Friend failed to pull over promptly, speeding 45 in a 25 zone

[irwincur]

I did not see nor hear any sign of violence to be a cause of his nosebleed.

They should have beat his dumb a$$ - maybe he would get it right the next time.

 

[irwincur]

A bit more about the road itself: It really is a wide, long road that everyone speeds on because 25 mph is ridiculous for it. It's one of those rodes that just about everyone speeds on, and comps camp out intentionally. Just about everyone I know whose gotten pulled over has done so there.

If you know this, there is no reason to speed on it.

Odds are there is a good reason for the speed limit. Is it residential? Probably.

 

[zendari]

Originally posted by: BrianA

Originally posted by: zendari
How is that changing the story? He slowed down yes, but he didn't stop, nor did he signal in any way. The bottom line is that he was NOT going 45 mph, even reducing that to 44 cuts the fine in half.

You may not be changing your story, but I really REALLY think we're not getting ALL of the story. And you KNOW he was not going 45 because you were looking right at his speedometer the whole time, right? :roll:

And here's a news flash for your friend. In most states its not "slow down when you see fire truck / emergency vehicle lights", it's "pull over and stop". Had he done this, he wouldn't be in trouble now.

He would have still gotten the speeding most likely, unless you think he would have been let off? I'm not looking at the speedometer, no, but you can still sense how fast you are going.

Originally posted by: zendari
We will surely talk to a lawyer at some point (his dad knows a couple), whether we will have one in court will be decided later.

Both of us have surely learned from this experience.

I'm confused. Why do you need a lawyer? Since when do passengers get tickets when the driver is speeding?

Again, I think we're missing part of the story here.

I don't. He does, I am just helping him out.

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt
"not a bad driver" != 20mph over speed limit
"not a bad driver" != panicking
"not a bad driver" != failing to pull over for flashing lights

If he can't handle the car, can't obey speed limits and can't handle these situations as they arise he doesn't belong behind the wheel.

Exactly. Your friend may not realize it, but HE IS A BAD DRIVER.

So some 1.5 years of safe driving means nothing? Perhaps he is a bad driver, but he is better than some 75% of high school kids in this area.

 

[zendari]

To those of you who live in NJ:

I hear from coworkers that a possibility is to plead guilty to unsafe driving or something like that instead of the speeding ticket? I don't know the name of the violation exactly, but supposedly its a 2 pt violation that doesn't go to insurance.

 

[BrianA]

Originally posted by: zendari

Originally posted by: BrianA

Originally posted by: zendari
How is that changing the story? He slowed down yes, but he didn't stop, nor did he signal in any way. The bottom line is that he was NOT going 45 mph, even reducing that to 44 cuts the fine in half.

You may not be changing your story, but I really REALLY think we're not getting ALL of the story. And you KNOW he was not going 45 because you were looking right at his speedometer the whole time, right? :roll:

And here's a news flash for your friend. In most states its not "slow down when you see fire truck / emergency vehicle lights", it's "pull over and stop". Had he done this, he wouldn't be in trouble now.

He would have still gotten the speeding most likely, unless you think he would have been let off? I'm not looking at the speedometer, no, but you can still sense how fast you are going.

Absolutely not. He was speeding, he absolutely deserves his speeding ticket. And for the record, he also failed to yield for an emergency vehicle, so he absolutely deserves that one too.

And I'm going to have to call bullsh*t on your "sense how fast I am going" abilities. Unless you were looking directly at his speedometer, you cannot accurately state "The bottom line is that he was NOT going 45". You can feel he wasnt going 45. You can think he wasn't going 45. But guess what, bottom line is that the cop said he was going 45, and I'm going to have to go with that. He has a radar gun, you don't. He's trained to accurately judge speeds, you aren't. Also, the judge is going to go with the cop rather than your spidey-senses.

Originally posted by: zendari

Originally posted by: BrianA

Originally posted by: zendari
We will surely talk to a lawyer at some point (his dad knows a couple), whether we will have one in court will be decided later.

Both of us have surely learned from this experience.

I'm confused. Why do you need a lawyer? Since when do passengers get tickets when the driver is speeding?

Again, I think we're missing part of the story here.

I don't. He does, I am just helping him out.

Here's some free advice. Stay out of his legal business. When he tells his parents and if they consult a lawyer and when he goes to court, you should not be there. You can be his friend, and you can comfort him in his time of need, but you cannot help by being involved beyond that.

