Vibe got me at speeding ticket!

[cs1992]

OK, I know I can not blame the car, but I did get a speeding ticket yesterday. I admit that I was driving way too fast, but because this car handles so well, I did not feel like I was doing anything wrong (at the time).Anyways, this is my first speeding ticket in over 10 years. The police officer told me to argue it in court based on my driving record. He said the judge might reduce it and only force me to pay court costs. Does that sound like a good idea to anyone? I'd hate to take a day off of work just to end up paying the fine as is.

[jwalcik]

I happened to be in the Vibe when it happened, but my lead foot got me a speeding ticket last month. I've known lots of people that have had pretty varied luck arguing tickets. It can be done, but it will depend on things like how far you were over the limit, where it was you were speeding (school zone, etc), and what kind of mood the judge is in.Does your state offer the option to take a driver safety course in lieu of paying the fine? That's the route I'm taking. I just have to pay for the court costs and the course.

[MRCN RCE]

if you hafta take a day off work anyway, why not try to get the fine reduced. i'd go that route, especially if you have a good record

[Raven]

Around here if you go to court to contest a ticket and lose, they tack on $80.00. You need to weigh the cost of the ticket plus court fees against your lost wages for attending court. In some areas you can request an evening court appearance though. After attending traffic court in November and witnessing what goes on, I will just pay my tickets from now on. The only person out of about 30 who got off was a guy that was caught driving without insurance. He told the judge he was a recovering drug addict and the judge gave him a break.

[joatmon]

find out if your car insurance will go up if you get a ticket, and if so, by how much and for how long, then factor those costs in to the decision to just pay the ticket or fight it in court

[keithvibe]

when i got my speeding ticket, i did take the time to go to court. My speeding ticket was for 18+mph over the posted limit... I showed up and the judge asked me why I am here and i flat out just said to hope you take in to consideration that this is my very first speeding ticket in 15+years of driving and hope you will consider reducing the fine... He was shocked quite frankly, he said nice, and honest answer. I will reduce it to 1-5+mph over the speed limit, and that will reduce the fine and points. I said thank you and he said I don't want to see you again till I am ready to retire in 15years LOL

[vibe-04]

I got three speeding tickets in the Vibe within a year. Prior to that, none in 15 years driving a Bronco and a Chev waaay faster than the Vibe.The Vibe looks like a ricer and a magnet. I once blew right though a speed trap in the Bronco and the cop didn't care??? The police are more intense lately.I've since slowed down. My insurance doubled, OK my "at fault" fender bender at 5 mph didn't help. Do'h. But I don't pay for my insurance so it does not matter.I say fight it. If everyone fought every ticket the courts would grind to a halt.andrew

[WaveAction]

sucks to hear about the speeding ticket, i've had one so far almost 5 years ago in my sunfire, insurance never went up, and the ticket was cleared off my driving record after 3 yrs which is nice

[psiu]

Got my one and only in the Vibe about 1 year ago.Had to run home from Detroit to my mom's in Houghton--about 600 miles...each way. Drove up Saturday, was planning on leaving about 4am Sunday but the alarm I borrowed didn't go off. Knew enough people who have sped their way through the UP so I figured I would try Did a good job slowing down for lights on the horizon and obvious traps at first, but a few hours in I had the music blaring, and was speeding out of some winding hills...77 in a 55.Was pulled over and stopped by the time the State cop got turned around. He gave me a 60 in a 55 instead :DIt's bad now too...I'm used to my 95 Neon I drive daily, when I take the Vibe from the wife--whooooooosh.

[asburydan]

I have heard of folks getting something called "a prayer for judgment" which puts the charge on holdwith no or minimal repercussions.

[TraySeeLea]

I just got my 1st ticket on the 13th of this month....going 81 in a 55....not too excited. It is my first...but in NY it is 6 points on the record . Needless to say, I pled not guilty even though...well.... I know what I was doing All I can hope for is that the judge has leniency on me; but I am still waiting for my court date to arrive in the mail.

