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............

I'll see your $200 and raise you....;)

I don't know about TX, but in NJ they have to list a code section on the ticket. These statutes are public documents. On line or library is free info.
You violated sec:___________

Maybe the subdivision is upscale neighborhood and the local LE are "encouraged" to keep shortcutters out of " off our streets"
Maybe the cops follow traffic through and hit them for failure to obey stop signs if they make rolling stiops at 4-ways in subdivisions.

I got a ticket years ago for making a u-turn in town and a car clipped me in the rear left corner. Cop wrote me a ticket for making an illegal u turn on a state highway. Tossed out because U-turns were legal on state highways.

I was guilty of carless driving, but not making an illegal U-turn. But the citation was wrong and I walked. ;):cool:

The bad is that there are so many laws on the books that everyone of us is breaking some of them, at every moment.

The only good is that most people are too busy / lazy / intimidated to protest, and that makes the police / tax collectors careless and lazy. Their carelessness can often be exploited if they haven't filled out their forms correctly, or if they've made some other mistake.


Try and get the kid to watch these, it may keep him out of trouble some day.
Don't Talk to Cops, Part 1 - YouTube
Don't Talk to Cops, Part 2 - YouTube

Maybe 'Driving On The Sidewalk'....??:D

The city of NY needs money and the easiest way to get it is to setup a stop sign scam.

You find an intersection that has a stop sign. The nice thing about the corner with the stop sign is that it has a stop sign on only one street. The intersection is actually an L where there is no continuation of two of the streets. Even better is the fact that both directions on the L are one way. So, all traffic is going one direction through the L.

You park your cushman on the far side of the L, in the middle of the street, and stop all vehicles that approach the cushman so that there is a queue backed up past the stop sign and all the vehicles must crawl toward the cushman (after making the right turn).

Why are you stopping all those vehicles, you ask?

Because none of them came to a FULL STOP at the stop sign (they were rolling through it at about 1 mph as the queue moved).

$130. per vehicle. About 20 vehicles per hour or more............you can calculate the revenue. Five cops writing tickets.


Fight it you say?

I'd need to go to the Bronx and spend the entire day............it's $40 in fuel and tolls just to get there............not to mention my time.

Some law has to be broken.

Nobody needs any excuse to travel on a public street.

Which is illegal.Also illegal, or against rules of judicial conduct.A town close to me ran a scam like that for several years, and finally got the boom lowered on them. People complained about them for years, but The State didn't bother to care until it was owed about a half a million dollars in un-forwarded fines. They also had a second scam running where they misappropriated federal grant money to pay their salaries.

UNITED STATES v. MANN, No.
Search on the page for "Kendleton"
Texas Police Brutality-Police Officers-Police Videos-Police News
Texas Police Brutality-Police Officers-Police Videos-Police News

Boy. That guy is one "fast talking" lawyer:eek::D

Think about it. In general it is abusive people who drag down the rest of us.

Maybe it was the kids or maybe the police.

Abusive people are everywhere. Abusive policemen and abusive judges are just more of the same thing.

Whether they are abusing each other, drugs, alcohol, food, motor vehicles, exploiting public trust, it is all the same mental process. (defect?)

I have heard of people getting pulled while driving in areas known for drug sales or street racing. Probably not constitutional but at some point ya gotta do something even it it's wrong.

I posted about someone cited for loitering in their own yard. Never heard the whole story.

**** happens and when your job is solving problems everything starts looking like a problem. See sig line.

Legalize drugs? Confiscate the vehicles of people actually convicted of racing on public streets? Not as if street races can be kept all that secret.

yep that 'll do it.that was actually the very first ticket i ever got.caught me driving thru a park with a 67 olds vista cruiser.and back then the local paper reported all traffic fines in the paper.everybody that saw it assumed it was in my opel gr which would have fit the sidewalk nicely.

sure he does, he just got a 300 dollar traffic ticket. Stands to reason that if ever there was a good time to come up with a plausible "its not my fault" story, it was explaining something like that to the parents and parents of the GF. He could expect to catch hell for getting pulled over in the first place, I know I certainly got in enough trouble getting a ticket as a 17 year old kid.

