1 ticket when I was 17, none for the past 26+ years. I have had more cars stolen out of my driveway than I have had tickets.
Been driving 14 years, and had a couple one speeding ticket (from an auto multanova speed camera in Australia) and one ticket when one of my buddies was hanging out the window waving at someone. I've had one accident and it was my fault - about 2 months ago on Eldridge Parkway - I basically ran a stop sign and hit a guy. STUPID, but in my defense:- a) it was a brand new intersection b) there were traffic lights AND stop signs, but the traffic lights were turned off - I just wasn't paying enough attention to see the stop sign. c) There was another accident there about 10 minutes after mine. My car was totalled, but I wasn't hurt. The other guy has "non specific neck and back injuries" I hope he is not seriously hurt because I would hate something like that to happen to me. Let me tell you - airbags going off in your face are quite a shock.
I have been pulled close to 150 times,(various reasons) in 14 years of driving. This sound crazy to me too, but all I can remember when I was young, getting pulled over like 15-20 times per year for the first 5 years. I did drive alot back then especially at night. Most of the stops, the cops were just checking what I was up to and just gave me warning (their reason to stop me). I must just have clean look and they let me go. They were just looking for alcohol use which I was very careful with. Plus, I also made many trips from Austin to Houston. I averaged about a ticket per year the first 8 years and since then about 1 ticket every two years. But, I have gotten 2 tickets in the past 4 months, the damm lowered speed limits and the increased use of laser radars is getting me in trouble. (This allows the cops to hide even more.) As a matter of fact I need to go to court today to accept Defensive driving for one of the tickets. My lawyer is going to take care of the other one. 0 tickets on my record (clean record) 12 tickets (2 pending) speeding, all taken care of by Defensive driving or Lawyer 3 times. 3 accidents. 2 my fault, (1 major , 2 minor) no tickets here. These lowered limits is going to be a challenge from here on out. This year has already been way above par for me.
I remember getting two speeding tickets when I was 16 (in 1987-88) when I had my Trans-Am. I also got a ticket for expired inspection sticker when I drove my father's Mustang one day when I was 16. I also got pulled over in that Trans Am a couple of other times. Once the police wanted to search my car to see if I had any eggs or spray paint or whatnot. They had no cause and got no permission, but the Amarillo Police don't so much care about the law, ironically. Another time I got pulled over because the officer wanted to look at my window tinting. He spent about half an hour staring at the certification sticker on the window. I figure he was just harrassing me because he could. I also got a ticket for being stopped and having someone slam into the front of my car on my side of the street. "Failure to yield right of way" was the charge on the ticket. I guess in Amarillo, you're supposed to clear the entire street when a car is coming the other direction. Little did I know I was supposed to put it in reverse and back completely off the street so the other car could swerve around the road with impunity. (My real guess is that the cop just didn't like me because I was a teenager with a nice car. Plus, the other driver, a female, cried. Sidenote: the same officer was eventually fired for assaulting a teenager in a local park. So, I guess I got off lucky by just getting an unjustified ticket, and a $1,000 bill from the place that fixed my car). At 17, we traded my Trans Am for a Toyota Celica, and I didn't get another speeding ticket until I was in college in Lubbock, and I got pulled over going to the United supermarket on whatever street that was right by my apartment. I did get pulled over once when I was deciding whether to buy the Celica. The dealership let me take it home with me, but they left those black dealer temp tags on the car (rightfully so, I would think). An officer pulled me over saying that my license tags were illegal and that I couldn't drive a car with those temp tags in it (which makes me wonder how people test drive cars. I guess they're all breaking the law in this Serpico's world). He also told me I had run a yellow light (something I didn't know was possible). He ended up giving me a written warning, though. I assume that was because he knew the ticket would be dismissed if I challenged it (though he did write "running a red light" on the warning itself even though he had just got done telling me I had run a yellow light. b*stard.) I must've gotten a speeding ticket between the Lubbock one and the next one, though, because it would later come back to haunt me (see below). My next speeding ticket came a few years later when I was driving from Amarillo to Dallas. I got pulled over in Vernon, Texas for doing 65 (the speed limit was still 55 on that road then. It's 70 now). That would've been 1992. I got pulled over again in 1993 leaving a bar. I'm sure the officer wanted to check to see if I was drunk, but I hadn't been drinking at all. He seemed genuinely upset by this fact. This stop did cause me trouble, though, as the officer came by my house a few days later (on my 22nd birthday) and arrested me as I apparently didn't ever pay the ticket I had before. After that, I didn't get another speeding ticket until 1997 when I was on my way to a doctor's appointment and wasn't watching my speed closely enough (40 in a 30). And that's the last speeding ticket I remember getting, though I was told last year that I had an outstanding speeding ticket from 1999 in some place I don't even remember going to in 1999. I paid the ticket and the fine, but I cannot for the life of me remember getting that ticket. Oh, I also had a ticket for running a stop sign in early 1994 in Decatur, TX that I hadn't paid. I finally took care of that late last year. Other than that, I've been pulled over a couple of times to get field sobriety tests (apparently just a random thing since I don't drink), and I got pulled over a couple of times in regards to expired license plates or expired inspection stickers. I sometimes lose track of those things and fail to get them renewed on time. The police officers usually just give me a warning on those, though. I see the Plano police staked out apparently looking for speeders all the time, though I rarely see them pull anybody over. I actually suspect that the officers are simply parked and taking naps rather than looking out for speeders, but I may think that largely because of my low view of the Plano Police Department and their willingness to enforce the laws of this city and this state.
