RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – Virginia State Police will boost road patrols over the Independence Day holiday.
Increased patrols begin Thursday and continue through Sunday night. It’s part of the annual Operation CARE national traffic-enforcement effort.
The additional patrols are aimed at reducing crashes, fatalities and injuries caused by speeding, impaired driving and failure to use seat belts.
AAA Mid-Atlantic says it expects more than 1.1 million Virginians to travel during the holiday weekend. That’s down 1.4 percent from 2012.
Officials say 10 pe rcent of the crashes in Virginia during the July 4th holiday were alcohol-related.
Last year police cited more than 9,200 speeders and 2,600 reckless drivers and 900 drivers were charged for failing to buckle up. State police also investigated 719 traffic crashes.
Ten people died in traffic accidents in Virginia last year.
I was driving to DFW and while coming up to Weatherford on I-20 I noticed the signs had suddenly dropped from 75mph to 65mph with nary a town in sight but obviously “close enough” to Weatherford to warrant highway patrol cruisers fleecing folks who didn’t happen to keep to the 75. It’s a god-damned scam!
Fellas I got taxed on the way home yesterday. Awesome clear evening and wide open roads. I was on the KZ. Clocked at 76mph in a 55, knocked down to 74mph on paper. Had a .45 on me too. Had to give the gun to the cop and let him pull the clip.
Dis armed.
Was that enough over the limit to mean you lost your license?
What was your reason for stopping?
No clear exit?
Not worth it?
“Had a .45 on me” – spooky.
Speeding is a potential death sentence for Helots.
Er, I mean, not obeying is a potential death sentence for Helots.
Same thing, right?
I’m going with not worth it. I have not been completely thru the bike yet and don’t trust it enough for that type of adventure yet. It’s running lean, values need adjusted, and I still haven’t done a tune-up on it. Weird part was when he clocked me the speedo said 65mph. Wonder if I could put it on a dyno and check my calibration. Sometimes that’s good for a points discount.
Are you going to try and fight it?
My better half got one and is kind of afraid to fight it.
My wallet says the insurance jump makes it worth a try.
I totally get your, “don’t trust it enough”.
I’m not sure I understand what you mean by, “Sometimes that’s good for a points discount.”
“Sometimes that’s good for a points discount.”
Sometimes if the speedometer is out you can get off on the ticket. I’ve done it before as “faulty equipment.” I’d have to take the bike to a certificated service station that can document it.
I recommend contesting the paying paper.
The prosecutor ,might play “Let’s make a deal” and reduce the fine and/or points.
You could ask your Insurance agent/company what will happen to your rates after the ticket.
On the bright side, you only received the paying paper and not the the wood shampoo. In this humid weather the shampoo can really make your hair get frizzy. 😉
It is always worth it, mang!
Here’s why:
That one ticket may have no effect on your insurance rates. But if you get another during the next 3-5 years, you can bet it will affect your premiums.
IIRC, Virginia “holds it against you” – the points remain live on your DMV record – for three years from the date of conviction. The record of the conviction remains for five years before it is dropped. Things may have changed since I last checked, so you’d better check to find out what’s current.
74 in a 55 is a “4 point” ticket in VA. It is considered a “big” ticket – only one notch down from “reckless” driving,” which by the way the pig almost cited you with.
One way to at least lose the record of the violation (and points) is to do the “driving school” thing. You waste an entire Saturday (eight hours) listening to bullshit about “speeding” and the importance of obeying all laws (because they’re laws). In exchange, they drop the ticket. You still pay – for the class instead of the original charge – but it’s a one-time hit. If you get convicted of the “speeding” charge, you might be paying much more, over time, in the form of higher insurance premiums.
VA needs to learn some basic corruption from Illinois… 😉
online traffic school…. and it will go away in 6 months or so. going to court and pleading ‘guilty’ or even being found guilty is a fine plus ‘supervision’ (don’t get another ticket in 6months and it goes away)
There is a higher-than-usual degree of moral unction in the Commonwealth of VA. It’s not enough to simply take your money; they want to show you the error of your ways; get you to see – via punishment.
Oh, not to worry if you commit an actual crime. You know, hurting someone. Assault, murder, rape. Then you get the patty-cake treatment.
But if you commit a “violation” – “speeding,” for instance. Or refusing to wear a seatbelt. Or – god help you – grow some pot – look out….
Shit, mang!
Just read this post (5:36 a.m. Sunday).
What a ride-ruiner.
Clover must have just shot a load in his pants.
Increased road patrols in Virginia? Does that mean that a sudden lack of crime against persons and property in the state is freeing up manpower for this little operation?
Or could it possibly be due to the daily rains interfering with revenue-generating operations? If speed traps are run only with the safety of the public in mind then why are they seldom, if ever, run while it’s raining? Surely, the old tired argument that excessive speed in and of itself being the number one killer on the roadways would never be more applicable than during a rainstorm. Does no one make a waterproof radar gun or a lidar that will work in the rain? Shouldn’t our valiant heroes be perfectly justified in stepping up withdrawals from the ATM that is the driving public so as to be able to purchase the necessary equipment?
(If you can’t discern the sarcasm in the above statement, you probably need to be checked for a pulse
TN state cop A J Ross celebrates “our freedoms” by running an unconstitutional DUI checkpoint and various other violations of the law.
Brazoria County TX cop celebrates “our freedoms” by searching two more ladies’ “womanly parts” for marijuana with the same glove.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=0ac_1372956112
Cop who raped a 10 year old girl undergoes heart surgery. When the cop wakes up after surgery, he realizes his doctor is also the father of the girl he raped. The cop complains about the doctor’s daughter having “ruined his career.” The doctor gets pissed and punches the cop in the head and chest, and the cop dies shortly thereafter.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=cb5_1372865508
Ironic bit of fate.
Amazing that one still blames the victim for the consequences.
2012 VA Crash Facts
http://www.dmv.state.va.us/safety/crash_data/crash_facts/crash_facts_12.pdf
Doing the above math, out of some 12,700 citations for various traffic “crimes”, including seatbelts, out of the 10 fatalities that would mean you would have a 0.078% chance of becoming a statistic. Notably, not wearing a seatbelt won’t cause a crash, but they prey on the calculated (using these figures) 5.66% chance that you will.
In the REAL world, the chances of you having a crash at all is reduced by many orders of magnitude considering all the drivers that DIDN’T get a ticket and DIDN’T crash, which is an unknown quantity here or anywhere for that matter.
Out of the 719 crashes (where people have the greatest chance of becoming a statistic), you have just 1.39%, but it doesn’t say how many weren’t wearing seatbelts.
The chance you’d become a road toll statistic is so incredibly low, they have no excuse to inflict their usual licence-losing, fine-imposing misery on anyone at all. The only reason they get away with it is statist clovers demand it – for the revenue.
900 “failure to buckle up” tickets. At $100 a pop, that’s $9,000 mulcted from innocent (because they caused no harm to anyone, not even plausibly) victims – at gunpoint.
I wonder how “free” those people felt?
Eric,
Actually, 900 tickets x $100 each would be a ridiculous $90,000 stolen from the victims in question.
Ridiculous…just ridiculous.
I wonder how “free” those people felt?
Given that most of them were probably brainless, authoritah-worshiping Clovers, I doubt that their outlook was changed at all. Indeed, most of them were probably grateful that Officer Oinky was “looking out for my saaaaaaaaaafety.”