BS I got a Ticket yesterday

[1-3-2-4]

Man until my friend said it I Forgot it was nearing the end of the month.....

First of all I'm pleading not Guilty as I did nothing wrong..

But anyways it's a Ticket in NY State in the Bronx the Cop Who just came from pulling someone else over, I saw him cut across the grass on the highway, so I slow down because I did not know if he was going to dart in front of me or not.. So once he did not I went again at my normal 55mph pace, that was FINE....

However this is where he does stupid crap. He had a unmarked car with him as well, So the NYS cop gets in front of me, He is 4 Seconds in front of me (How I was told in driving school to do) and his unmarked buddy is still in the 3rd lane, and when the NYS cop moves to the 1 lane, then the unmarked car moves in the first lane... and about 10 secs later, I've got Red and white lights all over my rear, I said aloud in the car WTF???

so I pull over and he asks me "Do you know why I pulled you over?" I said "No"

he writes on the Tivcket "Follow too closely"

Thats pure BS.. It took me 5 times looking at the ticket to see what the price was, and it seems to fall under "All Others" Which is $40 + $50 Surecharge

And the best part of it was, when waiting for him to bring back my DL and Ins card I watched Traffic on I-95 South and cars were like 1 Sec behind each other at 50 Mph... WTF?????

and I was 4 SEC behind him at 50Mph

[rallysam]

That's rediculous.

FYI - In MD driver's school I was taught the 2 second rule, not the 4 second rule. 4 seconds is LOOOONG way. Most people leave about a 1 second gap here.

[BAC5.2]

Cops want an admission of guilt when they pull you over. Saying "no" makes them WANT to give you a ticket. If you truly haven't done anything wrong, just ask him what you did wrong.

You say you were in the middle lane and a cop was 4 seconds in front of you, and his buddy was behind you in the left lane. The state cop pulled into the first lane (no longer in front of you) and the unmarked car (still behind you in the left lane) passes behind you to the right lane, then pulls you over for following to closely?

I agree that you may have done nothing wrong, espically since you were driving at a maintained speed when the officer pulled in front of you. While it is the approaching car that needs to be aware of members in another lane, it is your responsibility to slow down and maintain a safe following distance.

You'll probably get the ticket. It's their word against yours. The only way you could get off is if the unmarked car gave you the ticket and didn't actually observe that you were following too closely but rather went by what the other officer said. What I mean, is that if the unmarked car wasn't next to you to time the following distance, there isn't much way to pinpoint a ticket on you.

If he pulls out a time figure, do some quick math and show that it's still an appropriate following distance. Even 2 seconds gives ample margin of error distance should something occur. It takes, conservatively, 3/4 a second for you to see something and appropriately respond with a foot on the brake or driver input of the wheel. At 50mph, 1.25 seconds covers about 92 feet. Over 5 car lengths. 4 seconds gives 294 feet (over 16 car lengths).

92 feet is just 8 feet shy of the distance a stock Dodge Viper can stop from 60mph.

Go prepared and you might be able to scrap it out alive.

If the cop says "He just looked like he was following to closely" you could easily show how biased that could be. From a distance of 12 to 15 feet, can the officer determine, at speed, an exact distance? Probably not. Espically since your traveling at 74 feet per second, with lines on the highway and lights in the car and on the side of the road obscuring his vision. Cops are trained to judge speed to within 5mph by eye. They aren't really trained to judge distance with nary a reference.

If you just plead not-guilty, you'll get a ticket. Go prepared.

[1-3-2-4]

On the Ticket it is marked "Pave Marks"

so I'm guessing he was counting the pavment markers (white lines) on the road, Still I had enough room...

and besides the unmarked car was behind me and from the looks of it, if I had slowed down I still would of been pulled over...

At one point I was riding right along side of the Unmarked car, but I can't remember if the NYS Cop moved over into the middle lane with me when he was alone side me.