I taught my wife to drive when we arrived in Houston, which was about 1.75 years ago. She's suffering from the same malady many new drivers face: leadfoot. Since then, I've gotten 2 speeding tickets while she hasn't had any. I pray daily she'll get a ticket, but to no avail. Earlier this year, my brother was rear-ended on 2 consecutive days. No damage either time, but consecutive days is pretty weird. Now my stats: 10 years driving (3-4 years of actually having a car though). Two speeding tickets. Numerous warnings. 1 major accident, deemed not my fault (but was it?).
25 years of driving... No accidents that were my fault, though I did get blindsided by a drunk driver in Austin one night. Tickets are another matter. Got my first one at 16 and was so freaked that I didn't fess up and pay it. Fast forward to college, where I'm driving to an economics final. My Mom had not sent me the new tag, so I was driving with expired plates. Got pulled over, the cop ran my name, the warrant for my high school blunder came up, and off to jail I went. I had just gotten about 8 inches of hair cut off that morning, so when I got to jail, the Deputy said, "Well, we don't get many clean-cut young men in here, so I'm gonna give you the best cell we have. If you need anything else, like cigarettes or candy, you just holler." I thanked the gentleman, informed him I didn't smoke, but a candy bar would be nice, and promptly called Mom to come bail me out. After the phone call, they take my belt, shoelaces, and worst of all, my glasses. This is so I won't kill myself over an unpaid ticket and expired plates. When I get to the cell, I can barely make out blurry figures in the cells across from me. People are trying to talk to me, but because the enunciation skills among the jail set are somewhat lacking and I can't see well enough to lip-read, I have no idea what they're saying so I just sit down and wait for Mom. A little while later, another guy is thrown in the cell with me. After a few awkard moments of sizing each other up, he starts with the basic jailhouse etiquette "So, what are you in for?" "Unpaid Ticket. You?" "They say I raped some girls." "Well, uh..." "I was framed." "Yeah, well, I'm just going to try to catch some shuteye." Whereupon I sat down across the cell from him and prayed fervently that Mom would show soon. After 4 hours or so, Mom did show up and paid all the charges so I was a free man once again. On the way out, the Deputy says, "It was a pleasure having such a nice young man in my jail." Mom was apologetic for not sending me the renewal and we went out and had a good meal. I was brutally honest with the economics prof, who I think got a grin out of the whole deal, and he let me take the grade I had before the final. A few weeks later I got pulled over for speeding and just as the cop was looking at my DL and saying, "I'm gonna have to write you a ticket," a call on the radio about some kind of shooting in an apartment comes on. He throws my DL at me and tells me to slow it down. When Grad School came, I was driving between Virginia and TX a great deal. Racked up speeding tickets in Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Virginia. Also later got tickets in DC, North Carolina, Georgia, Colorado, and Utah. The shooting incident was the only time I've been pulled over for speeding and not gotten a ticket. Once I got married, I became slightly more conservative and haven't had a ticket in about 12 years, though this is probably more attributable to recent good luck balancing out the bad luck of my younger days.
I have had 1 ticket in 9 years of driving, it was bunk too. the speed limit had just changed to 75 on the freeway. I was heading down a hill and I topped out at 79 mabey 80 when I go through an underpass. All of a sudden there is this car right on my bumper, I mean he was so close once that I could not see his lights then the party lights come on and i pull over. Needles to say I am a bit frazzled from some guy tailing me for 2 minutes right on my bumper, then having him pull me over. He gives me the standard line, "do you know how fast you were going" I say 78, we talk he asks me again, I say about 80 we keep talking and he asks me one more time I say around 79. He says IVFL I have asked you three timest how fast you were going and you story keeps changing. I say Fine I was going 79 miles an hour, 4 miles over the speed limit, comming off a hill. SORRY. He gives me a lecture on just because the speed limit has changed does not mean people can go faster, BLAH BLAH BLAH. I was heading home from college so there was no way I was going to contest that ticket. Lame Lame Lame reason to get a ticket. Well come to find out, this guy broke the law in giving me a ticket. Fiirst, he was behind a pillar of the overpass with his lights off at night, A cop in Idaho has to be in plain sight when monitoring speed. He got right up on my bumber, If I would have tapped my brakes he would have ran into me. He did not put or tell me how fast I was going conviently for him he left the speed I was going off the ticket. I still get mad when I think about it.
