"Failure to follow traffic device..." NYS Traffic fines?

Liv2ride21

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2002 Midnight Blue 5 speed P5
So last night I was driving my girl and a friend home from a party in Ithaca, NY and I was leaving through the main entrance to my college. It's a shallow downhill about a tenth of a mile or so into a traffic light on a four-lane road. Sure enough, the light was yellow and I needed to make a left. Now, my confidence in my car's handling skills :D made me go for it despite my passengers' wishes. I got to the light, which I thought changed as I entered the intersection, made the left and proceeded on my way. Then I noticed the festival of lights in my rearview mirror. I guess a cop was coming to the intersection heading the same direction I intended to go on the four lane road.

I got a "Failure to follow traffic control device" ticket. He said he was cutting me a break cause I was going pretty fast into and out of the intersection and that the light was red before I made it.

Does anyone know how much of a fine this ticket is in upstate NY? Not sure If I should fight it.
 
if you live in new jersey, i thought out of state tickets don't mean much on your record. and last time i got one of those, i paid $80-100. i am pretty sure it a no point ticket, too.
 
Yeah, I'm not sure if the points or anything transfer...but if thats all the fine is then I'm not too worried. Thanks man
 
aren't the fines on the back of the ticket? or at least a phone number to call to find out? how in the world would you mail in the ticket with payment if you didn't have a way of knowing how much the fine was for?
 
new york doesn't do that. they either want you to plead guilty, and then they tell you your fine, or they want you to appear in court.
 
njaremka said:
new york doesn't do that. they either want you to plead guilty, and then they tell you your fine, or they want you to appear in court.
Whatever!
Canada rocks!
 
njaremka said:
new york doesn't do that. they either want you to plead guilty, and then they tell you your fine, or they want you to appear in court.


Not that I'm bashing New York or anything, but that's a really stupid system......:bs: :bs:
 
I supposedly ran a stop sign in my ranger (although it was uphill and I have a 5speed and I did use my brakes) The cop was at least 6 cars behind me and he couldnt see if his life depended on it, he was just looking to give me a ticket. Anyhow it costed me about 100-150 dont exactly remember, and the system in Douglas County GA is you get the ticket wait at least 2 weeks and if it does not require court then you go and pay it, or protest and have a court appearance where the cop shows who gave you the ticket. It makes for quick and easy though.
Mike
 
MikeBlueP5 said:
I supposedly ran a stop sign in my ranger (although it was uphill and I have a 5speed and I did use my brakes) The cop was at least 6 cars behind me and he couldnt see if his life depended on it, he was just looking to give me a ticket...

The same thing happened to me. It was a biker cop (WORST cop in the world down here) and i saw him sittin there, and then i noticed i had yet to put on my seat belt. Sure enough..bastard gave me a ticket for no seat belt...and then says to me, "by the way, here is a ticket for running the stop sign!?
So i decided to fight it. I paid the seat belt ticket and gave the judge my side of the story in court. He just threw it out..and I only had to pay a $20 court fee!

In my experience, i find it best to fight the ticket's. As long as your record is in decent standing, 90% of the time it works out for you!
:D
 
It is ALWAYS in your best interest to fight the ticket - always.

Even if it is a "no-points" ticket, your insurance company will not be so kind. Your rates WILL go up.

One tip - the absolute first thing you need to do is wait until about a week (or less) before the court date, then call to postpone the hearing. In NY, you can postpone once - after that, you have to post bond to postpone again.

Postponing the date gives you the extra chance that the cop will not show up in court, which 90% of the time results in a dismissal. Not always, but on a minor ticket like that - probably.

The absolute worst thing that can happen by fighting the ticjet is that you lose - the fine can't go UP! So you might as well take your chances and go for it.

Interesting - New York recently (past 3 years?) closed a few awesome loopholes in the law, unfortunately. First, you used to be able to postpone hearings indefinitely - as many times as you want. Second, the points associated with speeding tickets used to apply from the date of the TICKET. So - using these two loops, you could easily postpone a ticket for 40 months (which is the amount of time points stay on your license), and even if you lose, the points never hit your record! Sure, there'd be a fine - but no record of the conviction and no license points, and no insurance increase either. Now, you can only postpone once. And points are assesed from the date of CONVICTION. Damn - why'd they have to get smart on that one??

