ways out of a ticket...
 

so... admittedly stupid as it was, i received a reckless driving ticket for doing a doughnut in an empty parking lot. the ticket reads... "driver accelerated at a high speed in the parking lot to where his tires lost traction." The cop caught the tail end of it, but he never questioned me about it, just wrote me the ticket.
My question to the forum: can this be fought in court?
Not to say a little white lie could help my situation, as long as the court can believe that i 'lost control' due to... accidental slippage of the foot or an ecu problem?
Please post if you feel you can help my situation.
-Blackbriar2189

not gonna happen

if you go to court though they can lower your fees

I really don't think so...

The "I hit the gas when I was going for the brakes" might work. I've seen people use it before but I think you're going to have to pony-up on this one.

Good luck.

idk sometimes you have to pay to play. literally in your case. good luck

Wow, sucks! Yep, your going to have to bite the bullet on this one.

parking lot... oil spill. Cop only caught tail end of you saving the car... and stores, and wrote you a ticket.

you're welcome.

What he said.

plausible, but still idk. worth a shot right?

If your driving record is important to you, consult a lawyer. The first office consolation is free. It will only cost you if you use him in court. He will let you know if your defense will hold up before the judge or not. Your insurance company will not look kindly on that kind of ticket. You need to at least get it reduced to a lesser offense.

Don't think your going to get out of a ticket on with this one. Depending on your driving record in the past you may be able to get a reduction in points and pay the court cost. The bottom line is that it's your word against his whether in your eyes he did see the tail end. 9 out 10 times the judge will believe the officer. Try pleading guilty to a lesser offense. You broke the law and unfortunately you got caught, it sucks but the law is the law. Next time find another parking lot well out of site. Good Luck

You don't have a ZR1.. the oil excuse may be the best possible excuse, but that's still a long shot. There's no reason why you really should have lost traction.

A lawyer is the best bet on this one..

Say that you're a beginner driver, it was your second time driving a stick car and you still haven't gotten the hang of it. You accidentally depress the clutch pedal too fast and it caused it to accelerate a bit fast causing you to lose traction in the rear.

I like that one....

Just say your learning how to drive stick in an empty parking lot....let the clutch out too fast and gave too much gas therefore the tire skid and lost traction......this could actually work

Oooops didnt see Renesis's post.....

Just hit on the judge, it works every time.

Call a lawyer, it's your best bet. I don't know about your state, but reckless driving is a class b misdemeanor in Utah. And while I'm sure it doesn't happen often, you can get up to 90 days in jail and a 2500.00 dollar fine and lose your license for 6 months. Plus your insurance will make you pay.

I'm no lawyer but it seems like you shouldn't get a ticket if it was a private parking lot..

how much is the ticket?

What kinda cop? City cop, sheriff, highway patrol?

Bike or patrol car?

Keep requesting extensions until you get out as far as you can from the ticket date.
Enter a not guilty plea.
Try to pick a time when you think the cop will be busy.
If cop doesn't show, case is dismissed, bail is returned.

I'm also not a lawyer, but that's the first thing that occurred to me.

Al's recommendation of consulting a lawyer makes a lot of sense...a lawyer would know.

IMHO, spinning a yarn about the ECU farting or not knowing how to drive a stick won't get anywhere. Telling the judge that you specifically went to an empty parking lot, because you'd never do something like that on on the street, might get some understanding. Although I'm not a judge, either.

Ken

There's no such thing as a "private parking lot" persay... A parking lot at a public place (strip mall, hardware, what have you) is considered public domain and things such as speed limits (when posted) and stop signs are technically enforceable by municipal authorities (police). That being said, I agree with getting the judge to be lenient with you by admitting that your actions were dumb (let's face it, they kinda were) and that you were taking "precautions" by performing said actions in an empty parking lot. Was it dark out? Did you have your headlights on? If anything, you would be lucky to get this knocked down to a simple ordinance violation rather than a moving violation...thus no points on your license (think "fix-it" tickets). "Private" parking lots are usually reserved to private establishments (college campuses where only students/faculty are allowed to be, country clubs, private/gated communities) as these places normally have their own patrol and enforcement entity (rent-a-pigs). I doubt that any loss of control excuse would work because what were you doing there in the first place (assuming the establishments that use the parking lot were closed). Sticky situation, I wish you luck and am curious as to the outcome.

