Lifes little unpleasant surprises
By Kowgirl
@Kowgirl (3490)
United States
August 10, 2007 2:35pm CST
Just yesterday my son got a ticket for speeding. The sad part was it was in an area where the speed limit had just recently been changed. He drives on this street every day going and coming to and from work and the speed limit was 45. There is a bush that grows so tall that the sign can not be seen until you are right up on it. So he was suprised to get pulled over by an officer holding his radar meter. But my son laughed when the officer said he was speeding, going 44 MPH. The officer asked "do you think speeding is funny?" No sir, but I wasn't speeding ...the speed limit is 45 MPH and has been for more than a year, you just said I was doing 44 MPH so how could I have been speeding? The officer told him to go take another look at the speed sign. So my son got out and walked back to the sign which now said 35 MPH and the soil around the bottom of the sign was fresh.
Needless to say he got the ticket but also asked the officer to please notify the city to cut back the bush so the sign could be seen. The officer said he would...we'll know if he did because my son will be driving on this road every day going and coming from work. Don't you just hate these kind of surprises?
2 people like this
6 responses
@stealthy (8181)
• United States
10 Aug 07
It almost sounds like the officer was trying to meet some kind of quota and figured the newly changed speed limit with the hidden sign was a good place to do it. I have only gotten one ticket for a moving violation and it occurred when I had just gotten onto an interstate that completely empty of traffic other than me and I overshot the limit by a little as I was increasing speed. The fine was faily low because I could have had a good basis to contest it because of errors on the ticket but it was so low wasn't worth a trip back home and missing my graduate school classed to do it.
@raychill (6525)
• United States
10 Aug 07
I seem to have bad luck with tickets. I never get just one. The first one I got, I got another one less than a month later. The next time I got one, I got another one less than a week later!
That is horrible and it sucks that the officer didn't just give him a warning when realizing that your son was not aware of this speed limit change. I've never been given the courtesy of a warning. I have a friend who is quite the reckless driver to his own admission and he's gotten more warnings than tickets and it just makes me so mad!
Is your son going to pay it or take it to court?
1 person likes this
@akumei1269 (1749)
• India
11 Aug 07
Definitely anybody will hate . The responsibilty was on the part of the authority . I think the authority should not be spared for neglecting their duty to make visible the changed speed limit . It must be aconsumer rights violation question .
1 person likes this
@pyewacket (43903)
• United States
10 Aug 07
Oh, for crying out loud...this has got to be really stupid...First of all, it wasn't like your son was going at 75 mph, only about 9 miles faster than the new speed limit...And yes, they definitely need to cut back those bushes so people can actually see the sign.
1 person likes this
@cmsk2005 (1770)
• United States
11 Aug 07
This is rediculous. I would have been mad if i was in this situation. How come they did this thing and didi not think whether the drivers could see the change properly or nnot? It shoud be protested by the drivers facing the problems. Ofcourse your son did not do anything wrong but got a ticket for their mistake
1 person likes this
@chronicles186 (2)
•
11 Aug 07
Well your story does not reflect the title. be more creative next time.
