Talking your way out of speeding ticket...

[Ms3r4ISU]

Brilliant. I'm sure it won't be so satisfying when someone slams into the back of your car at a high rate of speed. Hopefully you are not stupid enough to be doing this with kids in the car.

I understand what you're saying. But I remember my Driver's Ed teacher telling us that in the case of an accident (or crash as they're now called) that 99.9999% (yes, he said that) of the time, it's the fault of the driver in back/behind.

[VeloClone]

I have gotten out of two tickets in my day.

One time way back in High School I was chasing a buddy in Cedar Falls and I flat out blew a light that had just turned red. As I was clearing the intersection I saw a cruiser sitting at the intersection. When asked I simply told them (two cops) that I wasn't paying attention and saw the light too late to safely stop. They checked my license came back to the car and said, "We did the same thing earlier tonight. Be careful out there." Never mind that I was obviously doing 10-15 over the limit as well.

Another time just last year I was doing 70+ in a 55 on highway 52 around the MN/IA state line. He came up and asked me if I knew how fast I was going. I said I didn't know but I was sure I was speeding (the truth). He asked me what my record looked like. I said I thought I had one speeding ticket on my record in the last three years (again, the truth). He went back and checked my record, returned and asked me to watch my speed and have a good day.

Once I was heading down I-80 in northern Iowa. I was traveling pretty much right along with a woman in another car doing about 80. Suddenly I saw a trooper with lights on coming up fast. I slowed down and prepared to pull over. He blew past me and stopped the woman who didn't slow down. I moved over to the left lane and when I got close he turned on the cherries and pulled out so I immediately pulled in behind him. I waited while he talked to the woman for about two minutes. Then he came back to talk to me. He had clocked us with stop watches as they had measured the distance between two overpasses and he clocked us both at 80 point something (I think it was actually 80.1 something). After he got my license he wrote me up for 80 (no break whatsoever). However, he made the woman wait while he took care of me. I don't know what she said, but I'm sure she wasn't as nice as I was or she would have gotten out of there first.

I guess it has been my experience that a cop comes to the window either intent on writing a ticket, planning to warn you, or deciding after seeing how the stop goes. There is not much you can do to get out of the first group, plenty you can do to get out of the second group and obviously you have a lot of say in what happens to you in the third group. I treat them with repect, don't lie about what is going on (anymore) and respect that they have an often thankless job to do. It has served me well; I admit I have a lead foot. If I am willing to speed, I better be prepared to take the consequences and not get all bent out of shape if I get caught doing it.

[synapticwave]

I was late going to an intramural basketball game at lied rec center (3 on 3 league was played in the rec at the time) and was going about 70mph down beach right past Maple Hall when a cop turned out of Richardson court. I had a brand new Dodge Avenger and the cop whipped around but I was well past him before his lights came on. As soon as I got in to the rec parking lot I just grabbed my bball shoes and started running in like I always did, pretending not to have see him at all.

He came screaching into the parking and yelled over a megaphone for me to get back in the car and I played dumb and just ran back to the car. When he came up to the window he asked what I was doing and I explained how I was a freshman in college, just flunked my first exam, probably was going to lose a scholarship, got dumped by my girlfriend and all I wanted to do was to get to the championship game of my basketball league that I was already late for. (which was mostly accurate)

The cop shrugged and said, "Sounds like a ****** week. As long as this car ain't stolen, you can get to your game in a minute son." He took my ID and registration and when he came back he just wished me good luck on the game.

Best part of the story, we ended up winning and I drove home with a intramural championship t-shirt.

[M3MEPLEASE]

I understand what you're saying. But I remember my Driver's Ed teacher telling us that in the case of an accident (or crash as they're now called) that 99.9999% (yes, he said that) of the time, it's the fault of the driver in back/behind.

I don't care who's fault it is, if you're driving really slow on the interstate you are putting yourself at significantly higher risk of getting in an accident. Yeah it will be the other guys fault if hes texting while driving 85mph and then looks up to see a car going 41 MPH within 20 feet.

[ca4cy]

My buddy had just bought a house and we went to Sears to buy a fridge. We were young and stupid so we were just grunting it into the house rather than using an appliance cart (and I wonder why my back sucks now).....we got it stuck in the door. It's 9:00 at night, the dead of winter, and the door to his house is wide open. I jump in the driver's seat of my buddy's truck and we take off for the shop where he works to get a cart. My buddy was coming off of 3 speeding tickets in the last 6 months, two of which were over 100 mph.

