Nothing, but nothing, beats that moment when you get the flashing reds and blues in your rearview mirror and you know, deep in your heart, that the uniforms have you dead to rights. You sit in the seat, dreading the moment that they come up to the car window to ask for your license, insurance card, and your litany of excuses for why you treated the speed limit on their road like a mere suggestion, instead of law. And the moment the shadow darkens your window, you might as well be the man on death row whose jail cell is about to be opened for the final time.
Or, you can take a lesson from what happened recently to Lotus CEO Jeam-Marc Gales. Mr. Gales was recently tagged for driving 102 miles per hour in a 70 MPH zone on the A11 Expressway in England. Whoops…hey, those kinds of things happen, right? There’s nothing like 32 MPH over the limit on a speeding ticket…that hurts no matter who caught you. In the U.K. that would normally equate to a ton of points getting knocked off of your license. Since Mr. Gales already got points docked for a similar 2014 incident on the exact same stretch of road, had the judge gone through with docking more points, Mr. Gales would be barred from driving for at least six months.
Simon Nicholls, Gales’ attorney, actually pulled off this defense: it was imperative that Gales did not acquire any more points on his license, because it was vitally important that he continue to test-drive new cars himself. And it worked. Gales was fined £666 for the speeding fine, £100 in court fees and a £66 “victim surcharge” fee.
Naturally, safety advocates went ballistic. According to The Telegraph (U.K.), Joshua Harris, the director of campaigns at Brake (a road safety charity organization) had a good piece of his mind ready to go. “Driving over the speed limit is selfish, reckless, and endangers lives. There is no justification for traveling at the speeds demonstrated in this case and Mr. Gales should count himself lucky that he dod not receive an additional six points on his license, resulting in a twelve-month ban. Excessive speeding is a menace on our roads and the law should be used to it’s fullest extent, making clear that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated.”
One for two out of speeding stops. Being honest works EXCEPT if it’s a NJ trooper. If they stop you will get a ticket. Dated a female trooper back in the 80’s…”If I get out of my troop car you will get a ticket”…tough girl!!!
My last NJSP encounter began with the trooper asking me, “Would you mind telling me why you were driving like such an asshole?” I didn’t get out of that one, but he did cut me a break well enough that I had no problem with taking lumps, paying the tickets, surrendering my license for a bit, thus ending my brief highway racing “career.” Looking back on that, that trooper probably saved my or someone else’s life.
I thought cops arrest “John’s”