Originally posted by: zendari

Originally posted by: BrianA

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt
"not a bad driver" != 20mph over speed limit
"not a bad driver" != panicking
"not a bad driver" != failing to pull over for flashing lights

If he can't handle the car, can't obey speed limits and can't handle these situations as they arise he doesn't belong behind the wheel.

Exactly. Your friend may not realize it, but HE IS A BAD DRIVER.

So some 1.5 years of safe driving means nothing? Perhaps he is a bad driver, but he is better than some 75% of high school kids in this area.

When he needed to be a good driver most, he wasn't. So yes, he is a bad driver.

And guess what, comparing yourself to the other kids in your area doesn't make you a good driver either. GagHalfrunt nailed it exactly. Your friend can't follow traffic laws, can't remain in control of his faculties in a time of crisis, and isn't smart enough to pull over when he sees lights. That makes him a bad driver. It doesn't matter if 75% of the other people around him have those same problems or worse. It doesn't make him a good driver, it just means he has a lot of company with other bad drivers.

And it also means he just didn't get caught.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Originally posted by: zendari
To those of you who live in NJ:

I hear from coworkers that a possibility is to plead guilty to unsafe driving or something like that instead of the speeding ticket? I don't know the name of the violation exactly, but supposedly its a 2 pt violation that doesn't go to insurance.

Every state has different road laws, but almost all have lesser offenses than speeding. Some call it "failure to obey posted limits", some call it "travelling fast" and some call it "operating too fast for road conditions" or something similar. In most places speeding tickets will be reduced to something less if you plead them out as long as you're not a repeat offender and as long as it's not some outrageous speed. If you get 100 in a 55mph zone or it's your 4th ticket in 2 years you're boned. Around here if you get a mandatory court appearance for speeding the DA will address everyone on the docket as a group before court starts. He'll start with "you were all speeding, we got you and you're never going to win by trying to claim the cops radared the wrong guy or that the radar gun was not working right. If you want to plead innocent and go to trial we're going to win and we're going to impose maximum fine as well as court costs. I'll let you plead guilty today to failing to obey posted limits, 2 pts on your license, $xx fine and no insurance hit. Most people take the deal.

 

[EyeMWing]

30 *SECONDS*?

Jumpy ass cop... Unless your idiot friend accelerated.

Stopping time around here is literally 5 minutes (but that's because we lack shoulders)

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Originally posted by: zendari

So some 1.5 years of safe driving means nothing? Perhaps he is a bad driver, but he is better than some 75% of high school kids in this area.

Yeah, 1.5 years of not getting caught means nothing. So what if he drives better than 75% of other kids. Being a better hockey player than 75% of the people in Kenya still makes you a crappy hockey player. Newsflash for you, being a good driver is not about keeping the car between the yellow lines and stopping before you run into a tree. A trained chimp can do that much. Being a good driver is about situational awareness. It's about being able to take in the entire picture of the road, knowing where other drivers are, knowing which lanes are free so you can make an instant swerve into a clear area if another driver does something stupid, it's about looking deep into the road so that you know what's coming up and how you're going to react to it before it's too late. It's being able to handle a skid, but more importantly about knowing how to avoid the skid in the first place.

The greatest indictment of your friends driving skills is the fact that he passed a cop. He didn't get nailed in a speed trap, he didn't get caught by a radar plane, he passed a cop while he was speeding. That proves that your friend was not paying attention to the road, he was not paying attention to other cars, he was not paying attention to the speed limit or the speed of his car. He sped right past a cop and then freaked out. YOUR FRIEND IS A CRAPPY DRIVER!

 

[StageLeft]

A Grandmother with her grandkids in the car was just jailed here because here Tag expired. That's learning [about asinine law enforcement] and experience.

Fixed.

 

[BrianA]

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt

Originally posted by: zendari

So some 1.5 years of safe driving means nothing? Perhaps he is a bad driver, but he is better than some 75% of high school kids in this area.

Yeah, 1.5 years of not getting caught means nothing. So what if he drives better than 75% of other kids. Being a better hockey player than 75% of the people in Kenya still makes you a crappy hockey player. Newsflash for you, being a good driver is not about keeping the car between the yellow lines and stopping before you run into a tree. A trained chimp can do that much. Being a good driver is about situational awareness. It's about being able to take in the entire picture of the road, knowing where other drivers are, knowing which lanes are free so you can make an instant swerve into a clear area if another driver does something stupid, it's about looking deep into the road so that you know what's coming up and how you're going to react to it before it's too late. It's being able to handle a skid, but more importantly about knowing how to avoid the skid in the first place.

