I've won many traffic induced court appearings by exercising my right to face my accuser.

The luckiest one for me was a 155mph ticket on my CBR as I was on my way to the labor room to join my Wife - totally irreponsible now in retrospect. I think the Cop felt the lecture he gave me on being avaialble to raise my kid instead of having to scrape me off of "his" freeway was enough that he never bothered to show in court. Never the less the Judge told me that I have a unique last name and he will remember it if I ever show up in front of him again as he'll throw the book at me - lol.

I love America. 

Wille, your avatar thre reminds me of Mrs. Oz, wonder what Mr. Oz has been up to lately down under and I mean geographically.

Brilliant....

Richard you poor man....you should never get arrested for anything...owning a Corvair itself is enough punishment for any man!!!! ( Just kidding...I always fancied a Turbo Sport Coupe Corsa...to hell with Nader...what does he know anyway. I have owned 2 Spitfires with the fold under rear wheels...the Corvair was nowhere near as bad! 

Here you don't go to court for traffic fines. You either accept the ticket and pay at the bank or pay the bribe. The cop's word is all it takes.

I have an employee who spent 6 months in jail because a cop came to his house at 2 am and arrested him for hit and run a half hour earlier. His car had no damage, he was home sleeping alone except for his sleeping toddler. After 6 months he was able to post bail and has now been checking in every week, still awaiting charges.

My last two traffic stops have been for driving a car too dirty for the city, both upon arriving after long drives on muddy state roads.

As for seat belts, I've worn them since 1961 when I installed them in the family 61 Chevy Biscayne. I installed shoulder belts in my Corvair and in my Mini.

 

The wife and I viewed this Sunday morning together. We both laughed our heads off! Thanks for sharing!            Mini Estate

Never figured you were doing anything else...RCMP recruits had to be at least 5 foot 7 inches tall here until the Charter & quotas came along. At 6 foot 2 I was a shoe-in...or should that be a "boot in"?

Minerva! Ithink (hope) you know I was joking! I absolutely agree with you and have absolute respect for the work law enfocement people do. I actually considered law enfocement, but when I graduated high school all forces required candidates to be at least 6 feet tall. At about 5'-10" I literally did not measure up.

Oh, and I always, yes always wear a seat belt. Since they started putting them in cars.

The police down here never used to turn up for court but they now get docked a days pay if they don't so now they appear.

The tint was not only not illegal...it wasn't there.....and the window was rolled down.! When did they transfer you from Gold River?????    BTW..,.the thing that really upset me about this was not that he lied under oath....but he showed his son that it was OK to lie to Police...and OK to perjure yourself under oath in court. Nice lesson for your son which he will use to govern his own behaviour in later life. I also wondered if dad could ever call his son for telling a lie, from that point on? Why should I tell you the truth dad, you lie? 

 

      i allways carry a doz. donuts with me ...

 

      then say to the officer .... your eyes look glazed... have you been eating donuts..???

Regarding your 62 without belts.  I once got a ticket on base (USAF) for not having a seat belt on in my 62 Mini.  I explained to the cop that the car never had them therefore I didn't have to install them.  Still wrote the ticket and that means a trip to see the Sq Commander.  Prior to my day in front of the "old man" I went and got a copy of the AF reg that contains the seat belt info.  Well, there it is in black and white, if the car was pre-66 (I think) that the DOD could not force you to install or wear seat belts.  No problem, and I carried that portion of the reg in my car from then on. 

As to Norms bit about the cop not having to be in court, here's one for you.  Once when my son was younger, say 20.  I had left a newly imported Mini wagon at his mom's place while I was out of town on business.  I left strict orders for him not to drive the Mini as it wasn't registered, insured, etc.  Well, one night at about 2am when the local hotspot/dance hall/C&W bar was closing, 2 of his friends called and said they needed a ride home because the person they came with was drunk and they wouldn't ride with him.  So, my son takes the unregistered, uninsured, RHD Mini to their rescue.  Now, this place is notorious for DUI checkpoints within a half mile of the place.  Yep, he gets stopped in the CP and has no paperwork, including his license.  He gets a ticket and goes on his way.  Well, on the date of the trial he and I both go down to the courtroom.  Prior to the judge coming into the room, the prosecutor reads out a list of names and calls them outside in the hall.  Most were fix-it tickets and he looked at their repair tickets and sent them on their way.  The guy then asks my son if he has the registration, insurance card, driver's license, etc. that was valid that night to show, then could just pay plead no contest, pay $97 court costs and be on his way...that is, IF he had those documents.  Without the documents he would be fined a minimal amount and CC.  He wouldn't say if he had the documents or not, but told the procecutor that he wanted to talk to the judge and he intended to plead innocent.  The guy wanted to know why he wanted to talk to the judge, he said you either have the documents or you don't.  He kept insisting that he wanted to talk to the judge.  The prosecutor was getting mad and kept saying, you either have them or not, and you are GUILTY.  Eric said that he would get Dad to come out there and explain it.  The prosecutor came at me with the same question.  I said you are correct, he didn't have the docs, and still doesn't have them (except his license), but that was irrelevant, because he wanted to exercise his Sixth Amendment rights to be confronted by his accuseor in a court of law.  His response was that he would have to call the cop in off the street where he was out stopping crime just so he could tell the judge exactly what we already knew, that Eric didn't have the docs and was guilty.  Not so fast Kimusabi...As a citizen he is INNOCENT until YOU prove him to be guilty.  And what about wasting the cops time dragging him into the court room?  Hey, that's part of the job.  If he can't come to court he shouldn't write tickets.  Oh was he mad...said, FINE, I'll drag the cop in here and when I prove him guilty, I will fine him to the max.  He went away and tried phoning the cop to come in, but to no avail.  He came over to us in the gallery and said that the cop was not coming and when Eric was called to the front, that the case would be dismissed because the cop was not there to present his case.  We smiled and went on our way.  Bottom line is that you should always go to court, and especially around here, the cops rarely show up for court.  Especially if they are working a shift that includes roadblocks at 2am. 

