Furious over citation

TresCrows · Mar 23, 2003

Sheriden, yeah, I heard of it. You know, I am really tired of motorists being considered rolling revenue for hillbilly towns.
J

JATO_RaT · Mar 23, 2003

Bird, you've made some good points Bird. My wife was a police officer for years and eventually went to work for the DA's office where she currently works and is still a peace officer. I hear plenty of stories about the stupid things people did during her day as a police officer. After hearing (and seeing with ride alongs) just what it involves, I have all the sympathy in the world for cops. People can be real jerks. Your point about driving while drinking vs pulling over having a drink at a bar is certainly true. Personal responsibility is still our number one consideration, and since driving is a group effort, we rely on everyones full cooperation to keep ourselves safe. I may be the exception, but I routinely check my lights to ensure that I am doing my part to up hold my end of the deal. Since I have not had a ticket in many years and never a fix it ticket, I'm not sure what the charges are today for a burned out headlight etc., but I'm pretty sure the fine is not 120 dollars unless you continue to neglect it after being given plenty of oppourtunities to fix it. After that, they can take the car and smash it for all I care. My experience with police officers has been their ability to use discretion. I have been fortunate because of that. While working in the Bay are and commuting from Sacramento, I would be up at 4:00 AM and cruise often doing about 80 MPH. The speed limit at the time was 55 MPH. I was eventually stopped, asked where I was going, the officer saw my tools etc., must have thought I was OK. Officer asked if I knew what the speed limit was, I said 55mph and he said, keep it at that please and adios. My heart dropped back down to its normal pace and so did my speed. I've had great experiences with Highway Patrolmen, people on the road, now theres another story!!! Rat...

Richard · Mar 23, 2003

You sure he wasn't mad about those heavy duty tow hooks you welded to the back and front of that offroad beast?

/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Bird · Mar 23, 2003

Richard, in your first post in this thread, you said the fine was $121, but I've noticed since then you've posted the fine as $221 in some cases. I wonder which is correct; just idle curiosity, really. But since you've made me curious, I did just a tiny bit of searching on the Internet; didn't find the cities' fine amounts in this area (citations issued by city police go to that city's municipal court), but I did find Dallas County's fine list (citations issued by state or county police - sheriff, constable, highway patrol - go to the Justice of the Peace courts) here if you're interested in a comparison. Looks like your citation would be $128 here if you just wanted to pay the fine instead of going to court.

Richard · Mar 23, 2003

Oops.. happy fingers when typing, fine as per lady at courthouse is $121.00.

I went to the US Naval Observatory and found that

"Begin Civil twilight" 6:13 am
"Sunrise" 6:38

Not sure what civil twilight is, but I intend to take this with me

/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Don't know what good it might do.

5030 · Mar 23, 2003

Isn't the motto in Texas "Drive Friendly"? I used to load meat at MBPXL in Friona, Texas, years ago. I seem to remember that. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Daryl
Forage Services, L.P.

Bird · Mar 23, 2003

Richard, I don't guess I know what civil twilight is either, but if nothing's changed, and memory serves, I think in Texas you are required to have your headlights on from 30 minutes after sunset until 30 minutes before sunrise.

Bird · Mar 23, 2003

Yep, Daryl, that's the motto posted a lot of places.

gerard · Mar 23, 2003

<font color="blue"> Just be happy you weren't in Rochester NY. Light out, guaranteed ticket, and FINE. Any of the surrounding towns, you can just get it fixed in 1 week and show a cop, but not in Rochester.
</font>
Sorry franz - have to correct you here - In NY AND in Rochester, you have 24 hours by the ltter of the law to correct the violation, have a notice of correction completed and the court has to dismiss, not optional on the part of the judge. Now if you wait a week, THEN the judge would NOT have to dismiss since you didn't comply with the 24 hour requirement but MOST judges are pretty liberal as long as the item was fixed in a reasonable amount of time. By the way - This is all spelled out on the notice of correction which the officer will hand you (generally) along with the ticket. (This doesn't mean in an isolated case the judge didn't comply with the law -they make mistakes too and if no one calls them on it they get away with it,)

TWINKLE_TOES · Mar 23, 2003

<font color="blue">My experience with police officers has been their ability to use discretion. </font>

Same here RaT, never got a ticket I didn't deserve, never went to court. Had my fair share of warnings. No sympathy on this thread. Bird, pretty much nailed this one.