Im sure more info will come to light, but id definitely be listening to his and your nieces story with a big grain of salt.

He ought to be able to beat the ticket if he was not cited specifically for any other reason, i.e. speeding, careless driving. If he was driving on public streets and obeying all traffic laws, the cop had no legal "cause" to write him up.

Key word: "OUGHT". Wait, wait.........it was Texas.

.......never mind. :(

I got some more info. The boy was not speeding, no failure to yield no moving violation of any kind. The street that he cut through on apparently has a small sign that says you cannot cut though. This is a public road paid for by tax payer money but apparently in TX if you get enough people to complain that people from the school across the street are cutting through your neighborhood you can get a sign put up to prevent people from driving on a public road and you will get a ticket for $369.

My ticket for driving 15mph over the limit was only $160 and I could get deferred adjudication for the ticket with no points. In Mansfield you must pay this ticket in full and you can try to fight it afterwards. The kid will have to go to drivers ed to prevent the points from going on his record. The folks are pretty well off so they are going to get a lawyer and see if they can fight it.

I think that is a complete BS ticket. The fact that a community can prevent people from driving down a public road is just insane. You moved near a school, what did you think was going to happen?

This is starting to sound a little like the signs no trucks allowed. If the truck drivers disobey those signs they get a ticket. I guess someone will have to look up and see if there is an enforcement statute on the books regarding this issue.

The boys mother went to the court house the next day and was told that the ticket stands and that the fine of $360 dollars must be paid. They can fight it after ward if they want. Sounds like a city scam to me.

The part that I don't get is how the city can say that a road paid for and maintained with city tax dollars cannot be traveled on by tax payers. That makes no sense to me.

I tend to agree.

Although the boys mother should have asked to see the applicable statute. The ticket should have shown a code. Interpretation if it exists at all is probably the question.

Some things are also self defeating. Speeding ticket costs are so high locally that the officers are reluctant to hand them out.

It's a matter of public safety, especially of the neighborhood has many young kids. Most suburban areas have laws preventing neighborhoods from becoming thoroughfares. Kids tend to play ball in the streets...I know we did when I was growing up in suburbia. Our city didn't allow neighborhoods to become high traffic areas...and they ticketed those they could, when they could, whenever people called and complained.

Most neighborhood roadways aren't constructed to handle the constant heavy traffic that the main roads are designed for. Adding heavy traffic to road beds that aren't designed for it will prematurely wear the road out, causing higher costs for street maintenance.

If you have enough money, you don't even need a "community". Those with significant wealth get any kind of law they need in local communities. It's a fact of life with the corruption in this country.

In your specific case, an entire voting block was, apparently, significant enough to get another law passed so that some DB politician can get reelected. It doesn't matter if the law is heavily biased in favor of a specific group.

It would be a great shame if the sign went missing and pics to that effect were submitted to the court. Let them prove it existed at the time and was visible.

Also, perhaps the sign is obscured by foliage at the right viewing angle. Photo time!

Stealing the sign sounds like a bad idea.

Who says anything about stealing it? It could be hit by a truck trying to parallel park and bent beyond recognition.

I do not think it is a public safety issue. Were that the case why not have these in all neighborhoods? I have lived around schools, driven by schools and I currently live down the street from one and I have never even seen a neighborhood which was closed off from traffic. I have seen no parking signs to prevent make sure the residents have paring for their own cars but never any signs saying that you cannot pass through.

I believe this has more to do with what BC mentioned. This is a matter of influence of a neighborhood and and obscene tax by the the city.

The sign issue is one thing, but to make the ticket cost $360 is obscene. That is less than most moving violations and those can actually hurt someone.

