I almost laughed when he told me why he stopped me...

[Brad Johnson]

I was driving south on 270 this afternoon in the far left lane, probably 5 or 6 car lengths behind the car in front of me. Basically keeping up with traffic when a car in the lane to my right which had been driving directly behind another decided to pull in front of me, less than two car lengths away. Hardly the first time I've seen this, I didn't blow my horn, give him the finger, etc., just maintained my speed (60). I look up and a state trooper is coming up behind me so I move to the right. He moves to the right and it's clear he's after me.

I pull over, have my license and registration ready. He tells me this stop is being recorded. Cool. He then says he pulled me over for not maintaining a safe distance. Huh?

I tell him that I was fine until the other driver abruptly pulled in front of me with no signal. He asked me if I was kidding. I said "Sorry".

He came back with a $110 citation for not maintaining a safe distance. I told him I wasn't kidding, the guy had just pulled in front of me and I guess my mistake was not breaking and falling back to establish a similar distance I had had with the car I was originally behind. All in a very pleasant, non-confrontatinal manner, with a smile. He said the ticket wasn't an admission of guilt, I acknowledged that, thanked him for his time and went on my way.

On the trip back home, while maintaining the prescribed distance behind other cars (I actually like to keep space between myself and other vehicles), I had people pull directly in front of me, leaving an "unsafe distance" no less than a dozen times on the 20+ mile trip. More often than not without signalling. Fortunately no officer saw this or I might've gotten more tickets.

Funny stuff. I'll be going to court on this one.

BTW I'm not blaming the officer for anything in this situation, it's a tough job. I am curious as to how you ascertain the following distance when you're coming up directly behind the cars in question on a straightaway. Oh well.

[Spector_Ray]

That's one of my pet peeves.

[allexcosta]

It's because you drive a sport car. Switch to a Buick or a mini-van and this won't happen again. Cops see sport cars as trouble and make a reason out of the blue to stop you. Yes, go to the court and simply say he is wrong. It'll be fairly easy. I Don't even think he's going to show up.

[capnsandwich]

Sounds like it was a 'wrong place at the wrong time' scenario. My bet is that you'll end up winning the case or maybe the cop won't even show up. That happens a lot in Ohio. I used to live in Maryland, though. I remember the state troopers being very sneaky and swarming Rt. 50 on the way to Ocean City.

[blueskid]

the only thing you were guilty of was driving on 270. i avoid that thing like swine flu. 495, 270, 355, all places i hate driving

[ThatGermanDude]

If traffic isn't heavy I usually try to keep a 2 second distance. Just pick random points on the road or sign posts and count how long it takes you to pass them after the car in front of you drove past them.

[tplyons]

That sucks... the problem is that when you maintain a safe distance, that leaves room for a car to sneak in there, and then it's your fault for being too close.

Happens to me all the time, luckily I haven't been ticketed for it.

[IconBasser]

interesting. today on the 57, me and the car in front of me were going about 85, roughly 15 mph faster than every other car around us. Cop comes along side of me. I'm thinkin' "holy crap! cop!" he swerves in front of me & pulls over the other guy.

[Quadcam]

I had the same thing happen to me, car darts in front of me on I-95 next thing I know I get pulled over for following too closely, coincidentally that day they had a trap set up busting people for that exact same thing.

I actually talked to 2-3 people who got busted for the same thing at the same spot
it's easy pickins because it's at the I-95/295 split and people are jump across lanes like crazy, you prtty much have to in order to not get slammed by merging traffic

Originally Posted by IconBasser

Cop comes along side of me. I'm thinkin' "holy crap! cop!" he swerves in front of me & pulls over the other guy.

Were you freakin out man?

[hbarcat]

Hooray! Another Mickey Mouse law that the cops can use to harass law abiding citizens!!!

My mother still works for the local police department after more than 20 years, and I can honestly call dozens of cops my friends.

But crap like this makes me understand why cops get such a bad rap. They sometimes deserve it.

[Bard2dbone]

Originally Posted by ThatGermanDude

If traffic isn't heavy I usually try to keep a 2 second distance. Just pick random points on the road or sign posts and count how long it takes you to pass them after the car in front of you drove past them.

The problem with that is that there are roads where you couldn't maintain a 2 second interval if you put it in Park.

There are highways in Dallas that you can't maintain a three car length gap in front of your car at any speed.

