Speeding Ticket stories. Come on we all have them.

Got to love Aussies lol

 

It was my 3rd year of college, 1977. Driving a 1977 Pontiac Firebird TransAm. At night, no moon and dark. Two lane blacktop road that crossed a wide, flat riverbottom. There was a flat section about 5 miles long. No traffic (well... almost no traffic). I was with my college roommate. We wanted to see how fast she would go.

Accelerated down the hill and onto the bottom flat. Estimated top speed approximately 125 mph until... oh no... lights coming up the hill about 2 miles ahead of me... need.... to..... slow........ down...... damn....... It was Missouri Highway Patrol coming from the opposite direction.

I got slowed down to 114 before he got the radar on me. Speed limit was 55 mph. I slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road about the same time his car reached mine. I rolled down the window. He looked at my roommate and said, "Do you have a driver's license?" My roommate said "Yes", and the Patrolman said "Good... because your buddy is coming with me." My roommate drove my car back to town and I rode to jail in the police car. Speeding ticket for 114 mph (183 kph) in a 55 mph zone.

Bail was $75.00. It doesn't sound like much now but it was a lot for a poor college kid. My roommate and some other guys pitched in to come up with money to bail me out. Went to court a few days later and the fine was $116.00.

Surprisingly, at that time the State of Missouri had a points system and I did not lose my license. However, about 6 months later, I got another speeding ticket for going 70 in a 55 zone, and that time I lost my license for 30 days.

 

Good story.

My guess is the memory of that Moonless night and the flying down the highway in a Trans Am at 125 mph, and even the ensuing fines and jail was an experience and memory worth more than both the bail and the fine.

Sometimes I wish the USA had the equivalent of an Autobahn. I can't argue FOR speeding. But in my own defense? Although I have sped, and gotten speeding tickets, I was always 100% alert, sober and involved, and in most extreme cases it was pure open straightaway, with almost no risk to anyone (because nobody was around) but myself.

In those cases? Yes I always paid the fine. But I never really felt I had done anything "wrong".

Whenever the officer would ask me "Do you know how fast you were going?" I always had to fight back the urge to say "Well I'm at a complete stop now, so I guess everything is okay.".

 

This was a long time ago when i was 17. I was with an airborne unit in North Carolina and would drive 100 plus miles per hour to get to a collage town to see my girl friend. I did this almost every day for over a year and never got a ticket.
On the way home i would be so drunk that i couldn't drive and the state police would let me ride in the back of their car until i was sober enough to drive back by morning roll call. That was a very different time. Later in life i was a reserve police officer and police chaplain but then that is another story.

 

Keep on getting those speeding tickets, it keeps me employed Come on big money, big money, no whammies, no whammies......

(I teach driver improvement and driver education).

 

In my "defense" I will say that I was young and dumb . I'm older and wiser now. Never ever mixed drinking and driving. It was always with seatbelts, sober and complete awareness, although that obviously doesn't justify my actions.

 

You would probably like living here, although it is just once a year........

Home | Sandhills Open Road Challenge | Arnold, Nebraska

 

Back in 1974, I was driving my Vette to work when a cop pulled me over and gave me a ticket for doing 55 in a 50mph zone. I took it to court and won. The judge asked the cop for his speedo certs. The first one said this speedo was off 10%, the next one said it was right on. The judge asked the cop if the speedo was worked on between the two times and the cop told him no. Case dismissed.

 

Within 2 weeks of my new Prius...crazy snowstorm on my way home from work. I pulled out of our lot, no traction issues whatsoever which made me feel a lot better as I'm terrified of hurting my brand new car. I'm heading down the road to the first stop light and then all I see is shiny ice... So I start to try to brake but its too late and I"m just sliding. I wasn't even near the speed limit of 40, in the upper 20's but there is absolutely no stopping this thing. I'm coming up to the light where I have a green right turn signal and I just hope that the intersection has some traction to get me to stop. Well I stopped right before I hit the median of the street I needed to turn on and by then the traffic lights to go straight turn green so I just signal that I'm coming back over into the straight lanes as I can't make the right turn now.

Of course, 3 cars back in the straight lane is a cop. So I turn into the first business I can to turn back around and he pulls in behind me. I parked before he even turned his lights on because I needed to take a moment to myself to relax.

He first sounded friendly so I apologized and told him I couldn't believe the amount of ice. He took my ID and my paperwork and when he came back from his car, total different attitude. He threw several questions at me and tried to tell me I was going closer to 40 and that there wasn't any ice out there, he really did argue with me about the ice and said "your driving a prius not a big truck". He hadn't clocked me at all, it was fully his opinion. Gave me a ticket for "speeding per road conditions"... I had every intention of fighting the ticket except I just couldn't risk it. I'm doing a deferral costing $250, yuck. There was probably a slim chance of a judge throwing it out, but the risk of a $150 ticket, plus court cost, plus work missed, plus insurance increase... just not right.

Beyond mad as I haven't had anything on my driving record in nearly 4 years and no tickets in at least 5. I just hated how he became so rude but considering the county it was in...heh.

I've had probably 4 speeding tickets prior and several warnings - the officers were all courteous and the tickets I did get, I definitely deserved...they were all written for 24 over the limit and I was always going faster but to get a ticket when I absolutely believe I didn't deserve one just makes me angry.