Well, actually it was this morning. I was shooting in a pool tournament last night until 1:30AM or so. I left the pool hall with my brother-in-law and we were trying to decide which taco shop to go to for a late-night dinner. I made a last minute decision to take a freeway on ramp and made a pretty hard left turn. The roads might have been a little damp because it had been raining lightly a few hours earlier, but there was also some recent construction done on the onramp. I hit what I think was a patch of gravel and the rear-end of the car slid out. I over-corrected and fish-tailed for a bit but by the time I fully recovered I was already at the top of the ramp. A cop on the freeway saw the end of the slide and pulled me over.

Shortly thereafter we were joined by FOUR more cops on the side of the freeway. They took me out of the car and performed 5 field sobriety tests. I aced everyone, since I don't drink and drive (well, I had 3 beers over the previous 5 hours, so I was not intoxicated whatsoever). The Sgt. then proceeded to lecture me about how he could take my car away right now and how there's no excuse for putting the public at danger despite the fact that there were no cars on the onramp or even at the intersection to enter the onramp and the freeway traffic was very light. They wound up "letting me off" with a ticket for exhibition of speed. :(

Anybody know any good websites for traffic court tips? The ticket says that it was clear, dry and light when in fact it was cloudy, damp and dark. I don't feel that I was over-accelerating on the ramp though I did take the turn to the onramp too quickly but there was no way the cop could have seen that.... How serious an offence is exhibition of speed considered? Is it worse than speeding?

this is not good
just be glad you didn't get a DUI
even if you drank 5 hours or whatever earlier

Well, there's really no way I could've gotten a DUI. Even if they had hauled me downtown and given me a breathalyzer I would've been WAY under the legal limit. I was not intoxicated in the slightest and the cop actually told me that he was only doing the final two tests because he was new and his Sargeant was training him. But, yeah, it's definitely not good either way.

my friend got a exhibition of speed ticket years ago for doing a burn out so I will try to find out how much it will cost

I think for insurance purposes it is considered one and the same since both are moving violations.

Thanks fellas. Hopefully I can beat it. I mean, I wasn't "racing" up the onramp. I never broke the speed limit and didn't even redline the car. I did something a little foolish and he caught me recovering from an unintentional slide. I guess we'll see what the judge says.

i'd get a lawyer on it...might even be cheaper ...atleast here it is...when i first got my drivers license years ago..i was an idiot..skipping school..blah blah..cops followed me through 2 red lights...i got tickets for both of em...my bro is a lawyer..he said don't pay em...cuz u're saying ur guilty..even if u are...he had me call these attorneys...and i pad less then 100..and i got two tickets...ehhe no points on my record..no schooling..nadda.. i'm not as dumb anymore to see if it'd work again..but who knows..u can try that..

Wow...an exhibition of speed ticket? New one on me...strickly a CA thing?

Funny...can you imagine being in a Yugo and the same thing happening? Sorry...it's late.

Good luck with it!

Everyone knows how I feel about cops so I won't upset the liberal cop supporters by saying anything about them here but that shouldn't have happened. They get to speed and run redlights for no reason yet when something unexpected happens they nail you for anything they can think of. Are you sure we didn't send some of our Houston cops over there? You can have them!

If all they saw was you coming off the top of the onramp a little sideways, then you need to run with the slick/gravel from improperly maintained construction. You weren't being a hazard to anyone - the construction gravel and such was the hazard and you were (and did) manage to avoid it despite the damp/dark weather.

Go back and take some photos of the construction and the offramp so you have something to back you up.

IANAL, but in general the more supporting evidence/info you have the better you'll fair.

Yeah, exhibition of speed ticket is a big CA thing. Maybe some other states, too. The main thing is, californians -- and San Diegans in particular -- are lousy drivers in the rain. I'm not dissin' RotorMotor; I'm sure he'd say the same thing having experience SD freeway traffic in the rain. Expect dozens of accidents throughout the county, even in a light mist.

We have that offense in TX too.

They mainly use it for street racers, stoplight wheel spins, etc, or when they want to give you a ticket but didn't get you on radar. Also to harrass young-looking drivers with sports cars.

Your defense is that you were entering a freeway, which requires acceleration. If you can bring a newspaper weather report documenting rain that day, that could help.

Often the officers do not write many details on the ticket, and cannot remember details in court; this can be very helpful if they contradict themselves. They may not have even mentioned your spinout on the ticket - if not, you are home free.

Often the officer will not even show up in court - an automatic win for you!

Good luck!