Fight it - it's worth it. Just be polite and respectful in court. Depending on the jurisdiction, you might even walk in and see a D.A. first, who might make you an offer to knock the ticket down further, just to clear the case. You never know.

(obviously, I've bee thru some of this before ;))

~HH
 
This is kind of related to earlier in the thread but here it goes. Cops suck, they are just a bunch of SOB's out to get you, 'nuff said
 
About a year ago I got a ticket in NY for 69 in a 55 (it was 80 in a 55 but the cop gave me a break). I plead guilty and received a fine of $100. I sent in a check for $110. They sent back a check for the $10 overpay with a letter stating that I needed to cash the check as soon as possible.

A little known law in NY states they cannot post a motor vehicle conviction until all financial transactions are complete. By not cashing the $10 check, they can never post the conviction on your license. In addition, they can not revoke your license for failure to pay because you did actual pay the ticket.

I've done this 3 times and it has worked all 3.

This does not directly anwser your question, but if one of your concerns is increased insurance rates this will help you out.

Edit: This was in 3 different jurisdicitions, I don't know what will happen if I get another ticket in that jurisdiciton.
 
wow. Thanks a lot guys, being that I'm a NJ resident, points shouldn't be a problem, but those loopholes are good to know. Thanks for helping me out.
 
mp5 said:
About a year ago I got a ticket in NY for 69 in a 55 (it was 80 in a 55 but the cop gave me a break). I plead guilty and received a fine of $100. I sent in a check for $110. They sent back a check for the $10 overpay with a letter stating that I needed to cash the check as soon as possible.

A little known law in NY states they cannot post a motor vehicle conviction until all financial transactions are complete. By not cashing the $10 check, they can never post the conviction on your license. In addition, they can not revoke your license for failure to pay because you did actual pay the ticket.

I've done this 3 times and it has worked all 3.

This does not directly anwser your question, but if one of your concerns is increased insurance rates this will help you out.

Edit: This was in 3 different jurisdicitions, I don't know what will happen if I get another ticket in that jurisdiciton.

This is a GREAT loophole - I love it.

Are you saying that you will hold the $10 check basically forever?

And when was the last time you did this? I ask because I know the NY has tried to close many of these loopholes, like the ones I mentioned in my earlier post. Is this law still in effect?

Also one thing: ANY check, unless otherwise specified, "expires" and cannot be cashed after one year, if I'm not mistaken (someone pleas correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought this was the case with any check). And usually any specification SHORTENS the lenth of time a check is valid. If this is true, won't the state-written checks expire at most one year after they are dated? And will the expiration of the checks constitute a completion of the financial dealings? Just curious - I suppose if any of your convictions were quite a number of years ago and never showed up on your record to this day, we can assume this does NOT mean an expired check is a completed transaction, or that the checks simply never become invalid.

I hope to never have to use it (read: I've been a good boy and haven't had any speeding tickets in several years) - but if it is still on the books, that's a fantastic law to know.

~HH
 
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mp5 said:
About a year ago I got a ticket in NY for 69 in a 55 (it was 80 in a 55 but the cop gave me a break). I plead guilty and received a fine of $100. I sent in a check for $110. They sent back a check for the $10 overpay with a letter stating that I needed to cash the check as soon as possible.

A little known law in NY states they cannot post a motor vehicle conviction until all financial transactions are complete. By not cashing the $10 check, they can never post the conviction on your license. In addition, they can not revoke your license for failure to pay because you did actual pay the ticket.

I've done this 3 times and it has worked all 3.

This does not directly anwser your question, but if one of your concerns is increased insurance rates this will help you out.

Edit: This was in 3 different jurisdicitions, I don't know what will happen if I get another ticket in that jurisdiciton.

I know for a fact that they closed this loophole in Virginia. I got an out of state speeding ticket in VA and sent them a check for like 5 bucks more than the amount required. They returned the check to me with a note that says "please send the exact amount."
 
When I lived in NY just a few months ago someone was telling me that the over pay loop doesnt work anymore and will just return the check.
 
The first two times I did this were sometime before 1995 and they never showed on my driving record. The last time I did this was June 2002. I had no problems. And as of January (I have to get a annual copy of my driving record for my job), it has not showed on my record. If they closed the loop hole, it had to be pretty recent.
 
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