NYPD traffic agents wrote nearly double the average number of alternate-side parking tickets on Feb 7 as many cars have yet to move since getting snowed in two weeks ago.

The NY Post reported that 9,910 tickets were written citywide on the first day the alternate side of the street rules were back in  effect.

According to the Department of Finance. an average of 5,460 alternate-side violations are issued in a typical day.

The NYPD set forth that there were simply “more violations observed”than usual yesterday.

Cynics will probably argue this is unfair, a money grab, etc.  While it may indeed be partially about making up for revenue lost to the snow, it’s likely there were simply more cars than usual parked on the wrong side of the street.  People have had both time and notice with respect to the parking rules and at some point should be expected to move their vehicle.

Scott Feifer, Esq.

JULY 2011 UPDATE: POINTS INCREASE: CELL PHONE TICKETS NOW 3 POINTS IN NY.

We were just informed by a Head Judge at one of the TVB offices that cell phone convictions in NY would carry 2 points starting later this month.

First, we wanted to confirm this was accurate and figure out when this all happened and what the rationale was.

Unfortunately for motorists, it is true. DMV gave their official notice of the rule change in the New York State Register on Dec. 15, 2010.

I say unfortunately because this will mean more licenses get suspended and more points-based Driver Assessment dollars collected than before.

However, it will NOT be unfortunate if it somehow encourages a few more drivers to go hands-free. Distracted driving is real and it is bad news.

The new rule will apply to summonses issued on or after February 16th 2011.

Thank you to NY Assemblyman Charles D. Lavine (Assembly District 13) and his Legislative Director Steven Friedman for their assistance in tracking down information concerning this new rule.

Here are some key points mentioned by the DMV in their rationale for imposing the new rule:

⁃ The DMV originally exempted mobile phone violations from the point system because “To the extent that certain instances of mobile telephone usage may result in erratic or unsafe driving, the conviction for a violation of section 1225-c will likely be accompanied by other Vehicle and Traffic Law violations which will, in and of themselves, result in the assessment of points and, therefore, aid in the identification of persistent violators.”

⁃ The DMV noted that the original cell phone law’s legislative objective was “advocating the responsible use of mobile telephones by motorists” to promote safety on New York’s public highways.

⁃ In light of this legislative objective of promoting highway safety, DMV concluded that it is appropriate at this time to impose two points for cell phone violations.

⁃ DMV recognizes that this form of distracted driving is a serious highway safety traffic offense. It is also consistent with DMV’s determination to assign two points for violations of the newer section 1225-d, the prohibition against texting while driving, which was enacted into law in 2009 and which is another form of distracted driving.

⁃ Imposing points also aligns with the legislative objective of sanctioning drivers who commit persistent violations of the law. Since cell phone violations have serious public safety consequences, it is appropriate that such violations be counted in the persistent violator equation.

DMV continues by citing some statistics to support the rule change:

⁃ In 2007, 312,445 tickets were issued for cell phone violations, resulting in 273,743 convictions. In 2008, 316,293 tickets were issued, resulting in 273,976 convictions.

⁃ Numerous studies have confirmed that distracted driving, such as driving while talking on a cell phone, significantly contributes to accidents and fatalities on the State’s highways.

⁃ AAA reports that each day distracted driving is a contributing factor in 4,000 to 8,000 crashes on our nation’s highways.

⁃ The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that nationwide in 2008 5,870 people died (representing 16% of all highway fatalities) and an estimated 515,000 were injured due to distracted driving.

⁃ The number of persons who reportedly are distracted at the time of the fatal crashes has increased Best Section Begin from 8% in 2004 to 11% in 2008. NHTSA estimates that at any given time during daylight hours, approximately 11% of drivers are using some type of cell phone.

⁃ The Institute for Highway Safety reports that drivers who use hand-held cell phones are four times as likely to be involved in car crashes resulting in injury to themselves.

⁃ A Carnegie Mellon Institute study concludes that driving while using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37%.

Clients and potential clients ask us all the time about how to handle a NY traffic ticket, about points on their license, about suspensions, out of state tickets, etc.

If you want advice on how to handle a speeding ticket, NY driver license or any other related issue, feel free to give us a call or submit an inquiry to our firm.

Here, instead of advising what to do, we give your our Top 20 List of What NOT To Do if you are issued a traffic ticket in NY or ultimately convicted of a New York traffic ticket.

