Shamusodoofus

A friend and I were driving at 3am in the morning because we were planning for a photo-shoot in a nearby parking lot near one of our houses. After we arrived my friend had forgot his camera so he suggested we just drove around for a bit and get something to eat at a 24/7 McDonalds or something. So I followed him and we ended up on a major street by the lake shore (there are houses bordering one side of this street) We continue driving for about 10-15 minutes until we see 6-7 cop cars behind us. At this point we were stopped at a red light and 2 cops pulled up on the left lane and told us both to pull into the nearby parking lot. We pulled into the parking lot, stopped our cars and shut our engines off. We waited in our seats scared out of our minds for the cops to come. Before saying anything they said they got several complaints from the houses along the lake shore saying that they heard tires screeching coming from a red and a white car. They asked if we were racing and we both told them no because we really were not, we were going 5-8 km/h over the speed limit at max (we took the scenic route for a reason). So the cop proceeds to feel my breaks and say my breaks are really hot, and asked me why they were hot and I told him we were on the highway before we got onto this road and he feels the tires and compares the heat to his police cruiser. At this point the officer waves away the other 4-5 cruisers that were in the parking lot. He asks both my friend and I for insurance/ownership/license. I hand him everything and my insurance card is expired. He asks me again and to tell him honestly if we were street racing, and again I told him we were not. He asks me if I know the penalty for street racing and I said yes and explained to him the consequences.

The officer then proceeds to the cruiser with my license to check if it was valid and then writes me a ticket for having an expired insurance card. He takes my insurance card and then writes me a ticket stating "fail to have insurance card". I am insured on the car that I was driving as a secondary driver and I know that I am still insured. However, I have not received the updated insurance card in the mail yet. Do I have any reasonable grounds to dispute this ticket? I'm really stressed since this is my first ticket I have ever gotten and the first time that I have been pulled over by 6-7 cops at once. My friend suggested that they were just screwing with us since we we're both 19 and driving higher-end cars (evo x, and mercedes c230 kompressor). The ticket is only a 65 dollar fine with no demerits, but will this ticket increase my insurance rates? That's the only thing that I am worried about since I'm fairly certain it will jump the insurance on my rx-8 up significantly... If not, can I just pay the 65 dollar fine and be done with it? Any help would be much appreciated...

Spinning Sushi

iTrader: (21)

Bring in your new proof of insurance to court along with a document saying that the insurance was bought before the ticket date and it was still active. The judge will then void the ticket and you won't pay a dime... or maybe a small $10 fee. It will not hurt your insurance premium at all.

TheKDog

Don't worry, just provide proof to the court that you have valid insurance. They will dismiss the ticket, but you will probably have to pay court costs.

I have to go to court for speeding (only 10mph over), not having my insurance (gave them an expired one by accident), and not having inspection done. All 3 at once.

None of those is really a big deal. But if you are caught street racing, that would be a big deal.

Shamusodoofus

Thanks alot! I was scared that my insurance would skyrocket >.<

DarkLord7854

That, just request a court date, and contact your insurance for the papers.

You can also contact the number it shows on the pamphlet they should have given you, and they'll tell you to just mail a copy of the insurance to an address and it'll all be taken care of. Won't go on your record nor affect your insurance or anything.


Sucks to hear about how cops tried to get you for street racing though, happens to me every so often, it's rather retarded and lame, and they just love using those scare tactics by having 4-6 cop cars circled around you shining their spotlights directly in your eyes.



The only way your insurance can increase from a ticket is if you get points on your license, which only happens if you either pay the ticket in full, which means you admit to being guilty, or you go to court and the judge says you get X amount of points (or if you got a DUI or something along those lines).

Spinning Sushi

iTrader: (21)

You go to jail, get released with a huge fine and to top it off, they give you a three year formal/informal probation over here in California.

DarkLord7854

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/inju...mary_table.htm

If I recall, certain states will also crush your car

Spinning Sushi

iTrader: (21)

Ah, I see, if it's racing then you get 90 days of jail time, a maximum fine of $1000, a 6-month license suspension, and a 3 year probation period.

There are certain parts of California where they crush your car.

DarkLord7854

Would you like it if you were stopped at a light and some dude who decided to street race crashes into you at 110mph and leaves you handicapped for life, confined to a hospital bed?

Street racing is illegal because it's dangerous and endangers everyone on the road. There have been lots of families that were torn to shreds because some stupid person decided to street race, lost control, and crashed into an innocent driver or bystander.

Keep in mind that street racing is NOT condoned on this forum.

Flashwing

The real problem with that law of crushing cars is it pushes people to run rather than being arrested and their car impounded.