Credentials - Pre-law degree from Marquette University, soon attending Law School there (next year hopefully, finances allowing)

if its a private parking lot. like your friends parking lot, than the police officer doesnt have a right to give you a ticket. afaik.

if its a private parking lot, like 7-11s parking lot, where police are authorized to act as agents of 7-11, they do.

Probably depends on the state. When I lived in Massachusetts, an odd itemization in my insurance bill was a small amount that covered me when not on state highways. That referred to being in parking lots.

Of course, as you point out, the police are pretty likely to be allowed to enforce laws in such places. If it needs permission or request from the property owner, I can't imagine property owners not routinely giving such permission.

There's a private toll road near where I live. The road owners not only allow enforcement, but they pay the State Police to patrol it.

Ken

You took the chance doing something you were pretty sure was not the best thing to do and got caught....

spinning the tires is reckless driving in most if not all states no matter where you do it.

Another good point. For example, I live near a large mall, and the city's police are the entity responsible for enforcing the laws there. I got harassed for snapping pic of my car in one of the parking garage's there after hours ny real cops, not security guards. :squint:

If you're going to go with the oil spill idea. At least spill some oil at the scene and take pictures to show its true.

The ticket was for driving recklessly. Does not matter how it happened. To add to it, are you going to bring proof that the condition on the car was corrected by a mechanic? If not, your car could be deemed unsafe which could lead to more fines and impounding your vehicle. Also how is your driving record prior to this? Did you drive that "crazy" vehicle in a safe manner after the cop issued you a ticket? Pay the ticket and save the donuts for the track.

GET A LAWYER

I had a serious issue on one of my motorcycles about 5 years ago. This was in California. 2 misdemeanor charges (serious) and 2 traffic violations. Lawyer talked to DA and judge. All charges were dropped but I had to pay all the fines. Cost me $2500 but it was way worth it. Do you know what your insurance will look like with a reckless driving conviction? Way cheaper to hire the lawyer and pay the fines.

Another option is to call and get an appointment to meet with the local city/county/states attorney that will be bringing this against you in court and plea bargain with them. You don't need an attorney to do this. If the discussion doesn't go the way you like you can still hire a lawyer.

When I was 19, I got a reckless driving ticket reduced to careless driving. It was half the points on my license and probably a lesser fine. I don't remember what the fine was. It was over 30 yrs ago.

ohh...suck it up, go to court, plead guilty and say, "listen I just bought my first sports car with my hard earned money, and I was so excited to have it I went to completely open parking lot with no obstructions and did 2 doughnuts. It was a stupid, irresponsible move, and the police officer drove by right when I was finishing". Police arnt stupid, and every judge and district attorney has heard every excuse in the world.....believe me. Admit that it was really dumb, and the police happened to be around for the 10 seconds you were doing it, and im sure it will get knocked down to a non-moving violation or something minor along that line. Saying there was an oil spill, or my foot slipped, will just piss off the district attorney, the cop if hes there, and definitely the judge, and you might be made an example of. I used to believe in making up excuses for tickets like, "check the last date the radar gun was calibrated", or "I was rushing home because my girlfriend called me with a serious emergency"... then I just started owning up and being straight forward and admitting I messed up and it worked a lot better. Ask any cop

I hate letting cops win. But you were doing donuts...not smart. Try to fight it if you want, but if you have to bite the bullet and pay consider yourself lucky the cop only saw the end of it.

not a bad idea i may use that forever ha ha

Reckless driving is a pretty bad offense. I would definitely get a lawyer.

+1...best idea so far

I recieved a reckless driving ticket (my first reckless driving ticket) but i was speeding through a residential area and the cop said i ran a stop sign when i didnt. he also said i was moving to fast when he has no speed on me and he says i failed to yeild to a sign when i was the first one into the roundabout. he also hit me with my own door and i quote " im going to find anything i can write a ticket about for you" he wrote me 3..