[Mavrik]

Quote, originally posted by TraySeeLea »I just got my 1st ticket on the 13th of this month....going 81 in a 55....not too excited. It is my first...but in NY it is 6 points on the record . Needless to say, I pled not guilty even though...well.... I know what I was doing All I can hope for is that the judge has leniency on me; but I am still waiting for my court date to arrive in the mail.can't take a driving course to get the ticket dropped? You could here in Alaska which the wife took to get her "passing illegally at a high rate of speed." ticket reduced.I sat in court as a witness to a traffic accident were a semi truck ran a red light and in the process ran over a pickup truck. While I waited for my case to be called, 6 speeding ticket cases came in first. One was dropped because the cop didn't show up. The rest were not. If your cop shows up to testify against you... you just wasted your day. He'll spend about half an hour explaining how he just calibrated his radar and how he caught you with it. It will be his physical evidence against your verbal evidence. So unless the judge has a thing for ya your probably going to lose.

[TraySeeLea]

eh, I am not getting my hopes up but the whole situation with the cop was sketchy. He didn't even explain (discourse) to me anything that happened....he threw my ticket in my car window , said "got an accident" and took off running back to his car....speeding away down the road.... and I was like he was a mime....hopefully he wont show up but they mostly do because they get paid overtime for it.

[hskater26]

ive gotten pulled over about 16 times.........2 speeding tickets......60 in a 25 and 53 in a 25.......the first one i went to court cause i had my license for 3 years with no tickets and as long as it was under 10 over the speed lmit you can get it dropped....in ri all you do is sign a waiver and tell them you have had a good driving record and you dont have to pay court fees......the 2nd one was 6months later and i had to pay it haha and i just got pulled over in the beg of dec for my tint.....have to go to court on valentines day for that one......didnt even give me an option to pay it :/........i have a radar detector but it just doesnt help me..........i got pulled over 3 times within the past 2 weeks......twice because i have combination plates on my vibe and when they run them as a passenger vehicle plate it comes back as a jeep cherokkee......and the last time becuase i passed a cop on the freeway going 5 over the limit and he was pissed and made me get out of the car haha......he said to stop attracting attention to myself by flying by cops......my mom and most police always ask.....are you ever gunna learn? i guess not atleast i havent gotten one on my motorcycle yet.....YET

[ashift30]

Call the Judges office and ask for defered adjudication, or community service prior to date. Defered Adjutication is a court cost and no record after 6 months. Depending if you don't get another ticket, then it stacks unless you stall it past the first defered date.Community service is a court cost and then some hours volunteering or washing police cars. Both stay off the record.You can also call the PD, ask to talk to the a victims advocate for support in dropping or deferring the charge. If you don't have a V.A. then ask to talk to a supervisor assigned to community relations. If you take the effort, they may help you out. Be nice. Cops aren't all bad.Good Luck

[cs1992]

ashift30-Thanks for the input. I will talk to as many folks as possible to resolve this situation. Not to change the topic, but "Cops aren't all bad" is the absolute truth. The officer who gave me the ticket at least informed me of appearing in court to have the fine reduced. This is not the first time I have been pulled over and I have been fortunate to receive warnings on several occasions. I know I was at fault in this case and I have no ill feelings to anybody but myself. To put it into perspective, a police officer was killed in my city this past week while trying to issue a warrant on a drug dealer. He had a wife and three young children. People can think whatever they want about the police, but I know this man died trying to protect the rights of schmucks like me. I know that there are "bad" cops out there, but there are "bad" people in every profession. There were times in my life when I might have tried to "blame" anyone but myself for an issue such as this. As I've gotten older, I've begun to see the light, so to speak, and better understand the bigger picture.Thanks for all the help!

[p8md]

I received a ticket a few years ago and on the back of the ticket was some information saying that I could pay an increased amount (around $200 extra) and the ticket would be "on hold" for 6 months. If I didn't receive another ticket within the 6 months, the charge would be dropped and would not go on my record. Sounds very similar to ashift30's "defered adjudication".

[Sublimewind]

Quote, originally posted by cs1992 »OK, I know I can not blame the car, but I did get a speeding ticket yesterday. I admit that I was driving way too fast, but because this car handles so well, I did not feel like I was doing anything wrong (at the time).Anyways, this is my first speeding ticket in over 10 years. The police officer told me to argue it in court based on my driving record. He said the judge might reduce it and only force me to pay court costs. Does that sound like a good idea to anyone? I'd hate to take a day off of work just to end up paying the fine as is. I can't say much about how these are handled in NC, but when I lived in NY, I got like 12 in 15yrs...lol... maybe more... NY is funny though, if you plee guilty or are found guilty for speeding, all the money they get goes to the state, BUT, if you plee "not guilty" and go talk with the magistrate (or whatever they call it there) they would drop the speeding charge to something like a noise violation, or parking infraction and give you 5-8 "tickets" all of 20$ each....lolThat way, by doing so, the COUNTY got to keep all of the money and not the state... so they had much incentive to drop speeding to something else...