So of course, I get pulled over going 48 in a 25 past a school in Marion. I pull over immediately, switch on the dome light, and put both hands on the wheel. I wait until he tells me to roll down the window before I move. He asks for license and insurance and asks what the hurry is. I told him if he backtracked us about 5 blocks there a refridg wedged in a door at such and such address and that we're just going to get some equip to get it loose. He chuckles, goes back and runs the info. He comes back, tells me to take it easy and good luck with the fridge. I thanked him and shook his hand.

[iowast8fan]

Unless you are a girl with tears dripping down your face, the cop usually has his mind made up about a ticket before he even talks to you.

[IcSyU]

Unless you are a girl with an awesome rack you aren't afraid to flaunt, the cop usually has his mind made up about a ticket before he even talks to you.

Fixed.

[SuperCy]

This is still on of my favorites.

I was probably in Jr. High at the time. My dad was driving with my mom in the passenger seat and me in the backseat. My dad got pulled over just west of Dallas Center on 44. The State Trooper comes up to the car and asks my dad for his ID. As my dad was getting his wallet my mom looked at him and said, "Exactly how ******* fast were you going?"

My dad hadn't even given the trooper his ID when he said to him, "It looks like you've got enough problems already." With that he let him go.

We all still make fun of mom for that.

[CykoAGR]

I got pulled over once on a county road around 11 pm in SW IA doing probably 70 in a 55. I was sober (thank god) and when the officer saw I had my CDL he asked what I did and if driving was part of my job. I said yes (truth) and he let me off with a warning. Not sure if it had anything to do with my CDL or not but he was really cool about it.

I agree seems like some times they have their minds made up before they get to the window and no matter what you are screwed. The rest of the time how you act is a big part in whether or not you actually get a ticket or not.

[wxman1]

I didn't get out of it but I grew up in Marion and for the first 17 years of my life I had never seen a Marion officer with one of those cop hats on...until I got pulled over for running a stop sign at 11:30 at night with no one around and he supposedly saw me run it from a quarter mile away on a dark residential street with cars parked every where...I came close to asking him if the moon was too bright but decided that wasn't the best decision.

[ca4cy]

This is still on of my favorites.

I was probably in Jr. High at the time. My dad was driving with my mom in the passenger seat and me in the backseat. My dad got pulled over just west of Dallas Center on 44. The State Trooper comes up to the car and asks my dad for his ID. As my dad was getting his wallet my mom looked at him and said, "Exactly how ******* fast were you going?"

My dad hadn't even given the trooper his ID when he said to him, "It looks like you've got enough problems already." With that he let him go.

We all still make fun of mom for that.

[3GenClone]

The only speeding ticket I ever got out of was coming back from the Houston Bowl. I got pulled over in Missouri going 80 by an over-zealous trooper who I'm fairly certain wanted to catch me trafficing drugs because he kept wanting to check the trunk(which everyone in the car was fine with) and he asked everyone in the car to show him our tickets to prove to him that we had actually been to a football game in Texas. After I sat in his patrol car for 10 minutes, while the other two passengers in the car stood outside talking to him in the snow, he let us go without even a warning about how fast we were driving. Another reason why I hate the state of Missouri.

[mojomo]

Years ago I was working very late one night. Left work at about midnight, in my p.o.s. 1972 Chevy. There was a bar called Super Toad across the street from where I worked. As soon as I pulled into the street a cop lights me up big time. He comes up to the window obviously po'd and starts sceaming at me, "Do you know how fast you were going?" I said "I dunno, 25?" he replies, "Try 55!!!!!!!!!!". then he starts with all the stuff about where I've been, have I been drinking, why am I going so fast. I explain to the officer that there must be something wrong with his radar gun. It's impossible for my old clunker to get to 55 in the less that 1 block from my job. This doesn't satisfy him and he procedes to search my car, with my permission, and finds NOTHING. Then he says he's letting me go "with a warning" and to watch my speed. After I left it occured to me that he must have stopped his car on the freeway overpass about a mile up the road and left that 55 reading on his gun all night, using that as his pretext for pulling people over and busting drunks (which is what he really wanted to do I think). What a tool.