A New Potential Record For A Traffic Ticket Fine

A Swedish motorist is facing a $962,000 fine for speeding 180 mph on a highway in Switzerland while driving a $240,000 Mercedes Benz with 570-horsepower.  Fines in Switzerland are based not only on the severity of the offense but also on a motorist’s income level.

If imposed, this fine will shattered the prior record for a speeding ticket fine.

Police said the lead-footed motorist avoided radars because their devices are unable to clock speeds beyond 125 mph. A newer speed camera, however, was able to record the speeding.  I can only imagine what the fine would be if this motorist had beat the record for the fastest speeding ticket ever … 242 mph.

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Police Officer Offers To Drop Traffic Ticket In Exchange For Sex

In the ultimate attempt at “plea” bargaining, a Memphis Police officer tried to convince a motorist to have sex with him and avoid being issued a traffic ticket.

The female motorist reported Police Officer Michael Kearney and now he’s been charged with felony counts of sexual battery and official misconduct.

The motorist was sitting in the back of his squad car while he was issuing her a traffic ticket  He then allegedly made the unique offer while touching his private area.

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CEO Gets Speeding Ticket (91/35) While Test Driving A Super Car (And Couldn’t Care Less)

Claus Ettensberer, CEO of CEC, a luxury car accessories company, was lucky enough to be able to test drive a Lexus LFA, a sports car with a starting price of $375,000.  The FLA has a 4.8 liter V10 engine 9,000 maximum RPM, 202 mph top speed, and goes 0 to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds.

While test driving the LFA for 20 minutes in a residential neighborhood, Claus was stopped and issued a speeding ticket for 91/35.   As the photo and video show, he couldn’t care less about it.  He even thinks it’s funny taking a smiling photo with the issuing police officer Perhaps, when he sees the judge, he’ll feel differently.

In New York, this would be an 11-point ticket in New York and could result in a suspension even with an otherwise clean record.  In fact, in most parts of the state, up to 15 days in jail could be imposed.  The fine, surcharge and driver assessment fee for such a ticket is over a $1,000 (not that Claus has to worry about such pocket change).  In fact, Claus likely would have faced more serious charges such as reckless driving or reckless endangerment, and had his car impounded.

By the way, his speed, while high, is no where near the record speeding ticket of 242 mph.

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Suspension Termination Fee Generated Over $32 Million In 2009

If your New York driver’s license or privilege is suspended for any reason (other than DMV error), you must pay a suspension termination fee.  This fee is in addition to any fine, surcharge or other monies owed on the underlying traffic ticket or other DMV matter.

Sounds weird?  Even though you pay what you owe,  you cannot get your license back unless you pay more money.  Well it is a weird fee and it is a relatively new one.  Indeed, I know of no other state that has an STF or similar fee.

Although termed a “fee”, the STF is actually a tax (but politicians don’t like the T-word).  It was concocted a few years ago and was initially only $35.  It quickly doubled to $70 effective July, 2009.  While $70 per suspension does not appear to be a large number, last year, STFs generated $32,945,771 for New York State, about a 1/3 of all revenue generated by DMV for traffic tickets.  Pretty good for a tax, I mean “fee”, which was created out of thin air.

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New Red Light Camera Rules To Make It Easier To Tow

As reported this week in the NY Post, effective September 13, 2010, New York City Marshals will be allowed to tow any vehicle with a combined $350 owed for parking tickets and red-light camera summonses.  Previously, fines owed for red-light camera convictions were not added to a motorist’s parking violations records and, therefore, couldn’t put a motorist over the $350 threshold for towing.  Now, red light camera violations dating back to 2003 will be added to a driver’s total.

The new rules are designed to help collect the roughly 664,000 unpaid red-light camera tickets which  represent $47 million in lost revenue for the city.

Most people plead guilty and pay their red light camera tickets because they are near-impossible to beat.  Two photographs depict your car approaching and then crossing the intersection while the light is in the red phase.

Although these tickets carry only a $50 fine (a moving violation red light traffic ticket starts at $250 and carries 3 points), in 2009, the city generated $32.3 million from 150 hidden red light cameras.

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Cities Sandbagging Motorists

Car & Driver.com reports that some municipalities have kept their speed limits artificially low so as to make it easier for its officers to issue speeding tickets.

The article entitled “Feeding The Machine: Sandbagging On Speed Limits” explains that, under Michigan law, there are certain formulas for determining state limits.  The formulas are based on average speeds traveled, and the number of intersections and driveways along the stretch of a given roadway.  The article’s author George Hunter writes:

Since Congress repealed a national speed-limit law in 1995, states have been increasing limits. So, while state legislatures are voting to up speed limits, local municipalities are reluctant to follow, experts say, because they don’t want to lose the revenue that speeding tickets provide.

Motorists with speeding tickets issued in illegally low speed zones are able to get their tickets dismissed despite the fact that they were speeding.  Of course, most motorists don’t know the law and end up paying these tickets.

It is despicable that these cities would ignore state law in order to generate “illegal” revenue.  Motorists end up paying fines and blemishing their driving records where they otherwise would be driving at a safe speed.

In New York City, the maximum speed limit on highways is only 50 mph.  This 5 mph differential from the standard 55 mph highway speed limit often “trips up” motorists who think they are driving within the limit.  While signs are posted, it is particularly effective on motorists who don’t often drive in New York City.  Unfortunately, New York’s Legislature has not imposed a law similar to that in Michigan.

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Speeding Car And Toll Plaza Don’t Mix

What not to do when you approach a toll plaza.

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Speeding Tickets From Above

Suffolk County is experimenting with using of small planes to spot motorists engaging in reckless driving and other moving violations.

Spotters aboard the plane will be hovering above the Long Island Expressway looking for drivers committing offenses and, then, radioing vehicle descriptions to deputies below.

In one three-hour period, the aircraft spotters were able to help issue 88 traffic tickets, mostly for speeding.

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NYC Cell Phone Blitz Tomorrow (June 23, 2010)

A 24-hour blitz on New York City motorists who are driving and using a cell without a hands-free device will be in effect tomorrow.  A cell phone tickets carries 0 points but can result in your auto insurance increasing and cost you about $150.

Last March, when a similar blitz was run, a whopping 6,882 cell phone tickets were issuing raking in over $800,000 for the City.

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Text Messaging And Driving More Wide Spread Than Thought

A recent survey by Pew’s Internet and American Life Project concluded that adults and teens drive and text message about the same amount.  However, when you measure both sending and reading text messages, adults are actually worse offenders.

With the dangers of driving and text messaging obvious, it is surprisingly that adults would act even more carelessly than teenagers.

While the New York legislature has enacted a law which prohibits texting and driving, this blog was the first to point out that the law has a major loophole.  Albany’s dysfunctional politicians have yet to fix it with no resolution in near sight.

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