1. Do not rely on what the police officer tells you on the road about the New York traffic ticket. If the officer gives you wrong information, intentionally or not, no judge or court or enforcement agency is going to do anything about it. We can think of a hundred more reliable places to get information about a NY ticket than from the one person who is issuing you the ticket and will appear as a witness against you in court.

2. Do not rely on what you “heard” from a “friend” or “read somewhere”. First, there is a lot of wrong information out there. Second, your “friend” is giving advice based on one, maybe two incidents or experiences. We’ve handled thousands NY traffic violation cases and related issues and we can say for sure one or two incidents is far from enough of a sample for one to give advice.

3. Do not believe the “overpayment” myth. The myth says that if you are convicted of a traffic ticket, you should pay a few dollars more to the court because the extra payment will prevent the DMV or TVB or other agency from “closing out” your case and therefore putting points on your NY driver license. The reality is that driver license points and the fine payment have nothing to do with each other. Once guilty, the points associated with the particular traffic violation attach to your record whether you pay the fine early, later, never, in part or in full.

4. Do not rely on a police “no show” or believe such a “no show” will lead to an automatic dismissal of the traffic ticket. First, especially during tough economic times, a premium is put on police officer attendance because convictions equal money. Second, even if the officer does fail to show many judges and courts will give the officer another chance to appear.

5. Do not think that an officer in a moving vehicle cannot measure your speed. First, an officer may be using his speedometer to pace you. Second, an officer may simply be estimating your speed visually and, if the officer is properly trained to do this from a moving vehicle, such an estimation may hold up in court.

6. Do not believe that all the rules of the road must be posted somewhere on the road. Yes, there must be some “notice” letting you know that what you did or are about to is prohibited, but this “notice” may exist in a statute book. In NYC, for example, if no speed limit is posted, the limit is automatically 30mph. There are also truck routes that must be followed by trucks and these routes are listed only in the NYC Traffic Rules. There are also operational rules, such as rules with respect to turning, signaling, etc. that you won’t find posted anywhere on the street.

7. Do not assume that by mailing a traffic ticket or traffic ticket fine payment to a traffic court on time means the matter is automatically settled. Things get lost in the mail or even lost on a court clerk’s desk somewhere. Even if you mail something and request and receive a return receipt, you’ll never have proof of what was actually in the envelope. Follow up on anything mailed to a court, whether it’s placing a call or checking to see if a check has cleared or some other action. Whenever a transaction can be completed online–NYC traffic tickets in particular–try to take advantage. The confirmation you’ll get is worth it.

8. Do not assume that a traffic court or the DMV can’t make a mistake. It happens all the time, whether it’s a sloppy handwritten note in a file or a simple data entry error. Review all documentation carefully and bring any mistakes to the attention of the proper individual or agency.

9. Do not go to court under the impression that your “simple, logical explanation” is going to do the trick. Never forget that there is an officer who issued the ticket who will see it and explain it differently and tell the judge just that. Same rule applies on the road—you are unlikely to talk an officer out of issuing a ticket with “my wife is having a baby” or “ I just had surgery” or “I have to go to the bathroom”. True or false, officers hear these all the time and are rarely swayed.

10. Do not consider a PBA or equivalent card constitutes a “get out of the ticket free” pass. Sometimes they work, sometimes not. We’ve seen actual police officers issued traffic tickets so no one is safe, PBA card or not.

11. Do not think that “it was a trap” is a defense. Enforcement officers don’t go to a location to entrap drivers and they do not force drivers to commit traffic violations. They go to locations where drivers are likely to commit violations and look to pull over those who do. Enforcing trouble spots isn’t entrapment—it’s smart.

12. Do not think that 11 points on your NY driver license means a suspension as per the DMV. In some cases, suspension can come before you reach 11 and in other cases you may pass 11 points and continue to drive with a valid status.

13. Do not believe you can just ask a court or judge to reschedule a case and that it will automatically be granted. Some have very strict adjournment policies and, if you can’t attend court, make sure you know for sure a case can be adjourned before you decide not to attend

14. Do not proceed under the impression that you need a traffic ticket attorney to win or that retaining a traffic ticket lawyer is a guarantee of success. In some cases unrepresented motorists win and in others represented motorists lose. It’s fair to say, however, that representation by an experienced NY traffic ticket attorney will indeed greatly increase your chances of success.

15. Do not place any stock whatsoever in the “one size fits all” books and websites that promise guaranteed tips and tricks and methods for beating traffic tickets. The notion that there is some secret that applies to every judge in every court in every town in every county in every state in the entire country is completely ridiculous. Procedures and laws differ everywhere you go.