Something sort-of related: Racers contribute to counties' coffers By GREG CUNNINGHAM gcunningham@amarillonet.com Law enforcement officials in Texas and Oklahoma were in "hot pursuit" Sunday as they stopped dozens of racers re-enacting the cross-country journeys from the classic early '80s rally movies. Officials in counties along U.S. Highway 287 and Interstate 40 reported pulling over exotic sports cars, many traveling in excess of 100 mph, and handing out hefty fines as the drivers tried to complete the Gumball Rally 3000 from New York to Los Angeles. "Yeah, they donated a little money to our county funds," said Donley County Sheriff Butch Blackburn of the racers. The Gumball Rally is a collection of drivers who pay thousands of dollars to participate in a 3,000-mile cross-country race. The competition has been held in Europe the past couple of years but moved back to America this year to recreate the route in the seminal rally movie, "The Gumball Rally," according to the race Web site. The cars that came through the area Sunday afternoon were traveling on the Dallas to Santa Fe, N.M. leg of the race on their way to the finish line in Los Angeles. Blackburn wasn't sure how many cars his deputies pulled over near Clarendon but said the number was at least 10. The fastest one was clocked doing 121 mph. "Most of them were high-dollar cars," Blackburn said. "We had one or two Jaguars, one Lamborghini, a Ferrari, some Porsches, a little bit of everything." It was a good thing the drivers had the money for expensive cars, because many of them got slapped with hefty fines. Blackburn said the fine for exceeding 100 mph in Texas is $255. Blackburn's deputies lined the cars up along the highway until they got two or three stopped, then they ran the drivers over to the Justice of the Peace court to let them pay their fines. Apparently the fines didn't have the desired effect, because one of the drivers got caught a second time in Donley County, clocking in at 94 mph after paying a fine for going 110. Donley wasn't the only county adding to the coffers through speeding tickets, however. An Armstrong County dispatcher reported stopping two racers, the fastest traveling at 127 miles per hour. Childress County made a couple of stops, as did the Amarillo Police Department. The champion ticket writer was Oldham County, however. A dispatcher there said a Department of Public Safety trooper made 23 stops on his Sunday shift. DPS spokesman Wayne Beighle said most of the people stopped in Texas looked at the fines as the cost of doing business, many having blank money orders or cash on hand to pay the levy. Although the drivers DPS stopped were all cheerful and provided no problems for troopers, Beighle pointed out that having cars traveling at triple-digit speeds is no laughing matter. "It's extremely dangerous when you're driving that fast, passing cars on the highway," Beighle said. "We're real fortunate that in our area, we didn't have any major accidents with it." Most took the race more lightly, however. "All of them were pretty good natured about it," Blackburn said.
Do I even have to recount my run-ins? I've probably been pulled over 4 or 5 times in my life and received one or more tickets with each stop....three of those tickets in two stops on the same road I travel up and down at least 4 times daily which is 40 mph. The last one was a no seat belt ticket which the cop blatantly lied about as there is no way he could not have seen my seat belt was on as he was directly behind me for 5 minutes....4 of those at a stop light. All I was doing was going about my business listening to a talk show laughing and I get pulled over for doing nothing wrong. Of course, he had to write me a ticket to meet his month end quota. Used the common phrase "I'm only looking out for your safety".....my aching ass your are. Three years before that...same road(40 mph)...weather is pitch black and there is some rain on a morning. Two cars in a two lane decide to try the old "Smokey and the Bandit" sandwich maneuver the whole time and not let anyone pass. Eventually, the focker in the left lane falls back some and I think he is letting me over. I am a few carlengths behind the car in the right lane going about 25 mph in a 40 mph(can we go any slower?). So, I speed up and so I can take advantage to get over. With speed, I was going 47 mph after I got over. Cop lights ring out. I'm on a busy road and am looking for a safe place to pull over. Cop loses his cool and starts to run along side me and pull in front of me to cut me off. At that time, I find a reasonable place to pull over in a parking lot and stop. I get the dick cop talk about why I didn't pull over IMMEDIATELY when I saw the lights. I proceeded to explain that with the bad weather on a very busy road...I didn't want dick cop to get hit by another car in very bad conditions. I was going slow and it was obvious I was looking for a good place to pull over. What do I get for that concern? A dick cop and partner who say I was going 55 MPH(lie #1) and I was tailgating(lie #2). Thanks...bad cops. The other times were when I was younger. One was on the way home from surfing in Galveston. Had surfboards strapped to my car and cop probably pulled me over cause I was a surfer. Second time was actually in Galveston. Both were just speeding tickets and justified. I think I also got a ticket once driving on 71 in Austin. All my other cop experiences were for MIP...4 of those which I won't get into.
149 in a 45 first week I had my motorcycle, I was lucky cuz it was my first and only driving offense in 3 whole years $280 dollar fine, traffic school and 25 hours working at the airport,