[LIL GIRL]

You always want to fight the ticket. You are almost guaranteed they will reduced it. I would take the time if I were you.

[Sublimewind]

Quote, originally posted by LIL GIRL »You always want to fight the ticket. You are almost guaranteed they will reduced it. I would take the time if I were you.They didn't reduce mine, i just went for the hearing and payed it 2 weeks ago... but it was for 5 over, no points....

[mjbsb69]

In the State of OK.......go to court ask for probation......pay court costs....take online driving course/test..........stay ticket free for 3yrs.....all forgiven.

[NewNeptune]

I don't know how it is where you are, but in AZ if you go to court you lose the right to go to driving school.

[wyatt89]

ive had two since i got my vibe, the first one was justified, i was going 79 in a 65 but the second one was pure bull****, i got a ticket for going 55 in a 75 and the cop pulled me over and said that i was going too fast for the weather conditions. yah it was snowing out but there were semi's going by me at 70mph...i was pissed beyond belief, if i still lived there i would have brought it to court....

[Merzbow]

Geez Trac, 6 points, that hurts. I thoguht I got shafted. i got 25mph ove ron my bike for 4 points. New York has it rough.

[ramenboy...]

here in chicago, you can go to traffic school, and even do the course online. that's what i opted to do. wasn't so bad. i'm on the computer all day anyways.

[Celtic_Curse]

Things are gonna be tough for us, our Red Light cameras are now being upgraded to speeding cameras as well, so you get a double bill in the mail. You don't lose points but the fines are huge.

[chief100psu]

This sounds stupid - but the way the speedometer is it makes me speed.

[Merzbow]

You can take a course instead of getting points??? That would be amazing!!!...our STUPID governor, the one of brought Michigan down into bankruptcy and actually had to SHUT DOWN OUR GOVERNMENT for a day or so because we had no money...ANYWAYS, I got a notice in the mail stating as of Oct-11th 2007 if you have over 7 points you have pay $150 or more every year until the points go away...I haven't gotten pulled over since the beginning of 2007 why the heck should I have to start paying for things I did before the legislature was enacted??? I think it's B/S. I didn't pay it for a few months but they started getting collections agency on me so I had no choice...I am not rich enough to afford a layer to fight it for me either.

[ajflan]

Yeah, but Paul, if we had the ability to take a course, you would be busy all through the summer to cover the amount of points you have!

[Mavrik]

the course to drop points is usually a one time thing... not something that can be used every time.

[Sublimewind]

Quote, originally posted by Mavrik »the course to drop points is usually a one time thing... not something that can be used every time.Yeah, I used that ONCE when I lived in Buffalo... It didn't help me the other 11 times..

[Merzbow]

If I would have known I could have taken it for the 4 points I got on the bike and I wouldn't have to pay $150 every year plus teh $200 ticket.

[ramenboy...]

yeah pretty much you take the course, and you're on probation for 3 months or something like that. if you don't get a ticket in that three months, nothing goes on your driving record.

[2002sportside]

I blame the Vibe for my first ticket ever. I got nabbed for 82 in a 65, but the state trooper only wrote it up for 75. In RI you can get a ticket excused if you have a clean record for three years, which I did. It can't be more than ten over the speed limit either, which is why he wrote it for 75. Worse part is I got the ticket in a spot I know they sit...

[808 Vibes]

I'm not the leadfoot I used to be in my younger days (with my Quad-4 Grand Am...I got one or two with that baby!) So I'm being good I'm too poor not to be, LOL

[prescoan]

LOL... ya, cops aren't all that bad. Before I got my Vibe, got nailed doing 70kms in a 50km zone... got dinged for that one. (irony, I went to court for it, the judge asked me what I did for a living, so I told her the honest truth... "Your Honour, I lost my job yesterday" Seriously, I had gotten a layoff notice the previous day... shoulda seen the Judge screw up her face, as if to say "Ouch..." Anyway, she waived the fine!)But the story gets better... got nailed six months later doing 75kms in a 60km zone... BY THE SAME COP! (in a City of 100,000+ people... go figure) Anyway, as I rolled down the window and said to him as he approached, "I guess I didn't learn my lesson from the first time we met, eh Officer?" He was totally nice about it, knocked it down to just 10kms over, and as he was leaving, just smiled and said, "Just slow it down!"