[daberlin]

Originally Posted by LagunaSecaBlue

Wow. The good old USA, where cops pull guns on soccer moms for driving 5 miles an hour over the speed limit. Jail? Really? Same offence up here would net you a a $350 fine and 4 demerit points. You don't even need to go to court. Glad I live somewhere else.

Oh please, put a sock in it. I'll concede that the state of politics in the States is an utter mess, but I won't bust on you about Rob Ford since he just died. As for misbehaving in your country - seems this dumb f@$@er did the same thing the OP did. And got the dealership whip towed as a result. Vancouver police are also amazingly overzealous when it comes to high end cars speeding around town. 13 cars impounded at the same time back in '11.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/britis...ding-1.2858397

[tony176000]

Originally Posted by F30Rez

So I got pulled over the other week and was given a reckless general basically I was speeding and not staying in my lane being stupid at night enjoying my new awe exhaust.. There's no speed written on my ticket it just says "reckless general" I was going 70ish on 40 what are other people's experience with reckless tickets did you hire a lawyer? Was the case dropped or reduced?

As a principle, and being a lawyer, I think you should fight it within reason. Don't just roll over, or don't just go to trial. Find a middle ground. Make sure the government has the case in order to prove your guilt. Where I'm from reckless is actually a pretty serious offense, but also tough to prove. While I somewhat agree with the sentiment of ronanz, I also think the government should be held to its burden of proving guilt. Fight within reason.

Reckless driving, again in my state, requires the tough to prove intent element. Meaning you went out and intended to drive with heedless disregard for the laws and safety of others. Way past mere carelessness.

[F87_LCI]

Originally Posted by daberlin

Oh please, put a sock in it. I'll concede that the state of politics in the States is an utter mess, but I won't bust on you about Rob Ford since he just died. As for misbehaving in your country - seems this dumb f@$@er did the same thing the OP did. And got the dealership whip towed as a result. Vancouver police are also amazingly overzealous when it comes to high end cars speeding around town. 13 cars impounded at the same time back in '11.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/britis...ding-1.2858397

So you can pull url's off the internet but you can't read?

Thanks for verifying exactly what I said though. From your article:

"The 30-year-old driver received a $368 speeding ticket and three demerit points on his licence.." Funny I don't see it mentioned where he got any jail time...or was even faced with any jail time. For speeding. Ridiculous.

...as far as Rob Ford (Mayor of one city, no real power)...I'd be careful on this one...you'll be singing a different tune in a couple of months when you have President Hair Piece as your leader...of your entire country. That or you'll have a woman. 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. Good luck with that wall by the way.

[fecurtis]

Originally Posted by LagunaSecaBlue

Wow. The good old USA, where cops pull guns on soccer moms for driving 5 miles an hour over the speed limit. Jail? Really? Same offence up here would net you a a $350 fine and 4 demerit points. You don't even need to go to court. Glad I live somewhere else.

Having two beers up there means losing your license for two years up there vs 1 year (if that) in the US.

Everywhere has varying degrees of punishment. Plus in most states, reckless driving would have similar punishments. VA is just more harsh in cases of extreme speeding. We're glad you don't live here too.

[fecurtis]

Originally Posted by LagunaSecaBlue

So you can pull url's off the internet but you can't read?

Thanks for verifying exactly what I said though. From your article:

"The 30-year-old driver received a $368 speeding ticket and three demerit points on his licence.." Funny I don't see it mentioned where he got any jail time...or was even faced with any jail time. For speeding. Ridiculous.

...as far as Rob Ford (Mayor of one city, no real power)...I'd be careful on this one...you'll be singing a different tune in a couple of months when you have President Hair Piece as your leader...of your entire country. That or you'll have a woman. 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. Good luck with that wall by the way.

Perhaps you should try reading too, there's a difference between "speeding" and "reckless driving".

Speeding is simply going over the speed limit. In Virginia this is a common traffic offense that can simply be pre-paid online or through mail.

If you go 20+ over the posted speed limit or anything over 80 mph, whichever comes first, it becomes reckless driving. As far as I know, Virginia is the only state that considers reckless driving a low level misdemeanor which means you have to go to court. I've gotten pulled over where I've met the criteria for reckless but in every single case the cop just drops it to speeding (so if I were going 85 mph in a 70 mph, they'd just write that I was going 79 mph).

You can theoretically go to jail, in the same way you can get slapped with a $250,000 fine for pirating movies. It rarely actually happens. If you want to get thrown in jail, you have to be doing something like going 100+ mph. I'm not sure if this is the case in all provinces in Canada, but in some, it is also possible to be jailed in cases of "excessive speeding".

Also, Donald Trump won't win the general election, but yeah our choices suck.

[PK2348]

A while back i read somewhere that there are number of private jails in the state of VA, which supposedly is the reason why judges are trigger happy sending people to jail for speeding and such. Jail owner gets paid by the state, kicks back to the judge, everyone wins.