Got a ticket on the Busa

Charlesbusa

Used to be a SoCal Busa
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I'll start from the beginning. Out riding in the canyons all day having fun. On my way back to Santa Monica, and I get stuck behind a big rig on a busy canyon road. I'm cool, I've had my fun, so I'll just stay behind him. 3 miles later I'm starting to get pissed, there's a line of probably forty cars behind us (in Cali you have to pull over if 5 or more cars are behind you) and he keeps driving in the dirt shoulder sending rocks and crap flying at me, and he won't pull over and let us pass. So I pass him SAFELY on a straight away and there's a cop sitting right there. He pulls out lights flashing and I pull over imediately. I was very polite and didn't say anything stupid. He tells me how bad he feels for me, I was safe in passing him, obviously wasn't being an idoit, understands I was behind a semi not a car. But still gives me a ticket for crossing double yellows. Once I knew he was giving me the ticket, I asked him about the semi. Do you ever pull them over for not pulling over. No he says. WHAT THE F@#K, its only fair that he should've ticketed the truck too, its not uncommon to pull two vehicles over..............This ticket is crap, not worth the paper its written on. Every ticket in my life has been the kind were the rich&beautiful get off, the sleazeballs are felt sorry for, and the average Joe gets it. Are there any cops with common sense, my opinion of law enforcement is going down the tubes. I've watched drunks get let off, tried to report a hit and run only to be threatened with arrest. Sorry to make this so long but I needed to vent. I totally take responsibility for my actions, have always paid the bills/taxes and carried insurance. I have never been given a warning, and its always been over piddly crap. Just for the record I'm a white/male, clean-cut, no gang affilations, no obscene clothing, and polite. Maybe I need to change??
 
Just a quote from the cop as he hands me the ticket, "I feel your pain."
 
sorry about the run in with the po po man.  sounds like maybe he was a little bit of a smartass himself
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.  i would venture to guess that sometime in the past he tried to pull over a sportbike or group of them and got burned.  got his wanker knocked in the dirt so to say, and is now carrying a chip on his shoulder
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.  look very closely at the ticket and if anything (and i mean anything) is wrong you can easily get it dismissed.  make sure your liscense number, dob, height, weight, plate number, year model, color etc are all correct.  even look at the time/date/location.  if none of this is wrong only a lawyer and about $350 is gonna make it go away.  good news is that you got his badge number. call the local pd, talk to the captain/sargeant, tell them officer smith was rude, harrassed you, etc.   might make ya feel better and maybe you can feel his pain??  just out of curiosity did he get you straight on (ie facing him or going away) or was he off to the side and got ya broadside??  keep it shiny side up bro and watch out for the po po
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Lumpy
 
Copied and pasted from another thread.


SLEEPERBUSA
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Group: Members
Posts: 250
Joined: May 2003
Location: Nederland, Texas  Posted: July 05 2003,10:flamethrowing:  

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You gotta pull over for the Man to hand you a ticket.
 
Go to court over that one...

Yesterday, samurai, bsrigly, and I (with 2 non-member 600's) were cruising through Skyline Drive at, shall we say, a modest clip.  Needless to say, BS and I were in the front and went around a turn posted 30MPH doing 70+ leaned all of the way over...  We passed a park ranger going the other direction and he jammed the brakes on, kicked on the lights and spun around after us.  He slowly tracked each of us down and made the whole group sit for like 30 minutes.  We were wondering what he could possibly charge us with, since he wasn't running radar.  He finally returned and gave each of us a warning.
 
CharlesBusa, don't fly off the handle just yet....... Nothing has been logged against your record yet! Take the ticket to court and explain your side of it (Don't hire an attorney to perform this action). Is your record spotless for will say the last three years (driving record, criminal record, etc..) Do you have a job? Believe it or not this things are important to the judge. You must be a good contributing factor/person in the eyes of the judge to society....... Next, try to work something out in advance with the prosecutor, I.E. dismissed ticket out-right or by you going to a defensive driving course. Some other suggestions you pay a higher fine to have it moved to a Non-moving violation..... I no some of this doesn't seem fair but thats what your looking at if YOU can't convince the judge your actions were warranted at the time to prevent injury to yourself or others (The Dust/rocks pounding on you and your bike, Worried for your safety you made a pass unaware of the double yellow lines) Who wouldn't with forty cars following you and your attention focused squarely on the vehicle in front of you, not to mention constantly looking for an opportunity to rid yourself of this situation.....................
 
I am an Air Traffic Controller for the F.A.A. But my record is good, but not perfect. I didn't exactly count the cars behind, but there were definately more than thirty but less than fifty. The straight-away I passed him on is longer than some straight-aways that have dotted yellow lines for passing. Why that one was double solid, I don't know. As I was clearing the semi's cab I spotted the cruiser on the right side of the road, with his backside towards us. I am more pissed off about the ticket than what it'll cost me/on my record. I wasn't going to fight it because there's a lot of aggrevation with going to court and possibly more expensive. Plus I've never seen/heard of anyone win in court. I figured I'd just go to traffic school. But do you guys really think its worth fighting, I could win? How?
 
Providing your driving record is fairly clean I say you have a pretty good chance of getting the ticket reduced if not dismissed......As far as being more expensive, not so (less the amount of time you have to miss work.) I mean the cost of court has already been rolled into the traffic fine in most jurisdictions... So, basically you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. One sure fire way to win is set the ticket for a hearing and hope the Police Officer doesn't show up! Doesn't happen very often but neither does winning the lottery! If they do, present your side of the story in a polite but positive mannor......... It all comes down to the Judge. Believe me you never no how they'll side and remember you've already paid for the cost of your court appearance. If you win then your only out the time off from work and what ever it cost you to get there. Pretty small price to pay for getting a say in your future. I wish you luck and hope things work out for you what ever you decide to do..........Ks
 
One more thing I forgot to mention..... Write down everything you can remember about that day. What time was it, what was the weather like, How many vehicles you saw. Bring in some photo's of the area you were cited in (yes, this means you have to go and relive the painfull memory). Try and retrace the route you took and keep track of how many miles you had to follow this vehicle.... Plus no exactly how much distance (visibly) you had to pass the vehicle in the no passing zone............
 