16. Do not believe the “Red Car Bias” myth. A commonly held misperception is that red cars tend to receive more speeding tickets than cars of other colors because of their flashiness. There’s also the supposed optical illusion created by their color that makes the cars appear to be going faster than they really are. There is no data to support the assertion that red cars receive more traffic tickets than cars of any other color nor data that suggests insurance rates are automatically higher for red colored cars.

17. Do not go to court under the impression that a single mistake on your ticket means your case will automatically be dismissed. It’s just not true with NY moving violations.

18. Do not think that your speeding ticket NY will be dismissed because the officer failed to show you his radar gun at the time of the incident. The officer doesn’t have to show you or say anything. Your traffic ticket serves as his “words” and you can schedule a hearing in a New York traffic court if you’d like further explanation or would like to challenge the charge on the ticket.

19. Do not ignore a traffic ticket that you received in another state. The interstate Driver License Compact is an agreement between participating states that share information regarding certain types of traffic convictions and there are only a handful of states that are not members of the compact. There is also the National Driver Register, a database of information about drivers who have had their licenses revoked or suspended due to serious traffic violations. States provide the register with information about these serious offenses, and those in the database can be denied licenses in other states.

20. Do not blame the traffic enforcement officer for your situation. In most cases, it is simply a person trying to do their job well and very few officers in our experience issue bad tickets maliciously. If you disagree with a traffic ticket your received, try to understand that mistakes can be made by anyone, traffic ticket officers included.

Effective Jan 1, 2011, motorists will be required to “move over” or “slow down” when their vehicle is approaching an authorized emergency vehicle when its emergency lights are flashing and the emergency vehicle is parked on a highway or roadway in New York State.

This will be a two point violation if a driver in NY is convicted under the new law.

The NY State Senate’s justification for the law included the following points:

• The law is for the protection of emergency personnel from motorists who have crashed their vehicles into police and emergency vehicles that were parked on highways or roadways in the performance of their duties
• The momentum behind the law can be traced back to a March 11, 2003 New York State Senate investigation prompted by the death of New York State Trooper Robert Ambrose. Ambrose was fatally injured during a routine traffic stop on the New York State Thruway in Yonkers, New York.
• Later in 2003, Onondaga County Deputy Sheriff Glenn M. Searles was assisting a motorist whose vehicle had gone off the highway when a second car lost control and struck Deputy Searles, fatally pinning him against his patrol car.
• Motorists must be aware that the presence of a police or other emergency vehicle means not only a potential dangerous situation, but also that professional and volunteer emergency work may be under way.

Drivers should keep the following in mind:

• Use particular caution when approaching an emergency vehicle that displays flashing emergency lighting.
• On all roadways, drivers must reduce their speed when approaching the emergency vehicle.
• On larger roadways (Parkways, Controlled Access Highways, roadways with multiple lanes) drivers must reduce speed and move from the lane immediately adjacent to the emergency vehicle as soon as it’s safe to do so.

We’ll keep an eye on how this is enforced during the upcoming months.

A man in New Hampshire was recently rushing to the hospital with his wife who was on the verge of giving birth.

When he saw a police car behind him trying to pull him over, he didn’t want to stop. He called 911 to let them know why he was continuing.

The officer in pursuit got the call and then pulled in front to give a police escort to the hospital.

Everyone got to the hospital in time. Man and wife had a baby and the officer congratulated him.

Then, the officer gave him a speeding ticket for driving 102 mph in a 55 mph zone.

Why? This man is not trained to drive at that speed. While he was rushing to help two people in distress, he put everyone else on the road in danger by driving an unmarked vehicle, without lights or sirens, at 102 mph.

The man’s actions were completely understandable under the circumstances. If the prosecutor in his case is open to plea bargains, it’s likely the extenuating circumstances will help him get a very good offer.

However, the ticket will not simply get thrown out. There is rarely a good justification defense to speeding and the law will usually require a driver to pull over and call 911 in an emergency.

Many of us would do the same thing, including the man who got the ticket should he ever be in that position again. Nonetheless, it serves as a good example of how difficult it can be to get out of a speeding ticket by arguing that “I was speeding, but I have a good reason…”. In most cases this will simply be looked at as an admission of guilt.

Please–If you pay a traffic ticket or beat a traffic ticket or otherwise close out a matter in the TVB or other NY traffic court, hold on to any and all related paperwork. You should never need it again but it’s worth keeping just in case.

