Have you fought a traffic ticket in court? If so, the National Motorists Association wants to hear your story!
To celebrate the redesign of the NMA Store and to encourage reader participation on this blog, we’ve decided to have a contest to see who can tell the most interesting story about his or her traffic ticket experiences. The winner will receive a free copy of the new book, Driver’s Guide To Police Radar, by Craig Peterson.
To enter, just post your story in the comments section of this post sometime before 12:00pm on next Wednesday, February 20th.
NMA staff will read all the entries and decide on a winner. We’re not looking for anything specific. It can be a story about how you fought a ticket and won or about a ticket fight you lost. It can be a funny story or an infuriating one. The winning story will be featured on the NMA blog.
About the prize, Driver’s Guide To Police Radar:
Ever wondered just how close that police officer has to be to get you on his radar? Have you heard that lasers can’t be aimed through car glass? Are you getting your money’s worth from your detector?
These are just some of the questions answered in Driver’s Guide To Police Radar by Craig Peterson. Craig is a nationally-known expert on speed-measuring technology. His inside information on how radar is used and misused may give you enough information for an acquittal.
(183 pages)
Don’t hesitate to tell your story. If you have several stories to choose from, that’s okay. Multiple entries are encouraged! Be sure to use a valid email address when posting your comment so we can contact you if you’re the winner.
The contest has closed.
The winning entry was written by Martin G:
This happened in 1997. I live in Ridgeville, S.C. and it is a speed trap town. This is how my story goes:
As you enter the town the speed is 45 and as soon as you get to a curve it turns to 30. Well, I know the tricks of the town so I slowed down to 25 MPH and as soon as I got around the curve I saw the Town Police. I waved and I laughed at my wife and said he’s gonna get me for speeding doing 25 in a 30 MPH zone.
He made a u-turn and put his lights on. As soon as I pulled off the road right in front of the Town Hall parking lot, he told me to pull down to the corner store (Carters Fast Stop). He followed me without blue lights and soon as i pulled into the store area he hit the siren/blue lights and I got out again and asked him why I had to pull 1/2 mile from the incident area. He replied it was not safe. I said I pulled into the town hall parking lot.
Well anyway, I went to court about 3 weeks later and the judge asked how do I plead , I told her NOT GUILTY. She laughed and said OK let’s hear it. I explained to the judge the speed limit is 30 and I was going 25, she then said the officer’s radar said so. I asked her when the radar was calibrated and if the officer had gone through the training that is required by the state. I also asked her when did they invent radar that can go around curves…
She thought for a minute and then asked me why I asked those questions and I replied I was hired by the Sheriff’s Office recently and was shown a little about how radar works. The JUDGE then said to the officer, “This case is dismissed.” I laughed and walked away. This makes all law enforcement look bad, but I had a good laugh!
Honorable mention goes to Mark Girouard. You can read his entry here.
Thanks to everyone who entered!
