speeding tix leaving gorge camping?

slug420

might have been just me but i got nabbed with a ticket for speeding on that long straight road when u leave the campground. I was just cruising along watching the scenery and didnt notice the cop coming towards me who pulled a "u-ey" and pulled me over.

I thought it was funny since i had flown into SF and driven all over the place like 2500 miles in the previous 9 days and had no problems and then as im leaving the campground to head to the airport to go home i get nailed....but the more i thought about it the more it bugged me.

cop: you know why I pulled you over?
me: no i do not
cop: do you know what the speed limit is on this road?
me: no, I didnt see a sign back there
cop: do you know how fast you were going?
me: no, I didnt really notice... (i mean really if i didnt see the speed limit sign, what relevance is my current rate of travel anyhow?)
cop: so you're just not paying attention to anything at all today is that it?
me: umm, I just didnt see the speed limit sign...
cop: well there is one back there right after you leave. didnt you come in this way?
me: actually i dont think so. it was 2am at the time but im pretty sure i came in from the other end (more on this later)


so blah blah blah i get a ticket for 64 in a 50. foudn it interesting because i have never gotten a ticket for the exact speed i was allegedly going, they always round it down a bit to accomodate for a little bit of error in the gun and also to make you think they are letting you off a little easier so you wont contest it.

so the more i thought about it the more it bugged me because when i pulled otu of the campground all the signs said 90 to the left and only to the left. So any out of towners just following the signs to get home are going to head left, while people who know the area or are a little familiar with it will just head right and pick up the 90 an exit closer to seattle. The relevance of all the out of towners going one way is that its just fish in a barrel for them. I see no mention on my ticket of any way to fight or contest it without being physically in the courtroom. So basically they can pull over anyone who goes left out of the campground with a high liklihood they are from out of state, and hit them with whatever ticket they want, because they cant contest it.

This becomes a little more relevant when I factor in my camcorder. I have a suction cup window mount for my camcorder and I have been videotaping tons of shit throughout our whole road trip, and it just so happens i had it rigged up looking out the passenger side window of the car as we pulled out of premiere camping.....so while bored on my flight home, I reviewed the tape which doesnt stop until i am being pulled over, and sure enough, no speed limit sign to be found. There is one sign that looks like it could be a speed limit sign but it has a black bag over it covering it up completelt (you know, like the ones they put on signs while doing roadwork, as would be the case here with all the loose stone on the road).

I think I am going to contest this on principle alone and just wanted to see how many, if any, others got tickets when they left the campground before they got to the highway. If you did, I will be reviewing my tape in greater detail in the coming days to make sure im not missing something but one would think a speed limit not being posted would be pretty valuable in trying to beat a ticket no?

SpokenJeremy

slug420 wrote:

might have been just me but i got nabbed with a ticket for speeding on that long straight road when u leave the campground. I was just cruising along watching the scenery and didnt notice the cop coming towards me who pulled a "u-ey" and pulled me over.

I thought it was funny since i had flown into SF and driven all over the place like 2500 miles in the previous 9 days and had no problems and then as im leaving the campground to head to the airport to go home i get nailed....but the more i thought about it the more it bugged me.

cop: you know why I pulled you over?
me: no i do not
cop: do you know what the speed limit is on this road?
me: no, I didnt see a sign back there
cop: do you know how fast you were going?
me: no, I didnt really notice... (i mean really if i didnt see the speed limit sign, what relevance is my current rate of travel anyhow?)
cop: so you're just not paying attention to anything at all today is that it?
me: umm, I just didnt see the speed limit sign...
cop: well there is one back there right after you leave. didnt you come in this way?
me: actually i dont think so. it was 2am at the time but im pretty sure i came in from the other end (more on this later)


so blah blah blah i get a ticket for 64 in a 50. foudn it interesting because i have never gotten a ticket for the exact speed i was allegedly going, they always round it down a bit to accomodate for a little bit of error in the gun and also to make you think they are letting you off a little easier so you wont contest it.

so the more i thought about it the more it bugged me because when i pulled otu of the campground all the signs said 90 to the left and only to the left. So any out of towners just following the signs to get home are going to head left, while people who know the area or are a little familiar with it will just head right and pick up the 90 an exit closer to seattle. The relevance of all the out of towners going one way is that its just fish in a barrel for them. I see no mention on my ticket of any way to fight or contest it without being physically in the courtroom. So basically they can pull over anyone who goes left out of the campground with a high liklihood they are from out of state, and hit them with whatever ticket they want, because they cant contest it.

This becomes a little more relevant when I factor in my camcorder. I have a suction cup window mount for my camcorder and I have been videotaping tons of shit throughout our whole road trip, and it just so happens i had it rigged up looking out the passenger side window of the car as we pulled out of premiere camping.....so while bored on my flight home, I reviewed the tape which doesnt stop until i am being pulled over, and sure enough, no speed limit sign to be found. There is one sign that looks like it could be a speed limit sign but it has a black bag over it covering it up completelt (you know, like the ones they put on signs while doing roadwork, as would be the case here with all the loose stone on the road).

I think I am going to contest this on principle alone and just wanted to see how many, if any, others got tickets when they left the campground before they got to the highway. If you did, I will be reviewing my tape in greater detail in the coming days to make sure im not missing something but one would think a speed limit not being posted would be pretty valuable in trying to beat a ticket no?

Not it Washington I'm afraid. If no speed limit is posted clearly, you are to assume the speed limit is what it would normally be for that type of road, in this case a two lane country road is 50.

