on my way to LA for a weekend trip, cruising about 9x on hwy 5. i was looking all around to make sure no CHP is around, suddenly on the opposite direction a CHP show up. he just turned right into my direction and pulled me over for a 96mph in a 70mph zone. this happened in bakersfield county, i heard the judge is pretty bad too, would give out community service addition to the ticket. some of my frds said try to extend the court date so the CHP has less chance to show up in order to get out of it. any suggestion guys? i dont wanna add an extra $3xx on just a LA trip. any help would be appreiated!!

 

Try to extend as much as you can. Unless they're pretty **** and wrote down everything, there's a higher chance that they won't remember you even if they do show up. Was it a patrol car or a bike?

 

I'd say, just pay the fine and get it over with, especially if you can goto traffic school. Why waste more gas money and your time going down there to fight it? Police officers get pay to goto court, so its like paid day off for them, why wouldnt they show up? By the way, it probably was the airplane that got you.

 

Wait, are you eligible for traffic school? If so, yeah. Do what Shane said.

 

Honestly, $3XX is nothing for a speeding ticket. What you should worry about is, are you eligible for traffic school without going to court. Seems like he marked you down for 26 mph over the speed limit, that may not allow you to go to traffic school without going to the court.

To make you feel better, I was clocked 27mph over speed limit in a DOUBLE fine zone. My ticket was $4XX + beg for traffic school.

 

I've never missed a court appearance and took good enough notes that I remembered everything about the stop. Guess that makes me ****. Easy there sailor, exit only! You have the right to trial within 45 days. Anything longer and time has to be waived by the defendant.

If court is during my shift, it's just part of my day. No extra pay. If court is on my day off, it's a minimum of 4 hours of OT even if I'm first on the docket and am at court for 10 minutes (Meaning- registration fees go up to offset overtime). No way in heck am I NOT showing up. If its outside of my shift, I get OT until I get back to the office to change out and go home. Anyhow, my agency says I 'shall' appear in court. Your best bet is to file a written trial by declaration. If your speed was obtained by aircraft, the observer in the aircraft is actually the arresting officer and the officer who stopped you and wrote you the citation is merely the citing officer. Trying to get two officers to both type up narratives for a trial by dec. is like splitting the atom.

 

I didn't mean to offend. I was just using the term that first comes to mind when thinking of meticulous and by the book course of actions.

The CHP officer that pulled me over wrote down pretty good notes and also took the time to have his bike's speedometer calibrated to prove that the speed he clocked me at was accurate. I have no hard feelings against him. It's his job and I respect him even more because he took it seriously. He was even nice enough to write down on the ticket a lower speed than he had clocked me going.

My only experiences with LEO's have been pleasant ones and I hope I don't meet any of the other types officers I keep hearing about from my friends.

 

No worries. Chippies are usually pretty good about taking detailed notes on tickets seeing as it's the majority of our activity. Just for sh*ts and giggles, the speedometers on our patrol cars, motorcycles, MRE trucks, and whatever other vehicles we use for enforcement are calibrated every 3 months. If it is a ticket where the speed was obtained by pacing, we bring the speedometer calibration to court and the judge enters it into evidence. The greatest deviation on a speedometer I have seen was 1 MPH, in favor of the defendant.

 

unfortunately, its my second ticket in a year, cant go to traffic school. i was quite sure there were no aircraft above to clock me, should be car patrol. but i wonder when did he clock me or he is just guessing my speed and just write me a ticket? coz he was going a opposite direction, can the radar work that way? and whats the consequence of finding guilty but not admitting?

 

hey chippie quick question. if cited in another county at that time u can request to be tried in your/different county correct? for instance if u pull me over in santa clara county and say im from San Joaquin county could i ask to be tried in san joaquin court? i want to say i read it some where in the laws but i couldnt find it.

 

Two things:

mpp_us2003- Yes RADAR in our cars can be set to read traffic traveling in the opposite direction. It's actually one of the requirements to become RADAR certified; to visually estimate the speed of 5 vehicles in that manner with an accuracy of + or - 5 MPH. The instructor sits next to you and says, and asks how fast a certain vehicle is traveling toward you. You guess and he activates the RADAR. You gotta do it 5 times.

frog- As far as I know, you cannot ask for a change venue. When you sign the citation, you are promising to appear at the court written at the bottom of the citation. What you are refering to may only be possible for jury trial. Most of the judges in Santa Clara County are familiar with the roads here, not in another county. I have had a judge take a case under submission so he could go look at an intersection for himself. In the words of Judge Stone from Night Court, "Guilty, guilty, guilty!" It would be a little difficult for a judge in another county to come to Santa Clara to do that. But don't quote me on this, call the court to be sure.

 

but i wonder what extra do i have to give out when i find guilty but not admitting it. is it gonna be the same, just pay the fine or its based on the judge? im planning on getting a V1, anyone selling?? and how efficient are they from detecting on coming CHP?

 

Uh, what? Not sure what you just asked?

Anyhow, in my opinion, detectors are a waste of money. If it goes off, we already have your speed and its too late. We don't just leave them on and whatever passes through the beam, we look at the speed. We have to visually estimate speed first, with a 3-5 second tracking history, then activate radar. Once that radar comes on, the party is over. And we can set it to pick up the fastest car in the beam too. As a bonus, the RADAR instructors/certifiers are usually recognized by the courts as experts in visual estimation of a vehicles speed. Meaning-if the officer bases your speed solely on visual estimation, the court will accept the officers estimation as your speed. There aren't many people that can do this but I have seen SJPD's radar instructor in court get a conviction based solely on visual estimation. No RADAR, LIDAR, or pacing. He's got about 20 years on though.

 

so you mean to tell me that if you dont have someone on radar....and the person you gave a speeding ticket to takes you to court.....the judge can side with the cop because the cop "guessed" how fast you were going?

 

The officer is not "guessing". If he is certified and trained his estimation of your speed is taken as fact. It's part of their jobs.