OldGuy

SO on my sons first trip up to Mammoth by himself (without us) he is buzzing along at 68 in a 65 mph zone. He was trucking along in my X5 and was behind a truck at 55. Ryan pulled out to pass in a passing zone with 3 other cars behind him. After passing He though he saw a abulance behim him and he pulled over to give the emergency vehicle room and someone pulled in behind Ryan. RYan said he hit almost 80 indicated in the pass. The pulled over vehicle was a CHP and as soon as Ryan rolled down the window the patrolman was just trashing him for takeing daddys car without permission etc etc and then said you dont have any idea on how fast you were going do you? 102!!!!!! Now I know my kid pretty darn well and he had a freind with him. Ryan knows the hwy pretty well and he knows not to go over 80 when passing. I dont believe for a second he was doing 102. RYan said the officer when he found out they were kid just lost all respect for him and accused him of all kinds of things.
wrote him up for over a 100mph.
ANy ideas. Ryans friend swore to my that Ryan did not exceed 80.
what to do??? Ryan is 18 and his buddy is 18.

am722

Sorry to hear that OG. If the system worked correctly, Ryan and his friend could just show up in court, tell the truth, and he would only be punished for the 80 mph. Unfortunately, it doesn't. Traffic court judges hear people every day say they weren't going as fast as the cop wrote them up for, and they will side with the cop every single time. You should hire a local lawyer to take care of this for a few hundred bucks. Unlike with most legal problems, you actually should just pick the one with the cheesy yellow pages ad (unless you actually know someone from the area), since they do these things in bulk and have it down to a science. Hopefully he can get the ticket knocked out in exchange for court costs and maybe a fine or traffic school on the weekend (maybe all three).
The important things (obviously) are the possibility of a reckless driving conviction (is that what he was written up for?) and the insurance implications. A lawyer should be able to prevent both.
Good luck.

OldGuy

thanks man. MY son just doesnt go fast in cars. I think its becuase he races MX and doesnt need to go
fast in the BMW. I think the cop saw two young men in a BMW and went off on them becuase they were little rich punks i guess.

datax

Oh the rich kids. Wish my parents had fast cars when I was 18. Get a good lawyer if the ticket is reckless ticket. It will be well worth it for this kind of case. At court, judges generally don't buy anything coming from teenagers who drives BMWs.

RonCT

Everything depends on how the officer justified his allegation. Was it Radar, Lidar, VASCAR, or just eye-balling speed? If Radar / Lidar, you have an up hill battle because they are pretty accurate. If VASCAR, maybe there could be a swing of 10 MPH or so depending on reaction rate of the officer operating the equipment. If eye-balling, then maybe you have something.

Snowboarder54

hey Paul, that pretty much sucks. I'm with you, I can tell when my son's are BS'n me. I have gone to bat for both my boys on several occations once they convince me they were right. One thing I have noticed after 46 years of driving is that there has been a drastic change the last few years in our CHP's. They used to pride themselfs in being friendly and curtious. Anymore they seem to all be young guns out to change the world. As you know we live in a small commnity, less than 900 people. Last week we had 8 chp's here handing out tickets for everything from no front plates to 4-5 mph over the speed limit. I got stopped for not having mud flaps on my pickup after driving it for 4 years and 85,000 miles!! Don't get me wrong, I support the Chp, Linda and I are both lifetime members of the 1199 foundation and I always throw them a few quid every Christmas when they ask, but I think times are a changing, as it's all about the money!!! Good luck with Ryan, I say go to bat for him!!

On another off topic, my 24 year old, Eric, who has a good job ownes his own house and just bought a new Yamaha YZ 450 managed to do this just 3 weeks after purchasing it. the problem being; he has no medical insurance, seems we just had a discussion about that at a family meeting right after he made the purchase, and now will be out of work for 4 months!! So, you can see they are knuckleheads well past their teens. Good luck

Noesis

(Some) Cops *hate* rich kids. It's the last group of people that they can still openly hate and not get in trouble for racism or something like that.

Sorry for your troubles! Fight that ticket with all your effort.

OldGuy

I Talked to the officer on my sons cell. He was yelling at me "Do you KNOW what he is DRIVING?
WHERE DID HE GET IT?
I told I let him drive it for safety and he was going to Mammoth to look for a job.

He said well he was doing 102!!!
then gave the phone back

OldGuy

I need a lawyer

flash1034

Your son's story doesnt pass the BS detector test. Im inclined to believe the officer having driven that stretch of road a zillion times, 80 is par for the course and 100+ is typical passing/overtake speed.

Flash

RonCT

Again, for us to help you with this you have to give us some information to work with. What method did the officer use to determine speed? For him to come up with 102 out of thin air doesn't suggest he was pacing or just guessed. If it was radar / lidar, then guess what - he was going 102. If it was VASCAR, then probably within 10 MPH either way.

Dro

Your best shot is to request a court date with the judge and make an appearance. As long as your son has a clean driving record, plead to the judge that he learned his lesson and ask for the permission to go to traffic school. Most likely the judge will knock the ticket down to 80 MPH and allow your son to complete traffic school, pay the fine and be done with it.

This happened to me while I was on my way up to Mammoth, passing your town of Ridgecrest. Got clocked for 90MPH. Being a poor UCLA student at the time my main motivation to fight the ticket was to decrease the $550 fine. I made the court date got there on time, said I was sorry to the Judge and that I admitted to speeding but not at the speed the officer said I was going and he knocked the fine in half and allowed me to complete traffic school.

Fast forward 6 years and with my driving record today I would never have a chance in hell in front of the judge. Your son being only 18 and hopefully a first ofense, he should have no problem.

Good luck!

p.s.
Driving even 75 MPH on that stretch is not safe from getting a ticket IMO. If you dont wat to get a ticket don't drive above the limit! Several years of ignorance, having DMV put me on probation, and $3K of attorney costs made me learn the hard way.

OldGuy

Paced him.
Flash you may be right but we have driven that road a million times to our place 75 is normal I drive 70 overtake semis at 80+
He knows that and has driven me up there more than once.
What does not pass the BS test is the officer so concerned about the car instead of the pace.
I would have been astounded at a kid driving that fast not the vehicle.

OldGuy

Here is all I know I called him and I asked him where are you, and he said I just got pulled over and I heard the cop yelling I am not a comidean in the backround. Then the cop takes to the phone
and has the conversation I said above. My son went on to Mammoth and is up there today looking for a job in fact he got the job at Vons.
I have to go pick him up now.
I am sure the cop paced him they very rarely use radar. He was behind him and pulled over when he did.

am722

That could work, and it sounds like your court date went well for you. However, there is also the possibility that he could catch the traffic court judge on a bad day and walk out with a reckless driving conviction. The only way to take risk out of the equation is to hire a lawyer. Most of the traffic law practitioners are former prosecutors and city attorneys, and they all know each other.