I hate to say it but if I knew my car was going to be crushed I'd run. With all the time, money and energy invested in my RX8 that's some serious loss.

I guess the point is to simply not do it, but it doesn't encourage people to stop if they think they will lose their car to the compactor.

No it most certainly isn't condoned. My onlu gripe with street racing is and has been the disproportionate response by law enforcement and the media.

How about crushing cars of drunk drivers?!? I've based most of my research off of Arizona mostly because we have a serious drunk driving problem here. It's not uncommon for people to be nabbed 3, 4 or even 5 times driving drunk before something serious happens to them. Many cases it's a reoccuring problem where the person simply doesn't care about the consequences so they keep doing it. I bet if you started crushing cars of drunk drivers after their second offense they might think twice about doing it.

In Arizona, 40% - 45% of traffic deaths are drunk driving related while only 8% of traffic deaths are specifically due to "speed".

I don't want to break down life into numbers, but I think my point is made.

As a society we seem to ignore the real problems and dangers behind the wheel. I agree, street racing is very dangerous. I'd just like to see law enforcement tackle the real problems we face. The problem is street racing gets media attention while DUI doesn't.

REsuperD

i'm pretty sure in cali they crush your car right away

why is it such a big deal? i'd say killing pedestrians is a pretty big deal. have you ever been driving on the freeway or the road and see idiots *racing* each other? i don't want them to accidentally clip my car or crash into me, let alone get killed by them. street racing is a pretty serious offense, imho

REsuperD

as to the op's question, it's sad but they do do this. i've heard of more expensive tickets for having expired insurance or registration. they can look up the registration right away; insurance, i'm not sure. this kind of ticket is pretty senseless, but they can get you. i dunno why they had so many cops following you; that's super creepy

Flashwing

[QUOTE=MastaMarek;3035139 anyways, why street racing is such a big deal?? [/QUOTE]

Sorry for the double post, different topic.

Street Racing is a big deal because you have two major factors working against each other. First, you have a driver that normally has little understanding of how their car handles in situations where they lose control. Many of the "street racers" I've met are over confident in their driving ability.

The second factor is public streets are not designed for high speed driving. As such you have unknown factors such as road imperfections, dust or road debris, animals, road hazards and of course other drivers. Contrast this to a track environment which is designed for high speed driving, is prep'ed and kept free of debris and has other safety features. In fact, in many cases you're safer on the race track than in normal traffic!

Street Racing is all about the rush of doing something illegal. If people were really interested in racing they would just go to the race track. Here in Phoenix, paying $25 for as many drag runs as you can squeeze in is cheaper than a major fine, car being impounded and you losing your license for 6 months.

It's been glamorized and people do it cause it's "dangerous" and it's seen as a status symbol. I've been called all sorts of names saying I'm a big wimp cause I don't race on the streets.

Street Racing is a big deal because it effects us all. When people street race, they give those of us with modified cars a bad rap. I get followed all the time by cops expecting me to do something dumb. Everytime I get stopped I'm questioned up and down about my driving habits. It's annoying.

dmp

To the OP: That's blatant harassment.

Myardor

iTrader: (7)

....
+1

Cattywampus

I really hope you are kidding.

Shamusodoofus

My only concern at this point is that the officer wrote on the ticket "fail to have insurance card" (basically he meant that I DID NOT have my insurance card, which I did but was expired). Does that exempt me from going to court and showing them my updated one? The reason he wrote this was because I had 2 insurance cards in my wallet, and one was for my 8 and the other for the mercedes. It was dark and I was scared out of my mind so I just grabbed both and handed it to him. He handed one back and went back to the cruiser and then walked back with a ticket and said "Ok, so you're getting a 65 dollar fine because this obviously isn't a mazda rx-8" and I told him I had the insurance card for the mercedes too, and I handed it to him. He just hands it back and said ok, but this is expired too and hands me the ticket. The worst part is that he took my expired mercedes insurance card when he left. It completely slipped my mind that it could be used as evidence in court since I was so scared. Can I still plead innocent lacking that card?

delhi

7 cop cars tailing you and your buddy? Sure there was no chopper above as well?

Descent

Just want to say..even if you didn't fight the ticket and just paid the fine, I don't think you would get points on your license, because it wasn't a moving violation. I guess it would depend on where you live though. I know Massachusetts is one of the worse states when it comes to stuff like this, and I don't think I would get any points for this.

Edit: Oh, and the 7 cops following you. I think they were just ******* with you, intimidation maybe. I got pulled over in Florida in a minivan with a brake light out by 4 cops :\