Speeding News - e State Traffic School

SunPass Holders are responsible for:

• Changing transponder batteries when they become low


• Keeping mailing address current


• Keeping credit card or bank information current


• Keeping license plate numbers current


• Keeping car info current

Penalties Include:

• Fines (First $25, then $165)


• Drivers License Points (adds 3)


• License Suspension (at 12 points license is suspended)

To take care of these issues:

• Online at Sunpass.com


• Call Sunpass Toll Free at 1-888-865-5352

To read complete story A Fine Mess Over Tolls For SunPass Users

Labels: Drivers License Points, Driving Record, Fines, Florida, License Plate, License Suspension, Ticket, Traffic School

North Carolina police say that speeders just use "speed trap" as an excuse for getting a ticket. To read more:
http://www.gastongazette.com/news/speed_16050___article.html/speeding_arndt.html

Labels: North Carolina, Speeding Tickets, Ticket, Traffic Tickets

Get California driving tips from a racecar driver in this 2 minute video courtesy of http://eStateTrafficSchool.com. Includes information about what to do when pulled over by a police officer and where to go for help after you get the ticket!

Racecar Driver Gives California Driving Tips

Labels: Basic Driver Improvement, BDI, CA, California, California Traffic School, defensive driving, Driving Record, driving school, Speeding Tickets, Ticket, Traffic School, Traffic Tickets

Check estatetrafficschool.com for funny classes!

Labels: Ticket, Traffic School, Traffic Tickets

from CNN "How they got out of traffic tickets"
This is not a warning -- submitted by MaurDrisc
I was pulled over in a residential L.A. neighborhood for an illegal left turn. The officer asked me if I knew what I'd done. I said yes, that I'd made an illegal left turn, knowing it was illegal and that I'd done the same thing the day before, but only realized I'd made an illegal turn as I did it.
The officer asked if I realized I was admitting to having done the illegal turn twice. I said yes. He said they weren't giving out warnings; they were ticketing people. I said I realized that and knew I deserved the ticket. He reiterated the point about not giving out warnings. I said I understood. He stared at me for a long time, and then told me no one ever tells them the truth. And because of that he was giving me a warning.
I then burst into tears, thanking him because I really, really couldn't afford a ticket (which I couldn't). I think he was, perhaps, on the verge of having me committed to the nearest mental hospital, but happily I just got to drive away.

Tell all -- submitted by RGLGINC
I pulled up to a Y type intersection that had a stop sign. There was a car coming at a turtle's pace, so instead of coming to a complete stop, I did a rolling stop. Then 1/2 a mile ahead the light turned yellow so I sped up. As I am cruising at about 10 miles over the speed limit, under the yellow light, I looked in the rear-view mirror and of course there was a motorcycle cop right behind me. I politely pulled over and began to laugh, I was SO busted! So, as I roll down the window I am giggling. He looks at me funny and asks, "Ma'am, do you know why I pulled you over?" I ask him, "was it for running the stop sign, speeding or running that yellow light?"

He tells me he appreciates my honesty and that he gets tired of people making stupid excuses. Then he asks for my registration and license ... but guess what? I didn't have my license. So instead of writing a ticket for all the other things, he writes me a ticket for not having my driver's license, which just calls for me to go to the payment office and show them my driver's license. So, for all the people with dumb excuses ... it pays to be honest and you may gain respect for doing so.

Have faith -- submitted by EdwrVnCtt
I had my drivers' license just 4 days. I was driving a colleague's car registered in one state and my license was from another state. The officer said I went over the center line and thought I had been drinking. (I was not) He had me step out of the car to see if I was sober. I walk with a limp from birth. When he said, "you aren't walking very straight," I replied without wanting to be a wise guy, "I always walk like this." I was dressed in civilian clothes, but the picture on my license showed me wearing a clergy collar. I was in the seminary at the time. He asked, "Are you a priest?" Rather than explain the details of the steps to the priesthood, I simply said, "yeah." He said, "Please get back in your car, you probably have to say Mass this morning." (It was Sunday morning.) No ticket, no problem. I thanked him and was on my way.