The worst one in Dallas is 635. I really used to hate driving my ambulance there. I'd turn on my lights and sirens, which is supposed to mean 'Move to the right and get out of my way.', but in Dallas it apparently means 'Swerve at me and cause a wreck and maybe the ambulance company will give you a lot of money, because if the ambulance gets in a wreck while driving with the lights and siren on, no matter whose fault it is, the company blames the ambulance driver.'

I actually got in trouble for yelling at people over the PA while driving code 3. I'd yell "Move to the right. It's not just a good idea. It's the law." I got written up for that.

[Chopper]

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8ba_1246892244

[burk48237]

Brad, You should have told the officer you were draftin the guy in front of you to get better gas mileage because you CARE about the planet. And that you learn all your safe driving techniques from NASCAR.

I have a feeling it's going to get worse with the local law enforcement. I haven't had a ticket in about six years and have been pulled over once (bad tail light). But there isn't a municipality in the country that isn't hurting for revenue right now. On my street (a short cut to the e-way) I see about a dozen stops a week. Citation writing is a great tax system, because their are no messy referendums, congressional votes, or city council meetings over it. I can't think of any better way for a local municipality to raise money fast. And they all need money. If they were to raise your property taxes 100$ every six months you'd show up at the city council meeting and raise H@$$.

This has NEVER been about safety, they don't have speed traps where there is a lot of danger, they have speed traps where the natural speed is much higher then the artificially low speed limit. When (if) you pay your fine and your car insurance goes up just remember your doing your patriotic duty and the insurance company needs the money.

[Mike N]

Originally Posted by burk48237

.....there isn't a municipality in the country that isn't hurting for revenue right now. Citation writing is a great tax system, because their are no messy referendums, congressional votes, or city council meetings over it. I can't think of any better way for a local municipality to raise money fast. And they all need money.

Huge +1 to this.

[Spector_Ray]

Originally Posted by Mike N

Huge +1 to this.

Especially since red light cameras are getting scrutinized everywhere you look.

[capnsandwich]

Originally Posted by burk48237

I have a feeling it's going to get worse with the local law enforcement. I haven't had a ticket in about six years and have been pulled over once (bad tail light). But there isn't a municipality in the country that isn't hurting for revenue right now. On my street (a short cut to the e-way) I see about a dozen stops a week. Citation writing is a great tax system, because their are no messy referendums, congressional votes, or city council meetings over it. I can't think of any better way for a local municipality to raise money fast. And they all need money. If they were to raise your property taxes 100$ every six months you'd show up at the city council meeting and raise H@$$.

This is especially true here in Ohio. The town I used to live in, Pataskala, Ohio, just announced that they're debating on whether or not to disband the police force all together due to a levy not passing during last year's election.

Also, there's a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, another town where I used to live and still work, that was on the local news because their chief of police sent out an email to the rest of the city police that if they didn't meet their 18 ticket per month quota, they were going to be put on disciplinary action and lose some of their pay. Now, I make sure that I go the speed limit when going to work.

[MJ5150]

Originally Posted by burk48237

But there isn't a municipality in the country that isn't hurting for revenue right now.

Citation writing is a great tax system, because their are no messy referendums, congressional votes, or city council meetings over it. I can't think of any better way for a local municipality to raise money fast. And they all need money. If they were to raise your property taxes 100$ every six months you'd show up at the city council meeting and raise H@$$.

Cool, again I find someone else to do all my typing. This was just what I was going to say. Thanks burk!

Seriously....when was the last time you heard someone say they got off with just a warning after being pulled over? No more warnings, cities are broke.

-Mike

[LilRay]

My Pop and I were in Oklahoma in our old truck that had a few bumper stickers of gear on the top of the back window (Fender,Peavey ETC) and we were pulled over by an Oklahoma State Trooper.

He told my Pop that the reason was he didn't maintain a signal long enough after moving into the other lane. We go through all the BS and the trooper has his dog search the truck. Dog never responded.

After about 45 minutes on the side of the highway the trooper finally says "Well I saw two guys in a truck with long hair and a bunch of musicians stickers on the window, and I was sure you guys had some drugs". Needless to say we don't do drugs.

Oh the stigma of putting a Fender Bumper sticker on your vehicle.

God Bless, Ray

[Mark Latimour]

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

Those police just need to keeps their eyes oen for possible infractions so that you can enjoy your freedom. Quit complaining!

[MJ5150]

Originally Posted by joeybyron

F the Police

Yeah, you're right. Let's just get rid of police altogether.

Humans have shown time and again they have the ability to behave nicely without anyone around to enforce basic standards of how to treat each other.

-Mike