You’re returning from a perfect weekend getaway, and a trooper nabs you while you’re still out of state.

Do you admit guilt, drop the payment envelope in the mail, and have it be history…or do you throw it in the trash and hope it just goes away?

Neither, exactly. And just to clear up some misconceptions, this is definitely not a case of, “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”

If you understood the massive stakes involved, you’d do your research, maybe hire an attorney, and even if you have a clean record do your best to have the ticket reduced or, better yet, thrown out.

The days of speeding tickets simply going away, even if they’re out-of-state, are long gone. And it’s important you do something about it because a speeding ticket can come back to haunt you for years, in ways that you probably hadn’t thought possible.

Unseen affects, budget-hemorrhaging results

Most drivers know that having speeding tickets on their record will raise their auto insurance rates, but few are aware that, depending on where they live, it can affect them in a myriad of other ways, seemingly unrelated to driving. Like when you apply to get a new life insurance policy, to insure a boat, or even to apply for a business loan.

This could mean thousands of dollars. And that’s even before considering that an unsettled ticket could find its way to your credit score to wreak further havoc.

Technically, if you’re a repeat speeder, you’re risky business, and that risk might apply to other aspects of your life—or so say the actuaries, those who arrive at the methodology that takes all those seemingly insignificant factors in your profile, weighs them with factors like your driving record, and determines whether or not you’re high risk. Simply put, whether to charge you a few hundred dollars or a couple thousand on your next insurance premium is a matter of calculated risk.

The business of risk

If you’re one to argue that speeding doesn’t necessarily place you at a higher risk, you’re not going to find much sympathy from insurance companies. As they’re in the business of risk, they raise rates because with habitual speeding comes a much greater chance of injury, property damage, or death. Excessive speed is attributed in the worst, most costly accidents. In about one third of all fatal crashes, 26 percent of injury accidents, and 15 percent of property-damage-only accidents, speed is a factor. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), more than 1,000 Americans die every month due to speed-related crashes. Read the rest of this entry »

QUEENSLAND motorists could be nabbed for going just a little over the speed limit as new digital speed cameras allow police to lower their margin of error.

The introduction of digital speed cameras, which will replace outdated wet-film models from mid-year, will enable the “tolerance” figure applied in the policing of speed limits to be lowered.

That would result in tens of thousands more motorists being booked without any speed limits being changed. The tolerance, which acts as a legal buffer for inaccuracy, is the difference between the speed limit and the detection trigger on cameras and hand-held radars.

It is understood Queensland’s figure cannot be lowered with wet-film cameras because the ageing system cannot process the extra fines that would be generated. But digital cameras would create an advanced fine-processing system.

Police and the State Government will not publicly acknowledge a tolerance figure.

In 1998, the first full-year speed cameras operated in Queensland, the state’s road toll was below 300 – the only time it has been so low since 1955.

Road safety authorities believe that was no coincidence and it has ensured lowering the tolerance will be discussed this year. Other states have gone public with their moves. In 2002, Victorian police lowered the threshold to 3km/h, meaning drivers could be fined for doing 63km/h in a 60 zone.

Victoria’s top traffic officer Ken Lay said the reduction and the public debate it created was one of the main factors in that state’s road toll dropping by almost 100 in the following two years.

Queensland Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson would not comment on tolerance levels.

“What I’m asking people to do is actually not exceed the speed limit at all,” Mr Atkinson said. Read the rest of this entry »

A New Year’s resolution to ease off the gas pedal could spare lead-foot drivers hundreds of dollars – and make roads safer.

Starting Friday, Jan. 1, a new state law in Georgia will tack on an additional $200 fee to any local fine received for a speeding conviction. The “Super Speeder Law” is aimed at “high-risk” drivers whose speed are deemed threats to fellow motorists.

Georgia averages one speed-related death a day, according to the official “Super Speeder” Web site.

“That makes speeding a habitual disaster just waiting to happen,” said Governor’s Office of Highway Safety Director Bob Dallas in a statement. “But it’s one of life’s bad habits that can and should be kicked.”
The added fine will be applied for any driver convicted of speeding at 75 mph or more on any two-lane road or 85 mph and over anywhere in the state.

Sheriff Richard King encourages motorists to drive safely.

“The best thing to do is to keep a watch on the speedometer,” he says. “If you watch your speed, you won’t have to worry about being a super speeder.”

Getting slapped with the new fee might feel like a double-whammy. A driver will get the initial speeding ticket from the local jurisdiction, only to receive a letter of notice for the state fine. Read the rest of this entry »

Ohio Court of Appeals rules that a police officer cannot issue a speeding ticket because A CAR SOUNDS FAST.

The Ohio Court of Appeals on Monday ruled that a motorist cannot be convicted of speeding based solely on how fast his car may have sounded. On October 18, 2007, Patrolman Ken Roth ticketed Daniel Freitag in the village of West Salem as Freitag was driving with his wife Jane on US Route 42. Roth claimed his radar unit clocked Freitag at 42 MPH in a 35 zone. Roth also claimed he could hear Freitag’s 2006 Lincoln Navigator speeding.

“As it approached I could hear the vehicle on the roadway which based on my training and experience it is consistent with a vehicle that was in excess of the posted speed limit,” Roth testified.

A trial court judge on November 16, 2007 accepted this testimony and found Freitag guilty. Freitag challenged this decision before the Ohio Court of Appeals on the grounds that the radar evidence was not admissible. The trial court claimed it had taken judicial notice of the “Genesis Radar” that Roth used, but the state failed to specify which particular radar model was used. Freitag won on the point that the radar evidence was improperly admitted, but he lost as the court sent the case back to the trial judge to rule whether the officer’s estimate of Freitag’s speed based on the Navigator’s sound was credible. The trial court once again supported the officer and ruled that Freitag was guilty.

Freitag, however, did not give up. He appealed a second time, insisting that the officer’s testimony that he could estimate a vehicle’s speed by its sound or by watching a car’s headlights through the patrol car’s rear-view mirror was absurd. This time, the appeals court agreed.

Read the rest of this entry »

Drivers can get tickets or even go to jail for going too fast on the roads, but one local sheriff in Rogers, Arkansas was able to get off without being ticketed even after being pulled over for speeding.

Benton County Sheriff Keith Ferguson was pulled over for going too fast on May 1 at North Second and Easy streets in Rogers. He was going 60mph in a 35mph zone at around 1a.m. That was enough for Rogers police Officer Aaron Dildy to make a traffic stop.

Police dashcam video showed Ferguson producing his ID and registration just like anybody else. But Dildy only issued the sheriff a warning citation, which Ferguson actually refused to accept.

Ferguson told us he never identified himself as a police officer, so that couldn’t have influenced the traffic stop. Ferguson said, “If he would have wrote me a ticket I would have paid the ticket but I wasn’t going to ask him to write me a ticket.

Rogers Chief of Police Steve Hamilton told us the situation played out exactly like it should have. Hamilton said, “Receiving a warning is pretty much a standard practice. I think what an officer is looking for is compliance.”

This isn’t the first time this has happened. In 2006 Ferguson was pulled over by Bentonville police. That time Ferguson drove away from the officer before he was even told he could leave. Hamilton also said there’s a possibility Dildy didn’t know who Ferguson was at the time of the stop.

Hmmm… Driving 60 mph in a 35 mph zone at night warrants a warning?! Yea… Right!