Ok, I'm a "cop" that uses common sense. Here's my take on things.

There's always at least two sides to every story but if it happened as you outlined it here then I wouldn't have written you the ticket. I see traffic laws not as iron fisted limits but as guidelines that apply under most normal everyday circumstances. In my opinion, you can violate most any of them (have insurance and don't be drunk or else
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) as long as you can articulate why you violated it.

In my experience most judges see it the same way. I started out not knowing the difference and writing most violations but after watching the judges over the years I learned how to weed out the honest actions on the roadside to avoid having to spend more off days in court to watch the judge do it for me.
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I think most all officers mature in this respect as they gain experience. Some, though, are just diehard traffik nazis...

The thing is that each officer has discretion (whether or not they use it is another issue) in his/her enforcement of most laws unless department SOP says otherwise (in Georgia anyway). Some officers see the laws as clear cut limits and ticket any violation they see. Others, like myself, try to use common sense and just ticket the ones that blatantly have no regard for the law or public safety.

So, to answer your question, yes, I think that there are still some LE officers with common sense...

Oh, and a word of advice based on 11 years of courtroom experience. Please, whatever you do, don't state in court that you were unaware that the line was double yellow. I think you'd stand a far better chance of getting a break from the judge by being honest and explaining your situation, including being pelted with debris, and the truck's violation of the law you say he is violating. Just make dang sure that what the truck was doing was in violation of an actual law. I'm not doubting that the law you quoted exists, I just know after 11 years that there are lots of "urban myth" laws that someone was told about by their cousin's brother's girlfriend's sister's nephew. My favorite is that everyone in Georgia thinks it's against the law to drive a car without shoes on. I wish I had a dollar for each time I've watched women almost run off of the road trying to put their shoes on when approaching a license checkpoint.  
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If you want to go for a break from the judge please do your homework and be able to provide a copy of the law that the trucker was in violation of, don't lie to the judge (they've heard them all, trust me), don't show up in a shirt that says, F$%^ Tha Police
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, present your case in a well organized manner in chronological order starting with approximately how long you'd been behind the trucker, approx. number of cars backed up behind you, how you were very careful about where and how you passed to insure that it was done safely, etc... If there were other locations that you could have probably pulled off the pass but didn't for safety conscious reasons then tell the judge that. kswaterbug also suggested some good ideas in the post above this one...

If you convince the judge that yes, you technically broke a law but you can articulate to him why you did and that you done it consciously and with the highest regard for safety then you might stand a good chance of getting some slack.

Also include that you pulled over the instant that you saw the officer and waited to explain your situation. Don't say that you "saw the cop" as you rounded the truck cab, say that you " saw the law enforcement vehicle by the roadside". Showing disrespect for the officer in court gives you the appearance of not respecting the law. Trust me, you don't want to create that impression with most judges. Fwiw, that is NOT the impression I get from your post here. Sounds to me like you used common sense. You could have just bashed cops without an outline of the situation like some do.

Another thing to mention is once you saw that the law enforcement officer pull out, you immediately stopped to wait for him and to explain to him why you had overtaken the truck against the double yellow.   

Last of all, a free suggestion. Research your state's passing law. Georgia makes provisions for passing vehicles that are obstructing traffic flow regardless of the lines as long as it is done safely. Gotta get everyone around all the farm tractors and hay haulers out here somehow.
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That may not be the case in Kali though... According to the circumstances though ( I wasn't there) that might be a cheesy defense ( like fighting a ticket based on errors in data fields of citations. That don't work in Georgia. Maybe in Kali...)

In my opinion, if you are guilty (technically you are unless there's a provision in the law and it applies here) then your best course if you go to court is to present your case honestly and hope the judge has/uses common sense. If you want to outright fight the ticket then get an attorney with experience in this matter. Ever heard the term jailhouse lawyer? That's the guys in jail that defended themselves. You shouldn't end up in jail over this incident but you could lose some $$$$ if you go about it wrong. Just my $.02...

Remember, all the officer has to do is testify that he saw you pass on the double yellow. He doesn't have to answer to the judge for not enforcing the laws that other motorists were in violation of at the time. Fwiw, he could always say that in this situation the person passing on a double yellow presented a higher degree of risk to public safety than the trucker who is actually slowing everyone down to safer speeds in a single lane. Either way, the other motorist's violation probably won't be recognized as a defense for your actions. What it is good for is articulating why you done what you done. I hope that makes sense.



Good luck if you decide to go to court. Maybe the judge will give you the break that it sounds like you should have gotten on the roadside.

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May I suggest in your defense that you tell the court that safety was an issue here . That the truck was kicking up gravel in your face and the cars were all piling up behind you. Seems to me that you had to pass at that time for safties sake. I think thats sounds like a reasonable explanation for crossing the double yellow .
 
What do I say if the judge asks;"Why didn't you just pull over and wait until it was safe to ride on the road again?"
 
It wasn't safe to pull over with all the vehicles following...... Plus, not sure about Cali but in Ks most of the pull offs are gravel or litered with gravel. Not fun on a bike...... Just follow Wannabusa's advice and you'll do fine..........

Read here to learn about your rights under the law....
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