^This is why tickets like Careless and Reckless driving are bullshit. Its pretty much up to the discretion of the cop. If he thinks you were driving to "erratically" for his tastes, he can pull you over. You might not even be breaking any traffic laws but he can still find something to give you careless or reckless for.

I got a careless driving last fall because I got too close to someone before I passed them! Can you believe that? Then the cop said it.. and I quote "looked like I was going pretty fast." Then he proceeded to tell me the person I had passed honked at me. First of all that has nothing to do with my ticket, and second of all, I had my windows down and radio off and I heard NO honking.

When I went to talk to the city prosecutor he read me the notes the cop had written and I was pretty appalled at the amount of lies and hearsay in it. He wrote it "looked like I was going over 50." So now you can be prosecuted without any hard proof? Then he wrote it took me too long to pull over... he turned on his lights when I was in a very large intersection what does he want me to do?


I'm attributing this all to the fact that it was a young dick cop.

tl;dr, cops lie alot... reckless and careless driving are bullshit tickets because they give too much discretion to the cop.

No doubt there are crooked cops out there for real but in this case the OP broke the law and the cop did what was right.

:rolleyes:

You could have beaten this ticket by waiting until the cop walked up to your window before saying: "Hey, I thought you guys liked donuts?"

In some states reckless has objective measures. In Virginia, where reckless can be applied to almost anything, it includes specifics like changing more than one lane in a single continuous motion.

I think that in most states if you spin your tires they've got you. A couple of years ago a NASCAR driver chirped his tires pulling out of a 7-11 in Richmond, and they nailed him for reckless.

Good thing it doesn't snow all that often down here.

Ken

Reckless isn't something you ever want on your record. Consult a lawyer, and if it appears you can get it reduced by having a lawyer in court, then hire him. Insurance hike with reckless is going to be much, much worse on a young driver than a lawyer's fee. He might not get it dropped, but at least reduced to something that won't kill you financially.

Or just tell the judge that an RX8 has no torque, therefore spinning tires is all but impossible! :crazy:

it's always funny to see all the excuses people come up with. shakeyourbreaks has it dead on. man up, move on, and ask for the judge to be lenient. everythign else will just piss them off b/c they know very well that all of the excuses are just that - excuses.

say you have the runs

just pay it

Id agree with shakeyourbrakes on being upfront with most other offenses. But for reckless driving the consequences are pretty severe in some states and it's not something you'd want on record in the future. Relying on the judge to have mercy can be pretty risky. As already stated in the thread, contact your local DAs office, they usually have hours set aside each week specifically for traffic offenses, see if they'll offer a plea to a lower offense with the same fines (like an equipment violation) and take it if they do.

I guess it really all depends on the state. In PVA's (public vehicle areas) stop signs and speed limits are NOT enforceable, unless you blatantly run a stop sign at a cross walk with people in it or are driving to fast for the conditions. Ofcourse doing donuts in a mall parking lot is safer than doing them in the street, but it's still stupid and possibly dangerous.

To the OP, deal with the consequences and learn from your mistakes.

Credentials- NC Law Enforcement Training Cadet :)

You can maybe squeak by with the learning how to drive a stick if the vehicle hasn't been registered in your name for very long. As in a less than 2 weeks. Otherwise own up, admit it was wrong, but state that you chose the parking lot because it was vacant with the least risk to everyone and everything.

Cops and judges are more lenient when you own up to your own mistakes. It shows you learned your lesson and are making amends so they won't see as so much a threat to public safety and you won't be doing it again. And they won't treat you as the moron just trying to get away with what he can.

I'd be leery of trying to beat it since your whole case is based on the assumption the cop only caught they "tail end' of you doing donuts. How many donuts did you do? You realize that you left tell tale marks on the ground so the cop could have simply looked down and saw the 30 + rings of rubber you left on the ground?

Try to get it reduced by asking for a break, but if you go in their and "white lie" the judge is probably going to do nothing.

I got the ticket in Oklahoma, where I go to school. Ticket price is $240. I've come to assume that telling the truth might be best. More likely than not if you are prepared to fight a ticket they are prepared to give you a second option before you actually go to court. Courts do that to avoid court, but I've also been told that sometimes to 'even out' everything that the lesser fine can come with a larger fine.