My thoughts on this are to just pay the fine, take a defensive driving
class and get the points off your record. And maybe get rid of that
sports car. Will make it a bit easier for you to buy text books (not
meant to be a rant but a very friendly suggestion.) Then after you
graduate, start your own company, and your company goes IPO in a big
way, you can buy not just one sports car but hundreds of them.

I got 5 or so tickets in my 13 years I lived in the States. Only one of
them went to court which was for reckless driving resulting in an
accident. It was about 6 am and I had been driving all night on my way
from Atlanta GA to Washington DC to start my first job after graduation,
I was drowsy at the wheel, major traffic jam at potomac mills where the
traffic came to a sudden halt, I slammed on the brakes but it was too
late and I hit the car in front of me which then hit two others in front
of it.

What saved me in court was a gentle demeanor and an excuse that the
pavement was wet because of light drizzle and the car was loaded with
all my stuff. The charges were dropped to an "Unavoidable accident
circumstance" and they let me go. Plus I let my lawyer (a friend that
represented me for free) do all the talking.=20

The courts simply don't have time to hear arguments on traffic violation
charges. And if you stand there and start to argue no matter how valid
your argument, even the best of judges start to get irritated because
they have a ton of other cases to deal with.

All other tickets were where I was speeding about 10 mph over the limit
on back roads, usually late at night, tired, and trying to get back home
from work quickly. Always told the cop like it was and in most cases
only got a "failure to obey a posted sign" violation. In one case the
cop even started to chat about my VW and I had to excuse myself by
telling him that I was really tired and wanted to get home soon.=20

A comment was made about that system not being always fair. Let me tell
you the system in the US does work in most cases. In fact it works in
almost all cases. Amongst all the places I have lived in the world, the
States been the best. Its where you will find the most level headed,
unprejudiced people and the best atmosphere to work and raise a family
in. I'm sure there are many other fantastic places in the world to live
an work in but the States is definitely one of the best. I've been very
thankful for getting a chance to go to school there and am looking
forward to moving back there end of this year.

Shahid

-----Original Message-----
From: rrc124+@PITT.EDU [mailto:rrc124+@PITT.EDU]=20
Posted At: Thursday, June 24, 2004 12:10 AM
Subject: Re: [OT:] i need advice...


I definitely cannot afford a lawyer. Hell, I even will have a hard time
buying any textbooks I need to back myself up. I'm hoping I can survive
on two sources:=20

1) the PA State Police Radar training manual (I assume one exists,
hopefully very similar to the one previously posted by Dave Wheeler
http://www.ukspeedtraps.co.uk/frames.htm ) because it will hopefully
explain the same principles of size, shape, speed, etc all having valid
influence. What better evidence then the state trooper's own manual? And
I was reading up on PA law and there is this Right-To-Know law that
allows me to request for certain records
(http://www.psp.state.pa.us/psp/cwp/view.asp?a=3D4&q=3D160408) which
hopefully the training manual is considered.

2) the operator's manual for the radar gun used. Unfortunitly I forgot
the name of the unit the officer said during the trial, but I know I can
request this information from the state police and get a court order if
they don't give it to me. Hopefully this will back up the claims in the
PA SP Radar Training manual about how this unit can register a larger,
faster, boxier object before a smaller sleeker one, etc.

The PA State Police charges a small fee for these records so hopefully
that won't kill me. Missing a second day of work, another 2.5 hour
drive's worth of gas, and toll on the turnpike might. But..=20

I also bought a book on beating traffic tickets. It was written by a cop
and provided some useful information such as what records you have a
right to request and how to pick them apart, things to do when pulled
over such as recording the entire event and requesting to see the actual
reading, tuning fork, etc right then and there. If there is serious
interest I could list the documents he suggest you request and a brief
overview of picking them apart. I assume an overview like this wouldn't
break any copyright laws? Last thing i need right now...

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