I am now calmed down from getting a ticket, right outside my apartment complex. I could see my apartment on my rear view mirror on where I was stopped.

Posted speed limit is 40 mph, and the cop was on a left turning lane on the top of the hill, just sitting there. The sun was in my eyes, I was going up the hill and I know I was accelerating. Cop made a movie-stuntman u-turn and followed me for about half a mile. As he was tailing me, I was doing the speed limit. No other car near us for a good 1/4 mile.

He wrote me down for 56 mph on a 40 mph. I now have a Notice to Appear in Court.
Vehicle Code: 22350 Basic Speed - Infraction

My first ticket, ever! in my whole driving life.
Does anyone know how much is the fine for this in California?
What are the best options in getting out and not jacking my insurance up? btw, I'm 24 years old.

I'm not sure if this played part why I got pulled over, but I just recently changed my back window sticker from a medium sized Raider sticker to the biggest one that they have. Maybe he doesn't like the Raiders? I am beginning to think that stereotyping is involved, nice truck - supercharged, ah of course he's speeding.

Enough of my ranting. I hope I get some good advice from you guys and get this thing behind me and move on with my life.

Chester

 

i dont know about cali but i know in new mexico you can go to drivers school and it wont be on your record or anything

 

ah, sorry to hear that. that sucks. hope everything goes aight, and let us know how it turns out

the big shiny chrome dubs probably caught his attention, and he just felt like giving somebody a ticket.

i've got a story for ya. My mom had to drive my truck to work one night cuz her car was in the shop, and she works nights up at a postal distribution place and sorts priority mail or something like that, and when she was coming home at about 2 in the morning, the cop pulled her over for not yeilding enough when pulling out of the parking lot His headlights probably caught the reflection of the big chrome wheels when she was pulling out, and the lounder than most car exhaust caught his attention and he probably thought it was a young teenager (like myself ) going to pull out and go speed or something cuz the roads are dead here by 8 pm, so at 2 in the morning, nobody's around LoL. and he even gave her a ticket. but what can ya do.

good luck!

 

If this is your first ticket you will get a notice in the mail to pay a fine and the option to go to traffic school. If you go to traffic school it will be like you never got a ticket. This means it won't show up on your insurance.

 

You said you know you were speeding. How much you were doing?

 

In TX get your first ticket go to driving school and get it dismissed. Like you never had one. Of course you must steer clear of another for at least 3 months depending on where you get stopped and how strict they are!

I got one about 5 months ago for running a red light I know it was stupid but I was going fast and didn't have time to stop without screaching to a stop at the busy intersection. Of course then I would've gotten one for reckless driving, and another for speeding, and a third for running the light.

Anyway the lady at city hall told me it would be $250 or defensive driving $25, copy of driving record $10, and court fees $50-60 (i don't quite remember).

I went to defensive driving and actually learned a thing or two and no ticket on record. I actually got an extra copy from the state for my insurance. I took it in to my insurance and they gave me a discount.

I gotta stay outta a ticket in that particular Texas city for a year though! Dang!

One of my cousins has gotten a few there! Once for excessive acceleration---aka taking off too fast! Bull!!!!

 

I'm not sure about Cali, but in Texas you don't qualify for defensive driving if you are going more than 10mph over the limit. You might want to check that out. You should be able to look it up on line.
Another option we have here is to get a Lawyer that specializes in traffic tickets. They usually manage to get them dismissed, and their fees aren't much more than the fine. Certainly cheaper than what your insurance might cost if it goes up...

 

i think in the lightning forum someone posted some, well, just percents, as they saw them anyways. they said if you show up to court, theres about a 50/50 chance of winning. if you go with a lawyer it's like 90-99 percent. something like that. get a lawyer, after the ticket and a few months of the insurance hike, i'm sure he would be well worth it.

 

Definitely faster then 40 mph. I was going up hill so I was pushing the pedal more. He probably clocked me when I had just punched it, because by the time I saw him I was already slowing down from 50ish.

Thanks for the response guys. It gives me reassurance that I can go on with a clean driving record.

I've been having really some bad luck lately.
My other car got flooded. Two servers crashed at work and I had to rebuild them in the wee hours of the night. I ran over some paint with the truck... I go out to get some paint thinner and I get pulled over for speeding right freakin outside my apt complex.

Anyone else? I would like to hear from someone here in California so I can better judge what to expect.

 

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate it.

How much does traffic school cost?
I've been doing a lot of searching on the DMV website and Traffic Court of California, but doesn't really lay out the exact fines and penalties.

 

Why don't you just get a lawyer?

I got a speeding ticket...and just called one of the lawyers that some-how find out your home address and the fact that you got a speeding ticket and send you their advertisements. They cleared everything for me (no driving school/points/ticket fees) Total cost was like $70 -- Less than the speeding ticket would have cost

 

the best idea, and what i would do, is if there is no driving school, just get a lawyer. the better lawyers are buds with the judge, and can get them to get rid of it. and they've had plenty of cases like this, and i'm sure they know what to do. it would be very difficult to get charged with speeding if you got a lawyer.

 

The more I read this, the more I think that an officer is more inclined to ticket someone with our trucks.

A similar event happen a few months back, with my daily, insconspicuous Toyota Tercel. Red light, I slammed the brakes, smoked the front tires for about 12-15 feet, smoke everywhere, car was halfway past the line. Lane to my left is a city cop. No ticket.

I think us HD drivers might also suffer from the stereotyping that Lightning owners experience. Oh, it's supercharged, nice-truck... of course they're speeding...

 

I'll have to second the guys that talked about a lawyer. I am a junior in college and my only ticket ever was in hs my soph year and it was only 28 in a 25. I got a lawyer and he got it down to faulty equipment and saved me like $80 and in the end the whole thing only cost me $70. The whole thing was stupid to me, but I think getting a lawyer is the way to go, he kept the points off my license too.

 

I'll look into the lawyer when I find out how much the fine is. Either way, paying less than the fine and no points is what I'm after. It seems from your experiences that this is the best way to go.

If I may ask... what kind of violation(s) did you have when you used a lawyer? Was it much worse than 56mph on a 40mph?

Keep the replies coming guys, you've all been really helpful