Thursday, November 03, 2005

I fought the law...

...and we tied. Today, I contested a $150 ticket I received for failure to stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk. The ticket was horseshite, in my opinion, because I had stopped to let a group of people cross, and when they got to the other side, I looked around and no one was coming so I started to accelerate, when some bozo sprints in front of me from out of nowhere and I have to slam on my brakes, and a malevolent state trooper gives me a ticket.
The hearing was kind of wacky- there were about 50 people in a room all contesting traffic violations, and they swear everybody in together, then call out names one at a time, and you go up and sit at a table and profess your innocence, with the whole room watching and listening. Luckily, I was the second person called, so at least I didn't get stuck there for the entire day. I told them what happened, and they gave me a choice: either pay $75 instead of the $150, or pay $20 and request a second hearing in front of a judge at a future date. I went for the half-price deduction, because I didn't want to a. bother with the hassle again and b. risk losing the hearing and having to pay $170.

4 comments:

brigita said...

Whatta loada crap. I always thought those things got good and waived if you bothered to show up. Glad to hear you got a bit of a deduction, but still...

Anonymous said...

Hey! That was me crossing that crosswalk and you tried to hit me!!

mj said...

good choice.

Anonymous said...

Annoying you still had to pay, but at least it wasn't $150.