pulled over, which is very rare, I always demand to see their radar detector. If it wasn't on, then its only a speed guestimate.

I agree with everyone else, fight it and fight it and fight it some more, until they get so sick of you fighting it that they just dismiss it.

Alon

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  #14  
Old 11-20-2000, 07:14 PM
makakio
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I'd fight this to the bitter end, especially if traffic school is not an option. If it IS, then I'd ask for a reduced fine (financial hardship or some tra-la-la) and go to school.

It's all about how much time you have and how you feel about, er, stretching the truth. I *wouldn't* (hypothetically speaking, of course) be against lying through my teeth and casting logical (and illogical) dispersions about the officer, his method of "clocking you", his refusal to let you see the gun, his general emphasis as to your real speed "your honor, he kept saying "ABOUT 90 mph"", etc etc. You could (and should) admit that you were speeding, but nowhere NEAR 90mph "heck your honor, my speedometer doesn't even GO that high". The last three times I've been pulled over for speeding I got a warning simply because my very first words were a humble admittance to speeding and total cooperation.

It seems to me that if you were traveling 88mph you would be facing a VERY different set of circumstances. So often the idea of the state being responsible for the burden of proof gets sidelined in traffic court. It still remains, though - make that rat PROVE he got you at 90mph. Although in a word-against-word decision the cop always gets preferential treatment, throw some dubious questions out there and then ASK for a reduced ticket. Make sure they understand that you WILL go to trial if they don't offer a lesser (say, 85mph) ticket. Let them save some face too.

And if they don't go for it, ask for a trial - you're entitled to one and the cop will have to PROVE to a jury 'beyond a reasonable doubt' that you were indeed travelling in excess of 90mph. IF he can't do that through hard evidence you're off. Total dismissal. All you would have to do is cast enough doubt and play the righteous won't-let-the-incompetence-and-omnipotent-attitude-of-our-police-force-make-me-an-innocent-victim role. How can you lose with the right attitude?

If for some longshot reason you DO lose, what's the difference? You still get four points and a fine. It's almost as if you can't afford to NOT fight it.

Then again, depends on you. I personally think that on an open highway in good conditions a speed-trapping oink with a radar gun is the real crime.

Fight the power and question authority.

Matt
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  #15  
Old 11-20-2000, 09:58 PM
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Im glad this topic came up because I just got pinched this morning for cutting in a solid lane. It was morning rush hour in NYC, and I was at the end of the pack at the right lane, when i decided to get into the left lane, shoot to the front of the pack, and cut over back into the right lane where the solid white line is. The bastard was standing there with his nice shiny boots up to his knees, and his bike parked on the side. He jumped in front of the car, and he pointed, directing me to the shoulder. I told him that a truck cut me off, so thats why I ended up in the left lane, and had to cut back in at the last moment. He issued me a $70 summons, and I asked him how many points would this ticket be on my license--he said 2. This has been my first "moving violation", so there goes my perfect record. I plan on getting a lawyer, and fighting it. I want to keep my perfect record. So Aaron, I know how you feel. It feels pretty crappy to get a smear on your driving record.

For you New Yorkers....This happened on the Gowanus Expressway/Prospect Expressway west heading into the city from SI/Bklyn. The SOB waits for you where the road divides into the BQE, and the battery tunnel. BEWARE!!!

------------------
Agron
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