Here's what the Nat'l WX service had for about 1:30 AM for San Diego Lindbergh Field - fight this one; I would!

Conditions at: KSAN observed 25 December 2003 09:34 UTC
Temperature: 14.0°C (57°F)
Dewpoint: 14.0°C (57°F) [RH = 100%]
Pressure (altimeter): 30.04 inches Hg (1017.4 mb)
Winds: from the SE (140 degrees) at 9 MPH (8 knots; 4.2 m/s)
Visibility: 1.75 miles (2.82 km)
Ceiling: 600 feet AGL
Clouds: overcast cloud deck at 600 feet AGL
Present Weather: -RA BR (light rain, mist)
KSAN 250934Z 14008KT 1 3/4SM -RA BR OVC006 14/14 A3004 RMK AO2 CIG 004V009 P0002

That's a no-kidding actual observation from the aviation digital data service. If need be, you can always go back to the NWS and ask for an observation from 1:30 AM local, but this is exactly what they'll give you (and the great thing is - it's public record!). Good luck!

Awesome!!! Thanks for everybody's support. I went down and took pictures of the offramp yesterday including a portion of the ramp that wasn't fully paved. The weather report will definitely help too! Thanks S3. Where did you get it? I got the ticket in east county San Diego and Gillespie field is a little closer. I'd like to get at least a printout from a webpage or something.

I have a good feeling I'll be able to beat this, I'm just worried about the cops holding a grudge. Cops from this particular jurisdiction are known for being pretty tough and I haven't seen another RX-8 in San Diego east of SDSU. Plus, I play a lot of tournaments at a big pool hall out there and I'm frequently coming home after 1AM. Guess I'll just have to be on my absolute best behavior from now on....

<cringing> How did I know you'd say you were in East or North County...the wx observation came from the Nat'l Weather Service and is available under their Aviation Weather link on the side. Catch is, their site only keeps readily available the last 36 hours of observations; but if you troll around you can find data up to 7 days old (so print the linked info now while it's still there). Odds are, the Lindbergh observation ought to be ok since you were technically in the San Diego metro area. I'll throw a link at the bottom for the December climate summary for SAN. Interestingly enough, the greatest amount of precip for the entire month occurred over the 24-25th timespan (almost half an inch). If these couple reports don't blow his argument out of the water (no pun intended), nothing will. The other link is for the archived METAR observations for Gillespie, but they stop observations at 8:45 PM or so every night and don't begin again until about 6:45 AM. Lindbergh is 24-hr and should suffice just fine. Finally I'll add a link for the archived data from Lindbergh as well. Good luck w/ the ticket, and don't forget to say nice things about Navy guys and all the hell we go through in meteorology classes (at least you're getting your tax money's worth out of it).

December Climate Data for SD (http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/sandiego/lcd.txt)
Archived Gillespie Field Observations (http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/Sandiego/msoobs?site=KSEE&type=1&fmt=DEC&src=lcl&hh=168&gh=48&gy=1)
Archived San Diego Int'l (Lindbergh Field) Observations (http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/Sandiego/msoobs?site=KSAN&type=1&fmt=DEC&src=lcl&hh=168&gh=48&gy=1)

My recommendation - since it has the 24-hr office (and more inclement conditions) - go with the Lindbergh Field observation. The Gillespie Field one at 6:50 AM shows wind out of the south at 8 knots, 5 miles of visibility with drizzle and an overcast cloud layer at 700 feet. That was nearly 5 hours later. Again, I'd stick w/ the San Diego Int'l observation. If you need help reading any of this, let me know. :)

well were i am from that same ticket is given to light to light drag racers.

"Senate Bill 1489 (Perata) authorizes law enforcement to seize for 30 days, the cars of drivers who participate in speed contests, reckless driving or exhibition of speed, which includes burning rubber, spinning "donuts" and making turns at a high speed. "

I hope that "making turns at high speed" doesn't come back to bite me in the butt.

tell the judge it was a new car and you made a mistake, but you would like to keep it off your record. I bet he will. Mark

Yo,


Get a lawyer. I just went through this Exhibition of Speed thing in my RX-7.

It is a 2 point misdemeanor. Major bust. It will stay on your record for 7 years. I know someone who got one in his Camaro, has spent about $2-3K in increased insurance premiums.

Fight it with everything you got.

I spent the money on a lawyer and got it reduced to a 1 point "Unsafe Start" infraction which I can go to traffic school for.

Good luck!

Kevin
1989 GTUs "Is there a problem officer?"