Trafic Code question Ever here of this???
 

My nieces boy friend was driving them home from school (Mansfield TX) and he cut through a neighborhood. The area was not a gated community to get home quicker and avoid school zones. A cop followed them through the side streets. When they got back on to the main road he pulled them over and gave him a ticket for cutting through the neighborhood. The ticket is for $300.

WTF??? How do you get a citation for driving on public roads? Is there anyway to look this code up? Can cops cite for just random stuff or does there need to be an actual city code or statute to violate? Wouldn't the roads have to be marked for local traffic only or something?

Seems like a load of crap to me. Lets skip the cops are pigs BS as that really is not constructive.

There are atty's who specialize in this sort of thing. They are usually quite reasonable in price. What does the citation say? What code is cited?

Texas Traffic Laws - FindLaw

What is the vehicle code cited?

There are state laws; there are local laws.

Not sure about "cutting through a neighborhood".

Not saying this happened, but I wonder if maybe the driver cut through a gas station parking lot(example) to get past a red light.

Whatever...someone needs to speak with an attorney.

That makes no sense. Something else is up.

Knowing what the traffic code section would help, however the police typically have no jurisdiction over "trespass" so I don't think that the location of the street is relevant.

Cut you a ticket, you fight it out in court......happens all the time.....is it right?

Still not sure what pigs ever did to get such a bad rap....;)

Please keep in mind this is all third or forth person. He is the boy friend of my niece. HE is a good kid. Honor student, straight A's, treats my niece like a queen. Very nice kid. As far as we can tell he would have no reason to lie.

We were told he just cut through a neighborhood. The reason the cop gave the kid was that there was 'too much traffic in the neighborhood'.

I do not have any info off the ticket so I don't know what the code violation is. The hold thing just seems fishy too me.

Would seem like there would have to be posted signage for the ticket to stick.

Be a shame if they had just popped thru the neighborhood because one of their parents knew someone was looking for a house in that development.

On the face of it, if what's been related to you is accurate, sounds more like "revenue enhancement" than any violation of traffic laws on the young man's part.

My next bet would be that the young man starts receiving flyers from certain local attorneys offering, for a sizable gratuity to themselves and/or a certain judge, to make the offense disappear.

My friend and his wife south of Austin experienced something similar about 4 years ago. She was driving a company van making her rounds, working for a certain national delivery company at the time. Said van was mechanically limited to 65 mph max. A member of the gendarme of a certain locality pulled her over and ticketed her for doing 80 in a 55. When she tried to explain that was impossible due to the engine governor on the vehicle and asked if she could see the radar display, the cop became quite belligerent and basically told her to just STFU and take the ticket, "or I"ll find something else to charge you with too".

Shortly thereafter, they were contacted by a judge - not attorney, but sitting judge - from said locality, who for a gratuity that amounted to about 2/3 of the fine on the ticket, offered to "nullify" said ticket so it wouldn't be reported against her license and place her on "probation" for six months - but if she got ticketed again during her "probation", then he'd have to lower the boom on her.

Exactly. He should LIE to get out of the ticket -- the thieves aren't worthy of his honesty. Perjury in this case is only wrong if you get caught.

This being said, NJ has a charge called "Avoiding a Traffic Signal", but it's normally cited only if someone takes a shortcut through a parking lot or private driveway:
Avoiding Traffic Signal

100 bucks says its a speeding, failure to yield, or failure to stop of some kind.

Let's line up the facts, young guy, cutting through a neighborhood to avoid a school zone. Doesn't matter how good the kid is, the vast majority of people speed over posted speed limits in neighborhoods and roll through stop signs, especially if they know the area. For example, the speed limit on my street growing up was 25mph. I don't think I've ever gone that slow in the last 15 years, and I drive carefully generally, but more likely I'm going 35-40.

I bet you anything he made the turn into the neighborhood quickly, doing something to attrack the cops interest. My feeling here is his mistake is being oblivious to the cop car following him in the first place when he went into the neighborhood, then commiting a common traffic violation.

No we have a convenient blameless story for the benefit of friends and family, how thoughtful of him.
:D

$200............