Similar situation a few years back in this area, with a local high-end community - they managed to get it codified into a local ordinance, that local kids were not allowed to even WALK thru their community on the sidewalks, on their way to and from a neighboring school - even if said kids actually resided inside the community. The spokesperson for the community displayed an attitude similar to what I saw in the Norfolk area years ago - "sailors and dogs keep off the grass" - except it was directed towards other people's children.

A neighborhood should be allowed to do that when they pay for all of their own road maintenance via HOA dues. Till then, if people pay taxes for the streets, they should be entitled to use them.

(And the "damage to pavement" and "risk of hitting a kid" arguments don't apply to kids walking, obviously.)

It was couched in terms of "maintaining peace and quiet for our older residents" and "preventing property damage by undesireables".

What was left unsaid, was that the attitude of many in that community, is that the term "undesireable" included anyone that was a native of the area and/or didn't speak with an accent from north of the Mason-Dixon line.

Moral questions like these that involve undesirable teenagers need a standard by which they are judged. I just ask myself:

What would George Zimmerman do?

My neighborhood is trying to get the borough to ban traffic from flying through our area due to the narrow streets. Most of the streets in this neighborhood are one way, and there are very, very few driveways...I am the only one in 4 blocks that has one. Since everyone parks on the streets, it makes them that much more narrow.

My street seems to be the one everyone wants to drive on, since it's the shortest line from point A to point B. Since moving here, my neighbor has had to replace his driver's side mirror 3 times, because of passing traffic hitting it.

According to the last council meeting, it looks like we'll be getting signage in the Spring, directing drivers to other roads to get through here, or risk a fine from the borough.

Everybody understands why a neighborhood would want to do such a thing. He's looking for the legal principle that allows a small group of people to appropriate a public asset for their own private use.

Agree, If a neighborhood wants a private road, they should raise the money and purchase one, and maintain it.

I wonder if your local Chan XX Investigative reporters might have interest ?

!

There is one of these near me. But I don't know/think its official. Its a development right above mine. Mine is not gated but it only has one entrance/exit. So there is no point using it as a cut through.

On the development above mine there are two signs attached to speed limits signs that say: "THIS IS NOT A CUT THROUGH".

I've said BS for years. My tax money paid for this I am going to use it. And I do. As often as I can.

If Federal, State, or County funds were used to pay for the street, then hopefully a court will tell your town council exactly how to fornicate with itself using a pointy object. As to your neighbor -- tell him to get a car with folding mirrors, or replace the mirror with a folding version.

That is most certainly an outrageous citation. The first question that comes to mind though, is this the whole story? If it is, it sounds like there is an attorney somewhere that would love to make a name for himself at no charge.

The folks on the street wanted traffic for local use only and to curtail "non-residents" from zipping through their neighborhood.

CITY COUNCIL: "We'll install 'speed bumps' to keep the ruffians out."

STREET MONGERS: "We don't want 'speed bumps' put down. We want something that allows us only and the ruffians a slap on their @ss where they put their wallets."

CITY COUNCIL: "How 'bout a postage-stamp-sized sign that says "NO CUT-THROUGHS" with some cute hieroglyphic symbol for those that don't read, write or speak the English language...then we can get the low-riders and pimp-mobiles...and cut down on that hustler-trade you folks drag home each evening. We'll set the fine to start out in the $300-$400 range and more for each time that the nimrods should repeat such an outrage. Sound good enough for you?"

STREET MONGERS: "T!TS! DO IT!!"

The 'street mongers' invite the council members over for a street-party, leave a "little envelope" in a convient place for each CM and the signs magically appear overnight, with the appropriate gendarme posted at the right place to catch the wrong personage at the appropriate time.

And life moves backwards towards serfdom... :rolleyes2

If points can be assessed for such a ticket, the law must have been made at the state level, no?

I've heard that "NO THRU TRAFFIC" signs are unenforcible in most states.

man, here I was ripping on this poor kid SURE he was guilty of some teenage vehicular idiocy, and it turns out he was the victim!

Pretty ridiculous situation