I already marked not guilty on the back of the ticket, and I will be ready whenever they are ready.

[206er]

sounds like the piggies had a quota to meet and you took the fall. fight that shit fo sho.

[BAC5.2]

Can you count the lines on the highway while going 50mph? I can't.

[1-3-2-4]

Can you count the lines on the highway while going 50mph? I can't.

I know I sure as hell can't

[1-3-2-4]

sounds like the piggies had a quota to meet and you took the fall. fight that shit fo sho.

yeah.. out of ALLLL the other drivers following others less then 2 Seconds behind each other at 40 Mph, I do go and slow to let the cop on..

[corsair]

ugh, sorry to hear about that, I just witnessed someone else get nailed today

I noticed someone running along the road and while I was trying to figure out if I recognized him a cop, in the most obvious speed trap around, pulls up to pull onto the road lights flashing and stuff.

Being the excellent law abiding citizen I am I quickly brake and make it obvious that I'm letting him pull in. The cop waved at me and proceeded to make the fastest sprint I've ever seen a Ford Explorer make and he was outta there.

Phil's right though, you probably can fight the ticket. Hopefully the cop won't even show, then you generally can get off easier, I think.

[1-3-2-4]

haha and you know what was also great, he did not Signal to change lanes, and thats a New York state law.

[0perose]

if the cop doesn' show up to testify, you get off scott freeeeee

[evolutionmovement]

They probably figure for $90 you'll just pay it. I know taking a day off work for me for something like that could cost me several times that. I have always admired those who shoot traffic cops - keep 'em cocksuckers on their toes. I don't necessarily encourage that, but I certainly feel no sympathy for the prick that got shot. And for the books, every time I've done the polite BS routine 'yes, officer, (I'm a faggot) and I'm going to be reaching into my glovebox now' crap they spew at you to do, I've gotten a ticket. When I've given them a ration of shit (the few times I wasn't actually doing something wrong) I've gotten a warning.

Fear keeps the weak (and the law abiding) in line ... now doesn't that sound like a common tactic ...

Steve

[1-3-2-4]

yeah I pay $90 and it goes onto my Ins which then jacks it up from $264 to some cazy amount.

I know when I ran a Stop sign in Port Chester, NY (was looking at the labtop that had Gps mapping on it. As soon as I passed it I slowed down and I was checking my rearview mirror trying to see if it was a sign or not.. so I go on slowy and as soon as I know it I had 2 cop cars come from out of no place on my tail, and as soon as the cop came to the window I said "That was a stop sign right?" and he said yeah, I told him I was lost... and I really was, I ment to take West 287 but I took a back road and I got myself mixed up.

Anyways I just got off on a warning, he did ask me what streets were near were I pulled him over, Never really understood that part, but he told me "just be careful and make sure you don't focus too much on that"

[Tleg93]

A ticket will make your insurance go up? I had an incident which should have shot my insurance through the roof but because I didn't have to renew my policy it has gone undetected. Don't let your insurance go lax and don't change policy holders and they shouldn't find out about it.

[subawhatsubawho]

The next town over from me has thw worst crime rate of all my county...but my city my city has the highest traffic stop rate in all the county.

[greg donovan]

I have always admired those who shoot traffic cops - keep 'em cocksuckers on their toes. I don't necessarily encourage that, but I certainly feel no sympathy for the prick that got shot.

what the hell? that is damn shitty thing to say.

[dzx]

Haha, I was telling my uncle the other day i wished terrorists would go after police rather than citizens.

[MrSarcastic13]

Ok, just a couple of quick questions:

1. Where were you pulled over?

2. Was it by NYC cops or NYS cops?

3. When did they start to track you.

Reading your post you said it was NYS cops, which, if I remember correctly, do not have jurisdiction within city limits, at all. So if they tracked you from Westchester into the city is one thing, but if they started in the city you might be able to fight it.

Then again, I could be wrong.

