Connor Flynt

Hello all,
Looking for advice on a course of action for my court date. Story: Accelerated 0-45 MPH from a stoplight and got pulled over for it being too fast. Officer said I could have gotten arrested/jailed and car towed for "drag racing" (I wasnt drag racing anyone). Officer said he was following me for a while while I was "weaving through traffic" but I used my blinker on all lane changes. He never got a speed on me. Gave me a ticket for reckless driving.

Should I get a lawyer or just make a statement myself?

Fine is $440 and 6 points on my license as it stands (12 points = license suspended, which is not cool. Also hit and run is 6 points also which is stupid).

Connor

KenTO

Lawyer up, that's a B.S. charge. Did you **** off the officer?

Connor Flynt

Nope. It was all yes sir, I understand etc. The officer said come to court and I'll help you out" so I'm not quite sure if it was because he needed to make a quota or something because it was the 31st of the month.

fastcars914

I'd definitely fight it. Sounds like a completely bogus charge. If it was just a $50 fine and no points I'd say just pay the darn thing, but reckless op? Really?

shekmark

That is a bummer. Are radar detectors legal in SC? I always have mine on, even if I'm not speeding, because I want to know if they are around. Not fool proof, but helpful. So is Waze. Good luck. I could really see that happening often with any fun, fast car. Cops wife probably yelled at him that morning.

champignon

You don't want a reckless driving ticket on your record; could even hurt your credit rating severely. Find out if there is some straightforward way to plea bargain this down, or otherwise deal with it.

On the behavioral front, don't do this. Launching and that sort of stuff is not only really bad for your car, it just makes you look like someone who is a threat to civil order, it is an open invitation to a cop, any cop, to go after you. Do it on a track, and leave it there.

On the other hand, spirited passing on 2 lane roads is easily defensible; you had to accelerate quickly to 100 mph because you thought you saw an oncoming car and you needed to get back in your lane..

Spirited passing is way more fun than launching, anyway.

Good luck.

Dock

South Carolina defines reckless driving as “a willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property”. My guess is that the officer assessed your 0-45 mph acceleration to be unsafe for those people and cars around you, if any were in fact around you. He could have just as easily decided that you were hot ******* and wanted to send you a message.

As for "weaving through traffic" and your defense that you were using your blinker, it doesn't matter if you were using your blinker if the officer determined that you were bumper clipping cars as you changed lanes (read: "coming too close to the back or front of cars and/or squeezing into spaces that you shouldn't have tried to squeeze into).

My suggestion is to show up and beg for the mercy of the court; a reduction in charge from reckless driving, and a reduction in fine and points.

wthensler

Champignon is correct - repercussions of reckless driving go well beyond a simple fine and points. Your insurance will have a field day for at least three years, and just about anyone can access your driving record these days. I'd hire a good lawyer, hope he can get it reduced (do they have 'failure to obey a sign' in SC?), learn from it and move on.

Connor Flynt

Update: I hired a lawyer ($600) to go to court for me. One thing I didn't think about until later was having a reckless driving ticket on my record would be a big hit for if I ever apply for a pilot in the airlines.

We'll see if it works out.

Connor Flynt

To answer you questions from earlier:

@champignon : No I didnt launch from a stoplight. That seems like a quite stupid thing to do.

@shekmark Yes they are legal. Laser jammers are illegal, hence my install of Uniden r3 and not the laser jammer priority.

champignon

I need to take my own advice :-)

On Monday (Memorial Day) I drove 155 miles, mostly on 2 lane roads, for work-related appointments on Tuesday and Wednesday. Even though I left quite early in the day, I was shocked by the amount of traffic and the long lines of vehicles clogging up the mountain rural highway. At one point, I passed about 20 vehicles in one fell swoop, and got up to around 40 mph over the speed limit (65). I saw a lot of cops while I was driving that day and fortunately enough for me, I did not get stopped.

I've decided to avoid at all costs driving in these types of situations where I'm going to encounter huge lines of RVs and slow moving cars, on a route where I am used to being able to go a consistent 5 mph over the limit, which is tolerated by the local finest. I could easily have gotten the sort of ticket you got on that drive, and this is not something that you want on your record.