Here's the story...my wife and I take a quickie road trip to Vegas. We start off in the morning and she's at the wheel. During the drive to Vegas, I remind my wife several times to watch her speed as I had seen a lot more people being pulled over. I have a feeling that with the state of CA and the city of Los Angeles being in massive debt, the police and CHP will be more strict in enforcing traffic laws as a way to bring revenue into the coffers.
I fall asleep in the passenger's seat right after we hit Barstow...and the next thing to happen is that the car starts shaking as my wife is slowing the car down. At this point, I thought we had made it to Primm, but as my eyes begin to focus, I see some red lights in the side view mirror. Yup, we had just been pulled over and that shaking I felt was my wife pulling the car over to the side of the road.
The CHP officer approaches and asks for our license and registration. He explains that he clocked us going 101 MPH, especially as we passed a gray Mercedes Benz. It also didn't help that we were nearly to Primm and had been going downhill. He takes my wife's license and registration and returns with a citation. He didn't cut us any slack as he actually listed our speed at 101 MPH (in a 70 MPH zone).
This totally sucks because it was this time last year that I got pulled over in Nevada (while returning from a Vegas trip). I too was doing 100 MPH, but the officer only cited me for 75 MPH in a 70 MPH zone. He cut me a break as he saw that I had never been pulled over in 18+ years of driving. I ended up paying a $95 fine for the ticket...but the good news is that it didn't go on my record as speeding. The State of Nevada has a unique law whereby a 'light' speeding ticket (5 MPH or less over the maximum speed), they'll consider it a parking misdemeanor with no points going on my record.
Unfortunately, we don't have the same in CA and we're going to have to appear in Court in the City of Barstow. Citation 22348B is going in excess of 100 MPH and has harsh ramifications in terms of the potential fine and the impact to our insurance rates. As of right now, I'm going to see if we can get a lawyer to represent us and get us out of this. I don't expect that we'll get the ticket dismissed, but I do hope that we can get the charge/citation reduced to something less harmful - such as exceeding the maximum speed limit (not both exceeding the speed limit AND driving over 100 MPH).
If anyone has any advice to offer or can suggest a good attorney, please post it in the comments. We'd be more than grateful for the help!
PS - For those too young to remember, before Sammy Hagar was a part of Van Halen, Sammy had a successful solo career. One of his hits was "I Can't Drive 55" (hence the post title) and here's his video:
PPS - California Highway Patrol SUCKS!!! That's our sentiment and the sentiment of my local police department officer friend.
1 comment:
your license is going to be suspended too. Try to react to an object or another car, you can't. And wbhen your wife swerves to avoid something, your vehicle will overturn! Your friend is jealous, his dept is probably crooked.
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