Miata Mailing List: August 1996, Message #58
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   From: JEANNIE_HOBBS@hp-santaclara-om3.om.hp.com
Subject: Re: Cop Stories, Radar Detectors, Avoiding speeding tickets,
   Date: Thu, 1 Aug 1996 14:55:01 -0400

Item Subject: cc:Mail Text

>New York State Traffic laws differentiate between speed and reckless.
>Speed, any speed is not in and of itself reckless or excessive, it's just
>speed.  Reckless driving and excessive speed (higher charges) come into 
>play when you interfere with the flow of traffic and others.  

     It is (or used to be) different in California.  Up to xx mph (30?) 
     over the limit was speeding; past that, it was reckless driving even 
     if no one else was on the road.  Therefore, in that case, doing 85 in 
     a 55 would be speeding; doing 90 would be reckless driving.
     
     Kevin was arrested by Milpitas Police for doing a burnout out of the 
     parking lot of his employer at 11:50 pm on December 23 in his Dodge 
     Dart Swinger in 1981.  (The employer said his paycheck would be 
     available until midnight, but no one was there and the office was 
     locked.  He needed to do Christmas shopping so he was mad.)  The 
     charge was "exhibition of speed" (a subset of Reckless Driving), even 
     though there were NO OTHER CARS in the vicinity except the cop car, 
     which was parked behind another building "doing paperwork."
     
     Of course, the court threw it out.  Turns out the cop car contained a 
     traffic FTO (field training officer) who wanted to show off for his 
     rookie ridealong.  The sergeant who showed up during the arrest would 
     have called it off, but second-guessing the FTO would have looked bad 
     to the rookie.
     
     The FTO was later dismissed for performance problems.  (I would have 
     loved to give him a "performance problem" when I heard about it!)

     So, my upstanding-citizen 911-dispatcher hubby has an arrest record!  
     (I've always been attracted to the dangerous types....)
     
     Jeannie Hobbs
     Boulder Creek, CA
     Where "exhibition of speed" is jaywalking