Lately it seems that everyone I talk to has a story about being pulled over or getting a ticket or some driving incident. It's not like I've been soliciting the stories and it's not like it's coming from people who all know each other. These topics are all coming up independent of each other - which is interesting to me.
Anyway, one such story was told to me on Friday, when I had lunch with a friend. She was telling me that Tuesday evening when she was driving home after classes she was working her way onto the freeway. It was dark and there were several cars behind her "pushing" her on the freeway. The traffic on the freeway was moving at a fast pace so she considered her options.
She could:
a. stop on the feeder street and be rear-ended or cause others further back to be in an accident;
b. try to inch her way on to the freeway and risk being in or causing an accident that way; or
c. punch it and work her way into the traffic.
She chose option c. and punched it.
Well, turns out, a nice policeman was waiting for someone to do that and promptly pulled her over for speeding.
She pulled over and he asked to see her driver's license. Since she works with the kids at the local elementary school in Junior Achievement, she keeps her license in that bag. But being under pressure, she didn't immediately remember that so she first pulled out her wallet, and her purse before she remembered where her license was. But when she did remember, she made a point of displaying the JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT on the bag where the officer could see it.
Then, when she reached in the bag, instead of pulling out the license directly (she saw it immediately), she pulled out all the books and pictures she used for the kids...to be sure he knew she was a good person - what working with kids and all. Also in the bag (the kids had asked to see pictures) were framed pictures of her two dogs, George and Nitro. She pulled those out for the officer to see too, since someone who cared about their dogs enough to have framed pictures of them had to be a good person, right?
It wasn't until after she did all that that she "found" her license.
She didn't get a ticket.
As for me, when I was about sixteen, I was driving down a busy street with my bright lights blaring (I didn't know) when a car flashed their lights at me. I figured they would be passing soon anyway so I didn't see the point in turning mine off.
When the person passed me, I saw it was a police officer. (Oops!) He did a U-turn and got behind me, pulling me over. I was young and stupid so I didn't really know why he was pulling me over but when I pulled over I also turned off my brights - you know, just in case.
He came up to the driver's window and said "Did you know you're brights are on?"
Well, no they weren't...not then anyway, so I said - innocently, "I don't think so."
He told me they were and so I flashed them - from dim to bright to dim again.
"Oh," he said. "Well, just try to be sure you don't drive with your brights on and if someone flashes theirs at you, flash yours back so they know you don't have yours on."
"I will. Thanks."
I didn't get a ticket either. :o)
So, do you have any stories about traffic "incidents" or tips on how to get out of tickets? Please share! :o)
3 comments:
Too funny! I would never think that far ahead. I'll have to remember both of those.
Hi Kim! Thanks for stopping by!
I don't really think ahead myself...my situation was more of a result of me being quite literal at times. His comment was that my lights were on THEN, not that they were on when he flashed his at me. I'm not a good liar but then, at the time, I didn't have to lie. :o)
LOL, L. I avoided tickets when I was younger -- didn't try to, though. I think the cops could sense I was too poor to handle the ticket and higher insurance.
Then, I got pulled over with Roxie as a baby in the car seat, sobbed my eyes out (not on purpose -- it was a bad day) and he still gave me the ticket. Recently, I got pulled over because I didn't realize the speed limit had changed from 50 to 35 on a road I'd driven for years. He said, "There's a new sign saying 35" and I said, "I don't look at those tons of signs all up and down the road after all these years" and I was 1/2 hysterical, telling him I would fight it in court (the other side of the road had a big yellow blinking light for the speed change going into town, but it didn't occur to me it would be the same on the other side since it was leaving town, so it's okay to go faster). Anyway, his eyes got larger and larger as I went on a tirade and he finally said, "Fine. I won't ticket you" and walked away, probably Thanking God he'd escaped the nut. LOL.
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