The greatest indictment of your friends driving skills is the fact that he passed a cop. He didn't get nailed in a speed trap, he didn't get caught by a radar plane, he passed a cop while he was speeding. That proves that your friend was not paying attention to the road, he was not paying attention to other cars, he was not paying attention to the speed limit or the speed of his car. He sped right past a cop and then freaked out. YOUR FRIEND IS A CRAPPY DRIVER!

This is what I was trying to say, you just said it better.

:beer: for you.

 

[zendari]

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt

Originally posted by: zendari
To those of you who live in NJ:

I hear from coworkers that a possibility is to plead guilty to unsafe driving or something like that instead of the speeding ticket? I don't know the name of the violation exactly, but supposedly its a 2 pt violation that doesn't go to insurance.

Every state has different road laws, but almost all have lesser offenses than speeding. Some call it "failure to obey posted limits", some call it "travelling fast" and some call it "operating too fast for road conditions" or something similar. In most places speeding tickets will be reduced to something less if you plead them out as long as you're not a repeat offender and as long as it's not some outrageous speed. If you get 100 in a 55mph zone or it's your 4th ticket in 2 years you're boned. Around here if you get a mandatory court appearance for speeding the DA will address everyone on the docket as a group before court starts. He'll start with "you were all speeding, we got you and you're never going to win by trying to claim the cops radared the wrong guy or that the radar gun was not working right. If you want to plead innocent and go to trial we're going to win and we're going to impose maximum fine as well as court costs. I'll let you plead guilty today to failing to obey posted limits, 2 pts on your license, $xx fine and no insurance hit. Most people take the deal.

I see. Thanks alot.

This is what I was trying to say, you just said it better.

for you.

Alrite. You guys win.

I hope he improves.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: zendari
To those of you who live in NJ:

I hear from coworkers that a possibility is to plead guilty to unsafe driving or something like that instead of the speeding ticket? I don't know the name of the violation exactly, but supposedly its a 2 pt violation that doesn't go to insurance.

Call the court, explain to them that you want to avoid an insurance increase, they'll tell you what to do. I did that when I got a ticket a while back, but my $140 ticket would have cost me over $400 if I went about it that way, so I just paid the ticket and took the points. My insurance hasn't gone up, my insurance company allows you to have one ticket on your record without a rate increase. When I get married in August I'll have New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance, best insurance you can get in NJ. They don't raise your rates for tickets.

 

[Crucial]

Originally posted by: Thegonagle
For furture reference:

Cops get really nervous if you don't pull over immediately.

How to pull over properly (Yes, there is a "proper" way to pull over; doing so will put their minds at ease): Put the signal on, and immediately start moving to the RIGHT. Even if you're in the left lane, move to the RIGHT. Turn on your dome light, and roll down the driver's window. Even if it's cold and/or raining, roll down that window. If there's a passenger, roll the passenger window down, too. Speaking of passengers, COMMAND your passenger(s) to SHUT THE FVCK UP. No matter what they (or you) might be thinking, passengers need to SHUT THE FVCK UP at this time. Tell them also to keep their hands on their laps. Once you're in the right lane, find the absolute closest possible place to stop where neither you nor the cop will be blocking a driveway or intersection. Pull as far over to the right as possible without hopping a curb. If there's a paved shoulder, at the last moment, pull the right wheels off the shoulder onto the grass (just a foot or so, though). The reason to pull as far to the right as humanly possible is because the cop will stop his car several feet to the left of where you stop because he uses his car for protection from other traffic when he's at your window. When you're stopped, make sure your window(s) are down, then hit the hazards, TURN OFF THE ENGINE, take the keys out, and place them on the dashboard. Then, sit there. Just sit there in your seatbelt with both hands on the wheel. Doing all this will help put the cop(s) at ease, reduce their fear you're going to be the stop that results in their last gun battle and their last day on Earth, and avoid the unpleasentness of having five or more of them there to put you in handcuffs and stuff.

That's all I've got for now.

Some good advice right there.

 

[IBuyUFO]

Bend over and take it like a girly man

 

[StageLeft]

Listen to Thegonagle . I used the dome light trick once, and I would guess most people don't. It got me a warning. I can't say whether I would have or not anyway, but I'm sure they appreciate it, especially on cars with tinting.