New Jersey Traffic Ticket

Welcome to KBTV I am Kate Bohner today I am talk about something that impacts nearly all of us and that is speeding tickets.  How to avoid getting a traffic ticket in the first place, some tactics to use if indeed you do get pulled over by a police officer and also some advice on what to do if you are written a ticket.  So let’s start with how to avoid a ticket.  Well there are a lot of theories out there and a lot of anecdotal evidence.  But let me give you my mother’s theory.

First of all let me tell you something about my mother.  She is speeder at heart.  She loves to drive she has commuter rage she commutes from South Carolina to Denver to Washington D.C where she is a consultant and she actually truly believes that she is a better driver when she is speeding because she pays attention.  Well the name of her theory is Bate and what she does if she gets in her left arm lane and speeds.  Her theory is also that the real speed limit is about 10 miles over with the actual posted speed limit is so if its posted its 65 miles per hour its really 75 miles per hour.

So she gets in the left hand lane and what she does is she finds what she calls Bate which is a teenage boy driving a car that’s see the red or neon yellow and hopefully a sports car and get that person about 50 feet ahead of her and 50 feet behind her, two different cars, so that person will get hit by the radar gun before she does.  Well I used to think that this was such a silly theory until over Christmas she was driving me to the airport sure enough we got behind a teenage boy and a red box wagon [Inaudible], he got nailed by the cops and I made my flight.

So what do you do if you actually get pulled over?  Well I was reading Smart Money magazine and they had some pretty interesting tips.  The first thing in count on the fact that the police officer has seen the show cops, so remain calm pull over turn off the engine, roll down you window and put your hands on the steering well.  Next up is name drop.  If you have a police for Netherland association badge or you know the local officer in town, drop his name.  It might be shameless but it also might work, and third play dumb.  If the officer says mam do you know why I pulled you over, don’t say oh I have a blown pale light just you don’t want to give him any more information so just wait till the officer tells you what you did wrong and work is [Inaudible] up.  Sickishness work so if you can call your officer mam or Sir and most importantly ask for a warning and almost every state the police officer has a discretion to give you a warning but this is really important talk very… very quickly because as soon as that cops starts writing the ticket game over.  So what do you if you get a ticket?  Don’t be so quick on pull on your check book because you have a couple of occasions.  One is to go to traffic school for the day and yes it is an all day affair it will cost a bit of money, fine as a result the ticket will get clear from your record and you won’t get the points and also you won’t get those potential insurance premium hikes.  Next you can go to court going to court is always a gamble but if you do go to court here are a couple of tips.  One is don’t count on a no show, apparently that is one of these miss that the officer is not going to show up in court to testify but  a big part of the traffic officers their job is to actually go to court.  Next up, always plead not guilty and come up with an excuse and again according to Smart Money magazine the best excuse has to be a medical excuse like you had to go the emergency room for your kid or had to go to a doctor’s appointment or fill a prescription or something like that.  Next up you can get the officer’s note.  This is something that lot of people don’t know well the officer is curiously taking notes, you are actually eligible to get those noted before you go to court so you have an idea of exactly what you are going to be charged with.  So if you are like my mother and obeying the speed limit is just out of the question probably your best strategy is just to not speed.  Thanks for joining I am Kate Bohner for KBTV.  For information KateBohnerproductions.com, click on contact add shoot us an e-mail we will be sure to get back to you.