[1-3-2-4]

Ok, just a couple of quick questions:

1. Where were you pulled over?

2. Was it by NYC cops or NYS cops?

3. When did they start to track you.

Reading your post you said it was NYS cops, which, if I remember correctly, do not have jurisdiction within city limits, at all. So if they tracked you from Westchester into the city is one thing, but if they started in the city you might be able to fight it.

Then again, I could be wrong.

Seem to be NYS cop, had the Red and white lights, I was headed to NJ

I was coming from CT

[sammydafish]

Both State troopers and DEP cops have jurisdiction in the whole state, this was recently upheld in a court case where a DEP cop wrote a ticket outside the watershed area. It's a loophole in the law, but it allows them to have no limits on jurisdiction.

Anyway, I recently had a convo with a cop friend of mine about tailgaters. Personally I believe that it is the leading cause for accidents and road rage. People drive to uptight, they ride someone’s ass, that pisses off the person they are tailgating which makes it harder for them to concentrate on driving, which degrades their ability to react to an incident on the road. Now the root cause of all this is that people are simply impatient and inconsiderate, but that's not against the law and tailgating is. So I ask, why don’t I ever see people getting written for tailgating? His answer, 'It's nearly imposable to write a ticket for tailgating and have it stand up in court'. The reason why is that it's to hard to prove as there is no device to measure it.

Now, looking at your case, they had the situation they need to write the ticket, they had two independent officers observe the 'violation' You should request the office write a deposition. In this he must detail everything that happened. Since it requires two officers to write this ticket, they both would have to write a deposition. If there are discrepancies then you would be able to get out of it.

Basically, you found a pair of cops that decided they would give everyone a ticket no matter what. It's a great way to raise revenue for the town. ........ sigh

[1-3-2-4]

yeah thats how I feel... I mean he wrote my wrong address on the ticket, my new address was on the back of the Drivers License.

[evolutionmovement]

Greg, cops are a damn shitty thing to be. Sorry, but they've worked hard to earn my disrespect ... just like the Arabs when I went to Egypt.

I stopped talking to a friend who just became a state trooper and a huge ego dick in turn and boring with all the incessant cop-talk. That said, my problems are more with city cops as the few tickets I've gotten from staties were legit and they were very courteous and professional. Plus, what the hell else do they do? city cops should be stopping rapes and murders or leaving it to people like me who love the open opportunity to do something about it ourselves.

I think you should walk from this ticket in court, the fact that he wrote the wrong address should show a lack of attention to detail that would call into question the officer's accuracy, plus it's a shaky charge to begin with.

Steve

[1-3-2-4]

I think you should walk from this ticket in court, the fact that he wrote the wrong address should show a lack of attention to detail that would call into question the officer's accuracy, plus it's a shaky charge to begin with.

Steve

yeah that was the first thing I saw on my Ticket.. Most cops should flip over the DL and he would of saw the DMV sticker with my new address.

I don't really hate cops, I just don't like the paper pushing type thing to meet your Quota for the month.

[evolutionmovement]

It's good you don't hate cops. I do, as well as most people in general, and it's not really healthy. I don't dwell on it, but it does cause me to vent a lot and scare people away ... well, maybe that part's not so bad, but the negative energy can't be good.

Steve

[1-3-2-4]

I'm not really all that worried about it because I had enough room to stop if he somehow got stupid and slamed on the brakes.

i've been driving LONG enough to know what my limits are..

I mean for $hit sake I've Driven in NY state at least 15 times, 3 of them being in Downtown Manhattan.

NEVER had an issue, I mean geeez the day after I got my DL the day (my Birthday) I drove to Canada and back.

What I'm going to do since the Ticket needs to go to Albany, NY I figure I will time it, they say mail it within 15 days, so I still have some time left, if I time it right the cop can Forget Or Not show.

And don't think I will forget, I'm may be 21 years old right now but I can still remember stuff very well from my childhood, which shocked my own mom.