NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya, who led virtually the entire race this weekend at the Brickyard, was penalized for speeding on his final pit stop.

The speed limit in the pits is 55 mph, but NASCAR gives drivers a 4.99-mph cushion.  Hit 60 mph, and a penalty is imposed.

Montoya was clocked at 60.06 mph in the second segment of the eight-segment pit road sequence and 60.11 in the fourth.  Apparently, he was very close to exceeding the speed limit a couple of other times and was over 59 in most other zones.

There’s no human element to the speed monitoring at the race.  It’s a simple computation of the time it takes for the vehicles in the pit to travel certain known distances.  A transponder records the time and does the mph calculations.

Clocks are a pretty reliable technology, but that didn’t stop Montoya from sounding like many people who are issued more traditional speeding tickets.  Understandably upset, his quotes:

“We had this in the bag and they screwed us,” he told his crew. “I wasn’t speeding. I swear on my wife and children.”

And:

“It’s an absolute rip-off. (NASCAR chairman) Mike Helton is listening to this, you better double check what happened because I got robbed. . . . Thank you, NASCAR, for screwing my day.”

He mentioned “screwed” twice.  The penalty dropped him from first place and $448,001 in prize money to 12th place and $224,048 in prize money.  Thus, a $223,953 penalty for speeding 60 in a 50 zone.

In case you are interested in how common this is, so far this season, 74 speeding penalties have been called by NASCAR.

In a race with an average speed of just under 146 mph, Montoya’s downfall was doing 60.11 mph.

I was interviewed last week by Justin Mason of the Schenectady Daily Gazette for an article on how fees, fines and bail forfeitures collected by some of New York State’s 1,262 justice courts are generating hundreds of thousands of dollars for New York State and local municipalities.

Mason, an Associated Press award-winning journalist, (for more about Justin Mason, click here) makes the connection between a dramatic rise in traffic tickets and the revenues raised. Some of the main points raised:

• Fines, fees and bail forfeitures collected by some of the state’s 1,262 justice courts can translate into hundreds of thousands of dollars for both the state and localities.
• The revenue collected by a justice court is much larger than the municipal cost of operating the court, meaning towns and villages can use the funding to help control taxes.
• Rotterdam Justice Court — one of the top grossing justice courts in the Capital Region — poured $427,244 into the town in 2008.
• The Town of Rotterdam Supervisor explained that the hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue, if not flowing from the Justice Court, would certainly be raised via taxes.
• How much goes to the State and how much to the Town depends on the infraction. Town or village ordinances — such as parking fines — provide a greater local share to municipalities than to the state. Speeding over a state limit means the penalty goes to the state.
• Port Chester, a Westchester County village with a population of about 28,000, was New York’s top grossing justice court in 2008, earning more than $2.3 million for municipal use and another $642,384 for the state
• The amount of money the justice courts collect from convictions may seem staggering at first glance. But what is often overlooked is the state Legislature’s startling increases in mandatory court fees, which remove all discretion from local justices.

What should we take away from all this?

1.  Justice Courts and the State raise money via traffic ticket fines and surcharges.  There’s little talk about penalizing motorists or encouraging future motorists to drive safe.  It’s about money, about who gets what and the fact that government relies on this revenue to the extent they’d raise taxes should this revenue disappear.

2.  Enforcement Officers, Prosecutors and the Courts can exercise some degree of manipulation over how much money is generated overall, how much  stays with the town and how much goes to the state.  Control is exercised by the quantity and types of tickets issued and the types of plea bargains offered by the Prosecution and accepted by the Court.

3.  We should be concerned as drivers if each town we pass through is looking at us as potential income more than simply monitoring us in attempts to keep the roadways safe.  There’s much evidence that this is indeed the case.

The revenue generation vs. safety argument has always been a “concern” to motorists.  It’s just becoming more obvious as lawmakers are making less of an effort to hide their true motives as the economy struggles.  Every indicator is up (number of tickets issued, enforcement in general, money raised) and it’s relatively clear why.

As the article explains:

Increases in these fees without cause or reason is proof the Legislature is attempting to garner more funds through the justice courts, explained Scott Feifer, a Manhattan-based traffic attorney with satellite offices across New York. He said the surcharge increases that were once dedicated to funding certain state initiatives are often issued now without explanation or a clear message as to what the extra money will fund

Feifer also questioned whether agents of the law are being encouraged to write more tickets when they do make a traffic stop. He said it’s possible police are using less restraint when it comes to letting minor violations slide.

“Who’s to say when times are tougher, officers aren’t being encouraged to find more violations,” he said. “When before they’d use their discretion in favor of the driver, now maybe they’re not doing that any more.”

Click here to view the whole article.

Submitted by Scott Feifer

NOT a productive way to handle frustration with the DMV...

A Virginia woman drove to her local Department of Motor Vehicles service center in Leesburg this weekend to take care of some basic paperwork related to her car’s title.  She then drove straight into the building.

Some theories as to why she did this:

1.  She was under the impression the DMV clerk would need to see the actual vehicle.

2.  She had a bet with a friend that it was a fake brick wall (she won the bet).

3.  She heard DMV was offering new drive through services.

4.  Trying to turn her midsize sedan into a compact car.

5.  General frustration with the DMV.

Actually, she mistook the gas pedal for the brake.