Bwalker545

You should be able to "defer" your ticket... Meaning you pay a fine but it doesnt go on your record. If you go a year without another in WA...(NP your outta state) Life saver on insurance. That is unless you get it dropped entirely

Lizardking

I know you can't make a court date with Andy and Barney Fife but that video tape would be an easy way out of ticket, maybe send a copy with ticket?

aNiMaL

TacoJammer wrote:

Not it Washington I'm afraid. If no speed limit is posted clearly, you are to assume the speed limit is what it would normally be for that type of road, in this case a two lane country road is 50.

I beleive that's true.


Also....yeah, those of us who have been going to the Gorge for many years know to be aware of the Grant County Sheriffs. They'll getcha everytime. And the State Troopers are dangerous through Vantage.

jeffbr

Clark County Sheriff Dept. are full of inbred douchebags with hardons for city folk. They get crazy every time there's a show at the Gorge. It is their only entertainment all year. What the hell else do they do the rest of the year except watch the dirt blow by. I've been going to the Gorge multiple times a summer for over a decade and witness stupidity by that dept. every time. Sorry you got nailed. Good luck if you decide to fight it. I'm sure the judge will be related to every cop in that county due to their shallow gene pool.

krzzzymary

I saw someone being pulled over as we left but I want to know who it was that turned their cars over some miles out?

I hope they are o.k.
It looked like a terrible accident.

mozman88

TacoJammer wrote:

Not it Washington I'm afraid. If no speed limit is posted clearly, you are to assume the speed limit is what it would normally be for that type of road, in this case a two lane country road is 50.

I'm pretty sure 50 is the "default" speed in Indiana too.

Rustedsigns131

I got my speeding ticket leaving Sea-Tac on the way to central Washington. I felt like I was set up. Really sucked! But, it didn't kill my weekend...too good to be ruined

The guy next to me at night 2 also also got pulled over, but he got out of it because he showed his NY paramedics card. ACK!

Anyone else get nabbed?
Those bastards! :P

Jason P

The state patrol was handing out "Ticket or Click it" tickets as people were coming off the I-90 on Saturday afternoon. As I was driving past a pulled-over Dodge, I heard the girl in the backseat call the cop a dickhead, to which the cop responded he was just doing his job. To add insult to injury, it took an 1 1/2 hours to get to the parking lot, so I'm sure anyone that got a seatbelt ticket was probably ready to kill somebody.

slug420

i just e-mailed an attorney in yakima...will keep you all posted.

if you got a speeding ticket heading left out of the camping area on sunday/monday then post here. if he decides this video is relevant he could probably make one trip to court with it and help multiple people at once for a smaller fee.

course he will probably just tell me to pound sand, but this is fun in the mean time.

mca47

I'm surprized he didn't ask you if you were drinking and/or search your car. It seems like every show I go to there are cops waiting to pick up the drunk drivers or "druggies".
After a DMB show a couple years ago we left (after about and hour and a half wait...typical of Alpine shows) and about a mile outside of the venue a cop pulls us over. First thing he asks "have you guys been drinking tonight". The driver hadn't been but everyone else had been. The driver was like no but we're like "damn right". Apparently we were going 6 mph over the limit. After checking everyone's IDs and threatening to search our car...which he had no right to do and we let him know this, he let us go. What a bastard!

formerly ferniegirl

The cops were everywhere on the weekend and in particular I found that Sunday in the early afternoon they were being crazy. I drove up and down that road a couple of times as we went into Ellensberg and back to the Wildhorse and then down to the river and the cops were constantly driving down the road pulling U turns and following me. I also noticed that the speed limit on that road was a suggested 35 mph due to "fresh oil on the road". I also happened to notice that those signs had been taken down by Monday morning when most people had left except for the Sunday night campers. It seems a bit too convinient to me and too good of an excuse to pull people over.

canuck_rocker

ferniegirl wrote:

The cops were everywhere on the weekend and in particular I found that Sunday in the early afternoon they were being crazy. I drove up and down that road a couple of times as we went into Ellensberg and back to the Wildhorse and then down to the river and the cops were constantly driving down the road pulling U turns and following me. I also noticed that the speed limit on that road was a suggested 35 mph due to "fresh oil on the road". I also happened to notice that those signs had been taken down by Monday morning when most people had left except for the Sunday night campers. It seems a bit too convinient to me and too good of an excuse to pull people over.

I remember that how the speed limit was 35 because of the fresh oil on the road. I was kind of tired from being on the road for five hours then realized i was doing 60 on that road. I felt bad for the three cars I saw pulled over as I drove to the campground. I was very lucky not to get nabbed though. On the way back I made sure I did 35 and a little bit under, and sure enough I saw two police cars hidden along the road.

slug420

yea, i was kinda surprised the cop said the speed limit was 50....

Eternal Jamnation

We got nailed, too, on our way in, and we have our suspicions about the whole oil-on-the-road thing (without getting into the details) so we decided to contest the ticket.

There's a lawyer in Moses Lake who works on speeding tickets and works in Grant County. His name is Patrick Earl and his number is (509) 765-1705. You might want to consider giving him a call if you got ticketed at the Gorge and think you want to fight it.

slug420

Eternal Jamnation wrote:

We got nailed, too, on our way in, and we have our suspicions about the whole oil-on-the-road thing (without getting into the details) so we decided to contest the ticket.

There's a lawyer in Moses Lake who works on speeding tickets and works in Grant County. His name is Patrick Earl and his number is (509) 765-1705. You might want to consider giving him a call if you got ticketed at the Gorge and think you want to fight it.

thanks, sweet

i emailed some random guy in yakima i found online but he never got back to me