Dekalb County, Georgia currently has a little bit of a mess on their hands. People that paid traffic tickets years ago are receiving notification that they owe money and are late on the same ticket they already paid. No one is sure what went wrong or why, but clearly something did.

One woman explained about getting arrested during a routine car stop on an unrelated matter when her license showed and old unpaid ticket. Fortunately for her, she had the old paperwork to prove the error.

Not everyone will be so fortunate and it will be interesting to see how the county will determine what money is legitimately due on old tickets and what is a result of this error.

Our advice in New York? Just hold on to your paperwork and assume nothing when it comes to matters such as these. You never know.

I’ve read it various places online and been asked by friends and clients on numerous occasions whether it’s true.

It’s the “overpayment” myth.  And the answer is NO, it is not true.

Here’s a version of it I found from a quick search online:

This is very simple.  In New York, when you are convicted of a traffic violation DMV is notified.  DMV will place the conviction on your driving record and you’ll have points on your record if it was a point carrying conviction.  That’s it.  Conviction for a point carrying violation means you have points.  Period.

As for payment of any fine due,  it’s a separate matter.  If you fail to pay, you’ll end up suspended for failure to pay eventually.  If you under or over pay, different courts will probably treat if differently.  However, under no circumstances does the over or under payment have any bearing on the points and the conviction.

Minor mistakes on your traffic ticket are unlikely to merit dismissing the charge.

Consider some of the information on a ticket issued for a moving violation. Your name, date of birth, address, license number, and vehicle make, model, color and plate, etc. A slightly misspelled name or the wrong color car or a mistake with the address or other license info can easily be overlooked by a Judge because of the presence of all the other information. A Court/Prosecutor/Judge can be satisfied, even in the face of certain minor errors, that the person with the ticket in their hand is the person who was observed driving and allegedly committing the violation in question.

Moreover, if a John Smith who drives a green car were to claim the ticket written to John Smite in a brown car was not issued to him, there would also be an issuing officer who could potentially identify the person in court as the driver of the vehicle and end any doubt.

Small mistakes leading to dismissal of the charges is simply another traffic court myth. The myth likely comes from parking tickets where small errors on the ticket are much more damaging. Parking tickets are issued to a vehicle, not a person. If the vehicle is not identified exactly, then there will be legitimate questions about the ticket itself and which car was allegedly parked improperly. There isn’t the additional information, like address, date of birth, ID number, etc. that could be considered.

In any case, we still do recommend looking over the ticket carefully. While mistakes on a traffic ticket may not mean an automatic dismissal, sometimes an attorney can argue that perhaps the officer was distracted or similarly mistaken about the underlying violation itself. Multiple small mistakes can make such an argument even more likely to succeed. Thus, while mistakes don’t automatically help one’s cause, they don’t hurt either. Mistakes do have some merit and could be used as a tool to help chip away at the sufficiency of the evidence offered against a driver.

Submitted by Scott Feifer

It’s not a New York issue, but one particular quote caught my eye recently.

There’s a small controversy surrounding some speeding tickets issued via camera surveillance on a Washington DC roadway. Enforcement officials claim the cameras were put up to protect construction workers in a construction zone where the speed limit had been lowered by 10mph to accommodate the construction.

Now, however, the construction has stopped but the cameras remain.

Here’s the quote: “We’re hoping to use these speed cameras more often,” said Assistant Police Chief Patrick Burke. “This is to keep people safe.”

It would be nice if an official would finally just come out and say “we want to keep people safe…but the money is pretty nice too”.

Did I mention in the 2.5 months since construction more or less ended, $3.73 million in fine money has been collected?

It’s never ONLY about safety and officials who claim it is just come off sounding silly.

If for some reason you’re reading this and have questions about a camera or other speeding ticket in the Washington DC area, feel free to consult with a Washington DC traffic attorney via our national site TicketHELP.com.

Submitted by NY Traffic Lawyer Scott Feifer

If you drive in NYC, please keep the following in mind:

1.  Unless otherwise posted, the speed limit is 30 mph.  All those local streets that have no speed limit signs are considered “unposted” 30 mph zones.

2.  50 mph is the highest speed limit in NYC.  It’s never 55, 60 or 65 on any of the highways no matter what the conditions of the roadway may be like.  Be particularly careful as you transition from Westchester or Nassau County highways to NYC as the speed limit drops.

Read more about speeding tickets if you have further questions.