My new to me 62 has no seat belts.  I'm questioning mounting them.
I do drive extra careful and defensively and I wouldn't take anyone's kids for a ride for sure.

I'm waiting for the day I get pulled over for not wearing one.  I'm sure the cops don't see a car that never had them too often

"I used to drive ambulance. One day when I was driving along, this Mountie pulled me over for not wearing a seat belt and for letting my son stand on the front seat. I got off on a technicality - he couldn't remember the colour of shirt I had on. He completely missed the illegal tint on my windows. The JP was kinda cranky, and the Mountie always had an eye out to get me. I eventually had to move....."

 

people driving without their seatbelt on, that's like being in a machine shop without your safety glasses on, it feels so naked and wrong that it is hard to imagine how people justify doing it, to themselves

Sure, in the "olden days", we all (as kids) were unbelted in our parent's cars, and a lot of kids were killed and badly injured when folks got into otherwise minor accidents, but since it didn't happen to us, or frequently enough to be trumpeted in the news, the human mind has an amazing ability to overlook what data is telling us. In the '60s and early '70s, more people died in cars each year than in all 10 years soldiers that died in Vietnam. Today, with modern safety and laws, even though the number of miles driven nationally has gone up enormously, the number who die each year is way, way down (like, less than half of that).

Regarding the evidence, and fighting a ticket, in each of the states I've lived in (mostly east coast and midwest), the officer's signature on the ticket was all the court needed (officer didn't even need to be present, in court). I learned that driving is a privilege and not a right, and that the traffic officer has the power, and like an ump in baseball, there's not a whole lot that I can do if I think otherwise from his call. I learned to be respectful and very aware of when they are around and make sure I'm doing everything correctly especially then. Went from getting lots of tickets when young to none in years and years. Funny what age and experience can do (I still drive fast, just a lot more smoothly to not stand out, and keep the car compliant with the local laws now, I guess).

I issued a seatbelt ticket to a driver who clearly did not have his belt on...nor did his young son who was standing on the seat beside him. They did have them on when I stopped them. I only gave him one for his belt...cut him a break for permitting his under-16 passenger to be unbelted. Goes to court...first says I couldn't see the buckle hanging by the door pillar because his windows were illegally tinted (here it is illegal)..I had testified that the driver's window was down....he testified under oath, that they both were belted when I saw them.  Then, because I couldn't remember the exact colour of his shirt and the strap (immaterial because the buckle clearly was NOT buckled) he got a break from the JP. He further testified that, as an AMBULANCE DRIVER he was aware what happened when people were not buckled in during crashes....he cared so much that he let his kid stand on the seat, however, I digress. The JP said that there was "reasonable doubt" and didn't convict him...as it would affect his employment....he DID ream him out and said that if he ever appeared before him for any traffic offence, he would apply the maximum penalty if convicted. The JP then said to me, in front of this jerk, that I might consider criminal code charges of perjury against him, if evidence could be found. Every time I went to that town I took great efforts to locate him to see if he was breaking any laws. He transferred out of the town and I had no further dealings with him....however I heard that the EMT grapevine passed along the event to his new posting.  ....and from that point on, every seatbelt ticket I wrote had great detail on the colour and style of clothing and seatbelt colour.

Ohhhhh... didn't that make you feel they had "bigger and better" plans for you in store?

As a teenager, I was passsenger in a buddy's car (non Mini) that he'd just gotten onto the road - barely as it turned out.  We were going along and the muffler came adrift. Just then a local cop was coming the other way. I told Gary to cut the engine until we got past him, but the cop did they U-turn and light thing. Gary got a warning ticket for a bad muffler and would ahve to show up at the station wiht it fixed, or be fined (...the good old days). So, ticket in hand we continued, the assumption being he'd already been tagged and could use it to dodge any more. Unfortunately, as we went along, the engine began to bog down and eventually ground to a halt. It later turned out that when working on the car he'd somehow swapped the oil and temperature sensor wires (or something) and seized the engine. After getting the car home, he went to the station and explained that he couldn't present the car because the engine had seized. The ticket was waived at the desk. (I never did find out if he got the car going again.)

I drove past a policeman once without my seatbelt done up. I saw him pull a U-turn and light me up in the rear view mirror, but I did it up before he pulled me over. I challenged the ticket in traffic court. The judge let me off because the officer didn't include evidence of a contrast in colour between the belt and my jacket. As I was going out the door of the court room the judge said," Mr. Lebel, do up your seat belt we wouldn't want to lose you".

Thanks turbo Dave that,s the way I like to start my day. Cheers

This is rather good...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gkiw7zpULo