For the record, the traffic ticket attorneys at NYTicketHELP.com fully recommend that all motorists, upon visiting the NYS DMV, employ a more traditional strategy of parking a car, getting out of the car and walking into the DMV through what’s commonly referred to as a “door”.

In the event any New Yorkers out there have traffic tickets or driver license issues that you have been trying to manage yourself and are a source of stress and/or frustration, feel free to contact us.  Our free consultation is just about guaranteed to be more productive than letting your negative emotions fester to the point you plow your car into a DMV.

This is particularly true if the NYS DMV you are visiting is constructed of real brick.

-Scott Feifer

A new study of 360,000 vehicle insurance claims by San Francisco-based Quality Planning Corp has concluded that hybrid drivers get more traffic tickets and get into more accidents than drivers of conventional cars.

This certainly has the potential to force insurance companies to reconsider the discount many major insurers currently offer to hybrid drivers.

Here are some of the theories behind this:

• Hybrid owners are more likely to live in a city and those who drive in a city are more likely to get traffic tickets than those who don’t.
• The typical hybrid owner is also more likely to be a woman and older than average.  This is a FACT…no way around it.  Whether it’s the reason or even a contributing factor towards the higher rates of traffic tickets and accidents is something I wouldn’t touch with a half electric, half gas powered 10 foot long pole.
• On average, hybrid owners drive more miles than non-hybrid.  Commuters drive about the same but non-commuters an  average of 25 percent—or 2,000 miles—more than non-hybrid drivers.  Not quite sure why hybrid owners drive more, but certainly more miles driven is a potential theory behind more traffic tickets and accidents.
• Many hybrids throw a few extra gauges about the dash to show what’s going on, ranging from simple charge/assist gauges in GM’s mild hybrids to elaborate gas mileage and power-flow meters in the Camry Hybrid.  Perhaps drivers are distracted by all the information.
  
• Finally, there’s always the old standby–the conspiracy theroy.  Perhaps insurance companies are fueling these studies so they can raise the rates for hybrid drivers who have typically enjoyed insurance discounts.

As we expect more and more drivers to move to vehicles like this in the future, we’ll keep an eye on this issue.

Submitted by Scott Feifer

In April of 2007, I drove my wife to the hospital as she was about to deliver our second child.  We left way before anything had progressed too far and with plenty of time to spare (we thought).

Fifteen minutes later I found myself in the middle of a “this can’t be happening to me” moment and my wife is screaming that the baby is coming.  I’m casually listening to Howard Stern and next thing I know my wife is standing in her seat and tugging at the elastic waistband of her maternity sweats.

We were too close to the hospital to stop and call for help.  We had no choice but to try to get there as quickly as possible.  Most people would have simply sped.  Traffic ticket attorney that I am let my mind wander and I had a brief discussion with myself before speeding.  My baby is about to be born on the Long Island Expressway and I’m lost in thought about what an officer would do if he pulled us over.  Luckily, instinct–either paternal instinct or just an inner voice screaming “birthing is not good for the leather seats”–quickly kicked in and I drove as fast as I could to the hospital.

In case you are curious, we didn’t make it.  I pulled up to the hospital entrance, ran around to let my wife out and couldn’t help but notice a baby laying on the front seat.  Thankfully, all was and is OK.

What did I take away from this incident?

First, leave for the hospital way earlier than you think you should when it’s your second child.

Second, this was a textbook example of a justification defense to a speeding ticket in the event one was issued.

The second point is what’s important here.  Many, many people come to me and tell me they were “justified” or have a good “defense” to the speeding ticket they received.  Fact is that, short of the situation I endured, very few sets of facts comprise a quality legal defense when it comes to traffic tickets. More often than not, those that decide to tell the judge  they were “justified” or have a good “defense” for speeding end up hurting more than helping themselves.

If you decide to open up to a judge or prosecutor and explain why you were speeding, always remember that you are essentially saying “I was speeding but…”.  Thus, if the judge or prosecutor doesn’t believe the “but” you have pretty much admitted to committing the speeding violation.

With that in mind, before you decide to attend court and set forth that you were justified for committing a traffic violation, consider the following:

Do you have evidence?
In my case, I’d like something from the hospital showing my baby was born within minutes of the issuance of the summons (had one been issued).

Is your story reasonable?
My dad was in the car, he wasn’t feeling well and we were speeding to the hospital.  Well, which hospital?  If there was no hospital within 45 minutes you can imagine the story has less credibility than if the hospital was 5 minutes away.

Was the emergency situation in your car?
Your aunt was so distraught you were afraid she would hurt herself?  Your brother was just rushed to the hospital?  Unless you are the ONLY person who can help, chances are authorities want you calling 911 for assistance before you take the matter into your own hands and rush to the scene.  Of course, if the scene is actually in your car then you have no choice but to move quickly.

The best way to fight a speeding ticket is to simply not get one.  If you are speeding because of an emergency, tell the officer, as calmly as you can, about your emergency. If you’re taking someone to the hospital, he may determine you need an ambulance and call one for you. If you’re rushing home for some reason that resonates with the officer, he may accompany you home and help you deal with your situation.

But if for some reason you do get a traffic ticket in the midst of a legitimate emergency, certainly document it the best you can and fight it.  A properly documented and presented argument can make the issuing officer as uncomfortable during the traffic ticket hearing as a woman giving birth to a nine pound girl in the front seat of her car.

Submitted by Scott Feifer.