Sep 28, 2015 late last thursday night i had just left a club and was on my way back to my mom's apartment. i was about 5-10 minutes away when i got pulled over by a police officer. this was a few minutes after 1am. the reason i got pulled over is "failing to move vehicle into a lane that is not the lane nearest the parked or standing authorized emergency vehicle and continue driving that lane until safety clear roadway and is giving a warning signal by appropriate light" that's exactly what it says on my ticket, which by the way is for $438. the only thing i did was drive by two police officers who were parked off to the side of the road handling another citizen. the next thing i know one of the cops is behind me pulling me over. i probably didn't help my case because i had a nasty attitude with the officer. i'm a very calm, laid-back and stoic person 90 percent of the time, it takes a lot to get me upset, but on that night i couldn't hold back my anger because this officer pulled me over at 1am when hardly anyone else was on the road (and i had to stand outside in the rain while they gave me one of those tests to see if i was impaired when anyone could see just by looking at me that i wasn't even close to being impaired) and all i did was drive by two police officers who were parked off to the side of the road. i understand the law is the law, but i've driven by police officers parked off to the side of the road plenty of times and have never been pulled over for it. this just feels like the cops being extremely bored and having nothing else to do. winston salem, NC is a city with a relatively low crime rate, so there's not a whole lot for the cops to do. what pisses me off even more about all of this is that the ticket is for $438. how can you justify charging someone that much for something so trivial? that doesn't add up to me. what also makes this a hassle is that i don't live in north carolina, which means i've gotta drive 3hr and 30 minutes to appear in court next month to fight this. after this happened, i was livid. i couldn't even sleep that night. but the next morning i went by the police station in winston salem, NC because i wanted to get some more information. i explained to the man working there what happened and he advised me to show up in court and provide a driving record. he said if you can prove you have a great driving record, the judge will probably waive the fee. i have a very good driving record, i've never even gotten a d--- speeding ticket. so since receiving this advice, i've calmed down about it and i feel much better than i did the night this happened. so, am i being unreasonable? i don't think i am
Sep 28, 2015 nah man, a lot of times laws are antiquated or it's a case of "one size fits all". this is the case with you. i had a similar situation in which i was driving home after the gym. i'm exiting off of the freeway on to a main road, and this lady infront of me starts merging so i look over my shoulder on to the road i was going to merge on to, find a gap and start rolling in when bam - she got cold feet when i thought she went to merge a few seconds ago apparently, and instead of an open road for me to merge off of, i hit her lol. i was drained after the gym and just wanted to get home so i learned a valuable lesson that day about refuelling right after a workout. anyways, the collision was 100% my fault, but since it was about 2 meters (6 feet) of distance i probably hit her at 10km/h (6mph) so there was no damage. still, she wanted to make an injury claim out of it (i'm currently being sued for 700k ) so she called an ambulance. when an ambulance is called, cops have to show up on the scene too, so they did. paramedics checked her out, said she was fine (collision was a 6mph) but she demanded to get looked at in the hospital so they took her. it was just me and the cop, and as protocol, she had to hand me a ticket for careless driving. problem is, careless driving is a $600 fine. $600 for hitting a car at 6mph bruh. i went to court and got it thrown out, but that was just another case of "one size fits all". sorry to hear about your weekend bro, hopefully the 3 and a half hour drive ends up being worth your time. good luck!
Sep 28, 2015 the price is a little high, but you are supposed to move over if you can while there is a cop car on the side of the road. I'm guessing that since it was 1 am you may have been able to move over a lane but that was an honest mistake and didn't really justify the cops charging you that much.
Sep 28, 2015 This is where you f----- up. your annoyance/attitude is justified by what you said, but it doesn't help the end result with police, ever. Be polite as possible when dealing with them.
Sep 28, 2015 just challenge it in court lol $500 for that is absolutely ludicrous, like hasman's situation, it'll prolly get thrown out
Sep 29, 2015 What's dumb is you didn't go in the next lane over bruh Like you said there were no other cars, the ticket is expensive but that's because you were potentially endangering those cops lives
