Between 2006 and 2008, 553 tickets were issued for speeding at 100 mph or higher in Orange County, Sullivan County and Ulster County.

Almost half of those were issued on State Route 17.

In comparison, police issued 160 tickets to drivers of 100 mph or more on the Thruway, and 82 such tickets on I-84.

As a traffic ticket attorney (and an occasional user of Route 17) I’m tempted to be cynical about the reasons for the higher number of extreme speeding tickets on Route 17 in comparison to other roadways.  Route 17 is one of the most heavily patrolled roadways I’ve seen.  You can’t drive 5 miles without seeing either a car stop in progress or an officer waiting on the side of the road ready to initiate a car stop at any moment.  The attorney advertisements on the billboards along Route 17 are a testament to the excessive number of traffic tickets issued along the roadway. Moreover, some of the most difficult courts we’ve dealt with have been in Orange and Sullivan County which could suggest, if we are being cynical about it, an overall system that is too harsh on drivers.

However, no matter how you look at it, or what the reason for the big numbers on Route 17 is, there is absolutely no excuse for driving at speeds in excess of 100 mph.  It puts yourself and anyone else on the road in extreme danger.  There are formulas involved when designing expressways.  Engineers make sure there is enough time and space between exit signs and ramps for drivers to react safely. Curves are designed to be handled at specific speeds.  Extreme speeding severly impacts a motorist’s field of vision and reduces reaction time.  The probability of a crash increases dramatically.

If you think you have some legal justification for driving that speed, it’s unlikely you do.  It would be an extremely rare situation where the law allowed for an ordinary vehicle and untrained emergency driver to proceed at that speed instead of stopping and calling 911.

While Route 17 may be considered by some to be one giant speed trap, I hope everyone driving over 100 mph is indeed “trapped” sooner than later.  It’s just not safe.

Submitted by Scott Feifer.

1.   There are no right turns on a red light in NYC.  If there is a sign there specifically stating that such a turn is allowed, then it’s allowed.  Otherwise, it is prohibited in all five boroughs.  “I didn’t know” won’t cut it in court should it come to that.

2.  A red light camera ticket is not a moving violation.  The camera cannot identify a particular driver and a moving violation summons cannot therefore be issued against a particular person’s driver license.  Red light camera tickets are treated as parking violations and are issued to the registrant.  If you are the registered owner, you are officially on the hook if a camera snaps a picture of your car disobeying a red light regardless of who was driving just like you’d be responsible for a parking ticket regardless of who actually parked the car.

3.  There is no standard with respect to the length of time a yellow light phase lasts.  Some are shorter and some are longer.  It’s a product of engineering work done at each intersection which considers a number of factors including the traffic flow, the average speed of traffic and the typical visibility a motorist has when approaching the intersection.  The idea with setting the yellow phase is to minimize the number of drivers who enter the “dilemma zone” which is the point on the roadway, while approaching the intersection, where a driver is just not sure what to do and has to decide whether to stop at the intersection or continue through as the light is in the process of changing to red.

4.  Red arrows mean you cannot proceed in the direction the arrow is facing regardless of what other signals (such as an ordinary green disc) are facing you as well.  A flashing red light is the same as a stop sign.

5.  You are permitted to enter an intersection at any point prior to the light entering it’s red phase.  “Entering” the intersection means passing whatever is deemed to be the stopping point at the intersection.  A stopping point is usually a crosswalk or stop line but in some cases is simply the curb lines of the intersecting roadways.  Note that if you were issued a traffic ticket for disobeying a red light, the officer does not feel the light was anything other than red at the time you entered the intersection.

We were able to help a client out with an unsafe lane change ticket today.  The charge was dismissed.

My client explained to me he really didn’t think he did anything wrong.  I sympathized with him.  Traffic tickets like this one are sometimes difficult to accept and to adjudicate because the concept of “unsafe” is subjective.

With speeding tickets or red light tickets, a motorist might disagree with an officer but one of the two must be right (and the other wrong, of course) about what happened.  In those cases, the light was either red or it wasn’t, and the speed of the vehicle was either over the limit or it wasn’t.  There are plenty of other factors in play in cases like those but they are different from a subjective charge like unsafe lane change.

With a subjective ticket like unsafe lane change, the motorist and officer can agree 100% on what occurred but still disagree on whether what occurred constituted a violation.

With a subjective ticket like unsafe lane change, I feel there’s unofficially an extra burden on the issuing officer.  He needs to do more than testify to what he saw or recorded.  He needs to offer testimony as to why what he saw or recorded constituted a violation of the New York Vehicle and Traffic Law.  With measurable offenses like speeding and red light, this is self explanatory.

Today’s case was won based on the officer’s inability to offer sufficient testimony with respect to “why” the lane change described was deemed “unsafe” and worthy of a traffic summons.  The officer merely testified that my client changed lanes “unsafely”.  He offered nothing with respect to why or how the movement was unsafe.  How close was my client to another vehicle?  At what speed was he traveling?  Did he signal?  What was traffic like?  None of these questions were answered.

I knew right away the officer’s testimony wouldn’t be sufficient for the charge to stand.  I made a motion to dismiss and it was granted.

Submitted by NY traffic ticket attorney Matthew Greenberg