From bad to worse -- submitted by Pamelakins
I had experienced an unusually terrible day. This is how it all started. I got off from work and went to my barn to feed my horse. I had a co-worker with me who had mentioned that I needed to wash off my windshield before leaving the barn. After feeding, I moved my truck closer to the barn. I had kept my door open while moving my vehicle. The doors lock automatically when the truck is started. I turned on my wipers and got out shutting the door behind me (the truck was still running with the keys in it!) I made several phone calls and finally managed to get the door open with a piece of wire.
I left the barn taking a friends daughter home. After dropping her off I stated to my co-worker that I should call my husband and let him know that I got the door open. That is when I realized that I had set my cell phone on top of the truck while attempting to unlock the door. It was already dark outside but we back-tracked and amazingly, found my phone on the side of the road unharmed!
It was a few miles down the road when my co-worker warned me that the police in the city we were driving through would stop you for even 5 miles over the limit. I told her I wasn't worried that I traveled through there all the time. Just then, a cop rounded the corner ahead of me and clocked me doing 60 mph in a 30 mph zone. Boy, was I going to be in trouble! The officer approached me and asked me for the usual license and insurance proof. I politely told him that I would be happy to show him my insurance but that I couldn't let him see my license. Of course he asked why and I told him that it had accidentally been put through the shredder at work and I had not gotten it replaced yet (what I didn't tell him was that it happened 11 months earlier). I then went on to tell him what a terrible evening I had just been through. I then told him I was going to do something I had never done before in my life ... beg for his mercy! Grinning from ear to ear and shaking his head, he told me to slow down and have a good evening! Talk about lucky!

Speeding in Tucson -- submitted by Umnst04
I was driving on 'Columbus' Rd. in Tucson one nice morning. I was late for work (as usual) and I was speeding -- 57 in a 35 mile an hour zone!! A motorcycle officer stopped me. "Yikes, great, now I'll really be late!" I thought, "How can I get out of this?" I'm not so great looking, a bit over weight, a large, Italian nose. However, he was great looking!
Oh well I thought. I'm also broke and now facing at least a $90 ticket.
He looked in the window, asked for my license and insurance etc. He looked a tad familiar too.
He looked at me again and said, "You are the manager of the 'Columbus' Townhomes where I live." "If you would please put the Jacuzzi temperature up to 104 degrees I won't give you a ticket." Well, I certainly obliged and I was only five minutes late for work.
That night after his shift, sure enough he was in the Jacuzzi, looking so relaxed.
Remember I said he looked a tad familiar? I suppose I didn't recognize him with his police uniform on!

Online encounter -- submitted by Nexusrider
I was heading down the road about 15 miles over the speed limit and I saw the flashing lights behind me. I knew I better have a good story or I would be paying a big fine. So, the officer asked for my license and insurance and stuff and I was thinking like crazy. He made his first mistake when he asked me why I was going so fast instead of just writing me up. I looked at him kind of embarrassed and said, "Well I was online talking to this gal, and she told me she was sitting there drinking wine and wearing something black and sexy and if I could be there in 20 minutes I could do anything I wanted with her." He handed me back my stuff and grinned and said, "Have fun ... just slow it down."

Flying low --submitted by Waymill
A few years ago I was pulled over for speeding. The officer got out of his car and came up to my window and asked to see my pilot's license (since I was flying). I happened to have a private pilots license so I pulled it out gave it to the officer. He let me go and told me to slow down.

Labels: California, Radar, Ticket, Traffic School

Traffic cases force police to sit, wait
Frustrated officers say Hillsborough's traffic court has become gridlocked.
By COLLEEN JENKINS AND REBECCA CATALANELLO, Times Staff Writers
Published August 26, 2007
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TAMPA - There's a four-letter word that describes Hillsborough County's traffic court these days.

