How over the speed limit would you have to be to not qualify for traffic school? (1 Viewer)

[DustinLC]

I couldn't get information on this on the net. Is it require that you go to court if it's over a certain limit? This in regard to San Francisco.

 

[Nathan*W]

You planning on speeding somewhere?

 

[Chauncey]

I believe in California if you are more than 20 miles per hour over the speed limit you cannot qualify for traffic school. If you contact the court house, they can let you know what the options are.

 

[Jeff Blair]

You will always have to go to court. Now, if you have to talk to a judge that is another thing. I know down here that you can either pay off the ticket, or go to defensive driving. If you pay off the ticket you are pleading Non-Contelo (sp?). But, I think you can only take DD if it is under 30 mph over (15 in school zones). If it is anything more then that then you have to pay for it. And, I have heard of some people getting arrested for reckless driving because they were going too fast. It may be differnt in your area. The best bet is to call up the trafic court, and check with them.

 

[David Williams]

Nolo Contendre.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

I contested a ticked for running a red light MONTHS ago and finally got a letter in the mail to my parents house with a court date about 7 weeks ago. I lost the notice which had several court date options that I was supposed to chose from and call in to confirm and I've basically neglected and forgotten about it until reading this post and I'm wondering what would happen if I keep postponing doing anything about it. I'll probably just tell the court that I live at a different address than the notice was sent (which is true), and for whatever reason I never received it. I wonder if there might be any penalties involved because of my neglecting the notice though, what do you guys think?

 

[DustinLC]

Well, it's been over 5 years since I got my last ticket. Before then, I usually get one every few years.

The question is for my wife who just got hers today on a junction between freeways (always very shakey area IMO), posted 50mph, but she got a ticket 60+. The cop said he clocked her at 65mph but said he'll write down 60+. Puzzling. Does that make a difference?

Anyway, I didn't get the chance to read her ticket yet but she said she has to call the court and go to court. Her first ticket so she's very confused. I guess the phone call will clear everything.


This is new? I never had to in my life, traffic school or not.

 

[DustinLC]

You forget easily. Maybe you should thank me .

I think you should call in and see what needs to be done. I wouldn't ignore it. They're not going to arrest you or anything but why leave it hanging? I would just take care of it for peace of mind.

 

[Leila Dougan]

I imagine every place is different.

Now, when I attended traffic school there were a few kids in there who got busted for drag racing on city streets. One said he'd been caught going 80-90 MPH or so. Perhaps this was an exaggeration, but I also know that the street he was busted on doesn't have a speed limit any higher than 45. So I think clearly he was going much faster than the posted limit.

I've also heard that in my state, anybody going faster than 80 MPH or 20 MPH over the speed limit is automatic grounds for arrest. But then again, I was in traffic school for going 55 in a 35 and I certainly didn't get arrested. And out here, the highway speed limits are 75 MPH and it seems a bit extreme to arrest someone for merely going 5 over. So perhaps this "law" I've only heard about either never existed or has since been changed.

Perhaps the best thing is to just call them up and ask. If there are rules I don't see what the harm would be in sharing that information. It's probably considered public knowledge anyway.

 

[DustinLC]

I know you're not sure but that's scary. It's not hard to hit 80 sometime around here.

 

[Leila Dougan]

This is how it is here, except the last part about "going to court" was really "going to the courthouse". I never had to actually be in court. Basically, my ticket said to call such and such a number at a certain day/time. When I called, some woman said to come to the courthouse at another day/time. Now, this being my first ticket I thought this might actually be court itself, but it wasn't. When I showed up at my appointed day/time, all I did was stand in a huge line for an hour and then talk to some clerk. At that point, I had the option of just paying the fine, contesting the ticket, or going to traffic school. The clerk explained what all the options meant and then I made my choice to attend the school. Had I chosen to contest the ticket, I would have been given another day/time for the actual hearing. So what I discovered, at least in my city, is that the first two appointments were simply for them to manage the number of people showing up and calling at the same time. That was it.

 

[Ted Lee]

that happened to me as well - i was doing like 80 in a 65 zone but he put me down for 75.

the way he put it 15mph over the limit excluded you from traffic school.

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marco - dunno about canada laws, but if i were you i wouldn't ignore it. if you have to, make some calls or go to the local court (where you got your ticket). believe me, i've tried in the past to duck speeding tickets and they just caught up with me to the point where i almost went to jail.

i'm talking the cop had his arms around me in court and was ready to haul me away.

 

[Mort Corey]

Sounds pretty kinky Tedder

Mort

 

[Ted Lee]

well ... don't ask where his baton was ... :b

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

It might very well, on couple of fronts. Traffic school could be one. Another could be how insurance companies (whether by common practice in a given area or by law) treat the number of miles over the limit. A third would be the amount of the ticket itself. Speeding fines tend to go up with the outrageousness of the offense, and 60 may have been the cut-off for a lower fine. Finally all of this comes down to jurisdiction, because such rules are rarely uniform state-wide. If the connection between those two freeways was a local or county road then the rules of whatever jurisdiction she happened to be in would apply WRT fines, traffic school, etc.

Regards,

Joe

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Thanks for the advice.


I'll procrastinate it till tomorrow, than I'll dig around for a contact number and try to straighten it out.

 

[Bruce Hedtke]

As Joseph has already stated, yes. One other way might be in the number of points levied against your license. Years ago when I was pulled over for doing 47 in a 25, the officer wrote down that I was doing 44. The difference was that in going 19mph over, I was levied four points instead of six for going 20mph over.

Bruce

 

[Leila Dougan]

And therein lies the beauty of traffic school. When you choose to go, the ticket is expunged and you don't get any points at all My vote is to go whenever you're given the opportunity.

 

[Ron-P]

Here in the Costa Mesa area in CA I was pulled over for doing 100mph on the 55 freeway. The officer wrote me up for doing 79 so I could go to traffic school. If he wrote the ticket for 80 he said I would not be able to go unless the judge let me.

 

[Nathan*W]

Not expunged, just dismissed.

Expunged means the record is physically removed and destroyed as if it never happened.