Highway Ticket Alert!

Starting August 1, Georgia will launch a 30-day speeding ticket frenzy. The state estimates that $9 million will be generated in speeding tickets, with $1 million going towards state troopers' overtime. The rest is to help dwindling municipal budgets. There will be 50 state troopers on duty at all times patrolling the 7 main intersections and highways. They are the following:

I-20 east and west

I-75 north and south

I-85 north and south

I-675 north and south

GA-985 north and south

GA-316 east and west

GA-400 north and south

5 mph above the limit will result in a ticket and every state trooper is supposed to pull a car over and write a ticket every 10 to 20 minutes. They have issued 30 brand new unmarked Dodge Charger Police cruisers and are bringing in all of their part timers on full time. If you work in the Atlanta area, you will probably take one of these highways. It's up to you how fast you are going when they clock you.

Look for city and county governments to adopt similar polices in the near future.

 

I think they're already doing this in San Antonio and its suburbs. For the past year or so, about all you ever see cops doing is writing tickets. Also, the SAPD recently rejuggled its work shifts, putting more cops out on the streets during the late afternoon rush hour -- for "public safety," of course. Oddly, since this has happened, I've seen even more people pulled over and getting tickets at that time of day.

 

Here in Arizona the people voted out photo radar, but now I am seeing more unmarked patrol cars….got to generate that revenue somehow I guess………

 

No worries BLK, I'm sure our current US Attorney General and his Justice dept will file suit against AZ stating the selective enforcement of traffic laws On Federal and Interstate highways is unconstitutional because state law enforcement officers have no authority on federal highways. We can't have local law enforcement unfairly targeting well-meaning traffic violators. After all, they're only breaking the law.

After reading my own comment I thought I'd better add that this isn't a poke at those AZ drivers that on occasion enjoy the thrill of a little excess speed, Lord knows I like to stand on the throttle every once in awhile. Just my attempt at sarcastically pointing out the hypocrisy of the current federal administration.

 

What the drivers in Georgia should do is take each and every one of those tickets to court. Not that they'd win necessarily, though many would if they had good lawyers etc. The theory is, if the states had to actually prosecute each and every infraction, they would have to be more selective in writing tickets. The legal system would be clogged up for months.

I don't know if they still do, but the NMA (Natl. Motorists Association) will pay your ticket if you take it to court and fight it all the way through and lose (no plea bargains etc, you must go to the judge, plead not guilty and take your best shot.) The NMA offer only applied up to maybe 15-20mph over or so, so as not to appear to condone reckless driving.

Or get you a good radar detector. Valentine one, or one of the new Escort or Beltronics are all pretty awesome. They're expensive, but if they save you one ticket, they pretty much pay for themselves.

 

The problem with fighting a ticket, instead of plea bargainng, is that if you lose, you get points against your license and an insurance premium surcharge.

 

I'm well aware of that. You get that by paying it too, which is what most people will do.

The NMA program is to add an incentive to fight bogus tickets. If you have a good case, then you don't have to pay fines or have insurance go up. If you lose, NMA paying your ticket is the consolation prize, not the goal.

 

I just did a search to see how this was progressing and found this instead:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/traffic/speeding.asp

Apparantly this email has been going around since 2005 for states from New Jersey to Hawaii, and is not actually happening.