"A mess," Tampa police Chief Stephen Hogue says.

"Just a mess," Chief Judge Manuel Menendez echoes.

The number of traffic tickets has swelled 52 percent in five years, to 272,511 last year. Court dockets are crammed with speeders and red light runners.

Law enforcement leaders and judges have been struggling to find a mutually agreeable remedy. The result has been a gridlock of unhappy uniformed officers, lawyers and citizens at the once-a-week County Court traffic hearings in Courtroom 302.

Thursday's docket, considered light at 454 cases, forced Officer Larry Yeoman to cut his night's sleep short to attend morning court, then kept him away from his South Tampa patrol area for three hours of his late-afternoon shift.

Fellow officers came to court on their day off, racking up guaranteed hours of overtime no matter how long they stayed or whether they even testified.

Most left frustrated

"Please do something for us," begged a deputy who left court after more than two hours.

County Judge Raul "Sonny" Palomino Jr. thought he had the answer.

When he took over traffic court a year ago, he noticed that officers and lawyers often agreed about how a case should be resolved before it ever came before him. So he created a form that allowed the two sides to consent to a plea and get the officer out of court quickly.

Hogue was taken aback when he heard about the plea form this spring.

He supported the quickened pace of the docket but didn't like the idea of his officers recommending that the judge settle for a lesser penalty or no finding of guilt on a traffic charge.

"You're going to write a ticket to somebody, then you're going to say, 'Okay, withhold it?' " Hogue said. "We had no idea this was going on."

On May 30, the police chief issued a memo prohibiting officers from signing plea agreements in traffic court. Then the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office used almost exactly the same language in its own memo June 1, followed by one from the Florida Highway Patrol on June 22.

The edicts prescribed that officers, deputies and troopers "must not be a party to any written plea agreement or orally state in court an opinion as to the appropriate disposition of a traffic case to include withholding adjudication, recommending court costs or any other sanctions. That responsibility rests solely with the presiding judge."

Hogue and sheriff's officials met with Palomino to share their concerns.

The judge took it to heart, somewhat testily.

When a deputy tried to recommend an enhanced penalty on Thursday, Palomino cut him short and reminded him of the new edict.

"They told me, 'My deputies won't tell you how to sentence, you don't tell us how to charge,' " Palomino said.

The deputy looked sheepish. "Wow," someone whispered.

Since the memos, officers are back to sitting in court and waiting -- sometimes all day.

The 454 cases before Palomino Thursday included 207 from Tampa police, 179 from the Sheriff's Office and 59 from the Florida Highway Patrol. A blur of navy, forest green and tan uniforms squeezed into benches, jury seats and aisles, spilled out of the courtroom and forced members of the public to wait outside until their cases were called.

"This place gets worse and worse," a lawyer muttered as he pushed his way to an open space.

Officers have to be there or else their case is automatically dismissed. So just showing up will often prompt a "no contest" plea from a defendant who hoped the officer wouldn't make it.

As the hours dragged on, one officer likened getting his cases called to winning the lottery. Another's phone rang with a text message from a colleague sitting across the crowded room.

This s---s, it read.

Local traffic lawyers might not put it quite that way, but those contacted by the Times seem to share the sentiment.

They argue against Hogue's rule, saying the officer who wrote the ticket and saw the driver's demeanor should have a say about a suitable punishment.

They believe the judge is now convicting more drivers, and suspect that the police chief and Hillsborough Sheriff David Gee are behind it. Fines are collected only when someone is found guilty, they point out.

"They're treating traffic tickets like somebody robbed a bank," attorney Ty Trayner said. "They're just traffic tickets."

But law enforcement leaders said the revenue that comes to their agencies from tickets is hardly worth discussing.

"Traffic citations are not anything that anyone makes money on," Hogue said.

On average, Tampa takes in about $14 for every ticket written, he said. That doesn't even pay for the 20 to 25 minutes it takes to write them, he said.

