I know it's long. Don't get your hopes up and bitch at me if you don't like the story. Just don't read it. Main part of the story starts at "here's where it gets fucked up". There is no weed involved, but I thought you guys might enjoy another example of cops trying to fuck anyone they can. Of course, I was being stupid but hopefully you'll enjoy the story anyways. Okay, so if you live in the Northeast of US, you probably had some shitty weather today. At least I did where I'm at in Pennsylvania. Of course, I had no idea just how bad the weather was and I drove home today from school the same way I would any other day. Yeah it was raining a little bit but normally my car handles very well in the rain. I've never had a problem with it before. Well, fuck if i didn't go to pass a few cars and hit a big fucking patch of water/ice. My car hydroplaned like mad and I started swerving into the cars I was passing. So I brake a little and try to straighten out by turning to the left; of course I end up going head on toward oncoming traffic. (I'm lucky I didn't hit someone head on). So I panic, and I try to get back into my lane. Naturally, my car goes through my lane and into the right lane, JUST in front of the cars that I was passing. Trying to avoid stopping completely and having someone broad side me, I steer myself into a ditch. At this point I was only going about 10 miles per hour, if even. Though I think I would have rolled had the side of my car not hit a telephone pull. Miraculously, I managed to weave from all the way left and then all the way back over without hitting a single other person. That's +1 in my mind. Oddly enough, my car had absolutely no damage to it. Yet another +1. And I managed to be absolutely fine, I hit my door when my car tipped a bit, but I was not hurt one bit. Yet another +1. So I'm sitting in a ditch and this woman is pulled over down the street. I'm thinking to myself, "Fuck, I must have hit her and now she's gonna bitch me out for driving like a retard". I walk up to her and ask her, "Are you okay? Did I hit you?". She responds, "I'm fine. I just saw you and wanted to see if I could help". I told her that I was fine and she drove away. Apparently, she called the cops to report an accident. Thanks a whole fucking lot, you sure "helped" me. This was the last thing I wanted, I had no damage and hit nobody, why do I want to deal with the cops over nothing? I get back in my car, watch for an opening in traffic, and pull myself out of the ditch. I was in a jeep so I managed to not get stuck in the muddy ditch. Of course, the "jeep mentality" is pretty much what put me there so that's not much of a plus. Around this time, I'm just trying to get the fuck out of there. Traffic was being a bitch though, I just couldn't get a fuckin break. After about 5 minutes of waiting for a chance to get out, a cop pulls up. Fucking perfect. He asks me if I hit anyone, if there is any damage, if i'm okay? No, no, yes. I tell him I'm just trying to get off the side of the road but traffic won't stop. He tells me he'll stop traffic, but he tells me to pull over into a nearby driveway. I figured he just wanted to hear what happened and let me go. After all, what the fuck are they gonna do when I hurt no one, didn't hurt myself, didn't break any laws, and didn't do any damage. He stops traffic and I get into the driveway. Shortly after, he follows me into the driveway and approaches my car. I get out to talk to him and he agrees that it was good luck that nobody got hurt. He asks what happens. Here is where it gets fucked up. I tell him that I was in the left lane passing people and I didnt realize that there was a bad patch of ice/water on the road. I say, "I guess I hit it going too fast and lost control. But, I was well under the speed limit". Which, I was... Upon, hearing this he asks for my license, registration, and insurance. Fuck me, right? Damned if that fucker didn't go in his car and spend 25 minutes writing me a $105 citation. He checked off "Driving vehicle at safe speed". That's not speeding, that's driving vehicle at safe speed. In Pennsylvania, it doesn't matter if you aren't speeding and if nothing bad happens at all. They won't hesitate to slap you with a fat 105 dollar traffic citation. The best part is, the mother fucker tells me to plead not guilty on it. Then gives me his card and tells me to email him for all the information on how to win my not guilty case. Basically he fucking wrote a worthless citation, knowing it would get thrown out, just so he could meet his monthly quota. All I can say is this: Don't trust the police. No justice, no peace. Oh well. Yet another example of Officer Friendly working to benefit you and me by shoving a fat cock up our asses.
Doesn't sound that ridiculous to me. Sounds like there was sleet around yet you decided to overtake people unnecessarily and because of that you lost control of your car and could have done some serious damage to yourself and others, that's why you got the ticket. He was just trying to help you out by saying that it probably won't stick. Not trying to be a dick, just playin' devils advocate here.
Perhaps you shouldn't have tried to pass cars in dangerous conditions. If people are going slow then there is probably a reason for it. Sure the cop probably shouldn't have written you the ticket, but you shouldn't have been trying to pass people. Doesn't matter if you were still under the speed limit or not.
Anytime a cop gets called, they have to file a report. He probably just wrote the ticket so he had something to put into the report.
My main point was, the conditions weren't even bad. About 95% of the time people go slow on that road just because there is one moron slowing it down. Obviously this wasn't the case but i just assumed. Honestly the road everywhere else was fine and I was really surprised that I even lost traction. Like at the time, I wasn't saying in my mind "Oh shit, I'm gonna fuckin crash", I was like "What the fuck? The roads aren't even shitty why am I headed into a ditch". Plus every other car had been going well above the speed limit not 2 minutes before with no problems. Just shit luck with a patch of water on a day where the weather was fine up until that point. It made me feel better that like 3 other cars spun out at the same spot a few minutes later. I'm not saying I didn't deserve the ticket. I mean I'd like to think that the ticket was unnecessary because no damage was done to anyone or anything, but I know for damn sure what could have happened. But why bother giving me a ticket and then tell me how to get rid of it. What does this accomplish? Basically nothing. Just wastes my time and his. And just because he has to file a report doesnt mean he has to cite me. But I'm not stressin' because I know it was damned stupid in every respect. I made a stupid mistake and the cop wrote a stupid citation. All in all it was a pretty shitty day but then again it is the middle of the week so what do you expect? I only wrote the story so you guys could laugh at me while also seeing another ridiculous cop run-in. Plus, I was bored. Obviously I plan to plead not guilty. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Quotas may be illegal but they still exist. Look it up. Many police stations issue quotas illegally. And I can guarantee you that they do where I live, as I volunteered with the township a little while back and met quite a few officers from our town. They told me they had them. Plus, I don't know about you but the cops near me are only out on the major highway near the end of the month where i live. Why? They have to meet quota. You can call it a myth, but I'd call you a liar.
Yeah I agree with you the ticket was definitely pointless. I'm a hypocrite anyways. I'll preach about safe driving to people but I'll whip around slow cars on the highway. And yeah, I don't care if quotas are illegal, they still exist in almost every department.
It wasn't sleet or I would have been sitting in line with the rest of the cars on that road. It was barely raining, hence why it was so surprising to me that I lost control. I mean I'm no stunt driver or anything but I've never had issues in weather like this. I've been fine going faster in worse weather but oh well. Shit happens. Honestly, 105 isnt that bad of a citation and it's bound to get thrown out like you said. It's just the principle of it all. Why waste the time? I'm thinking he gave it to me because he'd be happy to attend the court date and get a paid sick day =P Anyways, it was mostly unnecessary but the only reason I tried to pass them was because I was trying to get the car home so that my dad could take my sister somewhere. I was trying to do him a favor but that didn't help much. If i hadn't had to be at home by 430 I wouldn't have gone home until 730 when the roads were fine. Just bad luck and me being stupid make for a shitty day and an inconvenient citation. I've learned 2 things from this: Just because the weather looks alright doesnt mean it always is, so be careful even in a little rain/snow. AND Telling the police the entire truth will never help you. I'm not saying to lie, but leave out minor details. Had I just said I hit a patch of ice/rain I would not have gotten a ticket. However, since I told him I was probably going too fast for conditions, he gave me a ticket. He even told me that I got it for being honest. Well that really makes me want to be honest in the future?
Haha I talk like I drive safe but obviously I don't. I like to think I drive better than a lot of people I know IN NORMAL CONDITIONS. But I'm sure most people I know that I "drive better than" wouldn't have lost control like I did today. This incident isn't gonna make me drive any slower on a normal day. It'll just make me drive slower in rain/snow. I didn't hit anyone and my car wasn't damaged so as far as I'm concerned it wasn't an accident. So I'm still gonna go around pretending like I've never had an accident. I guess I'll just never learn.