Highway Patrol Maj. Thomas Knight said it's about ethics, not money.

Attorney backlash

On Aug. 9, Palomino went away to a conference.

Lawyers knew it, and some sought to add about six months' worth of motions to that day's calendar. Nine lawyers persuaded Senior Judge Elvin Martinez to dismiss nearly 900 tickets that had legal defects.

Of those, about 700 belonged to attorney Dennis Lopez, according to court records.

"It sounds like a high number, but it's just a small percentage of my cases," Lopez said. And they were motions that "would normally get granted in due course."

Even before the late additions, the docket had bulged with 400 cases. Court lasted until 10:30 p.m., said Carla Snavely, chief deputy of courts for the clerk's office.

On Friday, Palomino said he knew nothing about it.

Clocking overtime

Many officers reporting to court are off duty. Union contracts allow them to collect a minimum of overtime pay for time spent in court on their days off. Even if court takes just 15 minutes, the officer is entitled to three hours overtime with the Tampa police, 2 1/2 hours with the Highway Patrol or two hours with the Sheriff's Office.

Could that be an incentive for bosses, who already are paying for officers to sit in court, to make sure they're getting their money's worth?

Leaders in each agency said the overtime factor had nothing to do with their decision to ban officers from participating in the plea agreements.

In fact, Hogue says his moratorium has increased overtime. "This is costing us more money, no question about it."

As for the on-duty officers, there's an equally worrisome issue: "Obviously, if they're in court testifying, they're not on the road," said sheriff's Col. Greg Brown.

It's hard to get solid numbers showing the financial impact traffic court has had on overtime pay and on street patrols. All of the agencies said they track overtime claimed for court duty, but they don't differentiate between traffic court and criminal court.

Still, Maj. John Bennett, head of special operations, which includes the police traffic division, said he knows anecdotally that officers are spending more time sitting in court than ever before.

"We shouldn't have to live at the courthouse on our days off," said Kevin Durkin, president of the West Central Florida Police Benevolent Association. "It's frustrating to sit in court all day and never testify - whether you're getting overtime or not. It's boring."

So, are the streets less safe with all those cops tied up in court? Agency leaders say that, so far, they're handling the demand.

In Tampa, crash figures continue to be down over last year, according to the police. April and May accidents were down 26 and 22 percent, respectively.

But the drop has been less dramatic in the two months since Hogue issued his memo. In June, crashes were down 21 percent. In July, the drop was 17 percent.

Solutions

Palomino, who jokes that his docket could fill a convention room, has gotten some relief. More is on the way.

A hearing officer, who already had been handling some traffic cases during the week, began holding night traffic court every other Thursday this summer.

And starting Sept. 4, County Judge Joelle Ann Ober will take over half of Palomino's docket, holding traffic court each Tuesday and possibly another day if needed, Menendez said.

Officials also will stagger hearing times. Instead of everyone on Palomino's morning docket showing up at 8:30 a.m., some will be asked to arrive at 10 a.m.

"We've got to get people in and out," Menendez said.

Pinellas County holds traffic court every day in two places, plus night court in two locations on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. And the caseload is smaller than in Hillsborough: 203,000 civil and criminal traffic citations last year.

An understatement

Remember Officer Yeoman, coming to court Thursday morning on three hours sleep?

The clock read 5:04 p.m. when Palomino called the final case, a speeding ticket Yeoman wrote. The lawyer quickly entered a no-contest plea, and the judge withheld adjudication. Yeoman didn't have to say a word.

Walking to his patrol car -- home away from home until shift's end at 1:30 a.m. -- the still good-natured officer uttered this understatement: "It makes for a very long day."

Staff photographer Ken Helle contributed to this report. Rebecca Catalanello can be reached at 813 226-3383 or rcatalanello@sptimes.com.

Labels: Driving Record, Florida, Ticket, Traffic School, Traffic Tickets