To make up for huge budget shortfalls, police will shortly start ticketing people for not committing murder, for buying things in stores instead of stealing them, for not taking pictures of cops doing illegal things, …
A Valencia County woman who was pulled over for driving too slow said state police went too far.
Jeanette Sedillo said was driving on Reinken Road in Belen, N.M., after 10 p.m. Wednesday when a state police officer pulled beside her and told her to get off the road. Sedillo pulled into a parking lot, questioning what she did wrong. Apparently, going too fast was not the problem: the officer wrote her a ticket for driving 6 mph under the speed limit.
“He said, ‘You were going 34 in a 40,'” said Sedillo.
The citation said she violated the statute for minimum speed. Now, she has to pay a $70 fine for what she thought was careful driving.
Sedillo said there was little traffic in the area at the time and that she wasn’t putting drivers in danger. She said state police went too far with the citation and that officers should be going after more serious offenders.
6 under 40 mph isn’t bad 10 at night on a 4 lane road with light traffic. Some of you have some serious road rage.
re: #22, will said, “The minimum speed limit does not need to be posted. Ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it.”
Okay, what is the law for minimum speed where it’s not posted?
re: #22 Will — So then using your logic if she needed to make a right hand turn into a place of business or turn at an intersection she better be ready to take that turn at exactly 40 mph?
Anything less than that — give her a ticket!
Well I can see the point of this. I certainly have come up on some drivers just going too slow and forcing everyone to pass them and sometimes that can be a hazard in itself. But if your not impeding traffic I really do not see being ticketed. This does scream revenue quota.
#23 I’m afraid I must agree with Uncle Dave.
This is what we have on the books in New Brunswick. Given the time of night and if there was no one else around, if the NM laws are the same, she will get off easy.
http://gnb.ca/0276/vehicle/english/part4_e.pdf
Scroll to pg 42 for the wording.
Ma’am do you know why I pulled you over?
Highway Mopery Ma’am.
# 23 Uncle Dave “You’re all missing the point. This is about finding ways to make money via fines.”
I don’t agree. That is your interpretation of the incident. There is nothing in the article to suggest a financial causation. Besides, there’s more to this story. The unusual method of making a traffic stop piques my curiosity. He rolled up next to her and told her to pull over? Come on. That only happens in the movies and on TV.
The problem doesn’t stem from the speed limit or traffic laws. The problem is that the people who enforce the traffic laws benefit directly. That is a conflict of interest. Put all traffic citations collected into a statewide road safety fund and this garbage would disappear overnight. No money to the state or local governments budgets. Fines are not revenue.
I live in the snowy Midwest. Our Interstates have a minimum speed of 40 too. However, after a snow storm or during a heavy rain, people will slow way down. Everyone driving 40 will end up in the ditch. It is also the law that you don’t drive faster than conditions allow. I suppose they could give you a ticket either way.
Drive or get the f**k off the road.
#38: You’re right. There’s nothing in the article stating that. However we’ve posted a number of articles and there are a lot more about how police depts around the country are doing their bit to raise money for their cash-strapped cities and counties by any means. 6 MPH is such a small amount under the limit on a multi-lane road at night with little traffic that I can’t see this as being anything else.
#10
My thoughts echoed, thanks.
An easy Google search
So given that there was little to no traffic, and no posted minimum, it seems the cop is just pulling this ticket out of his ass.
#42, Uncle Dave,
Sorry, but the evidence disagrees with you. We consistently see police abusing their authority. DU is no stranger to posts on this. Judging from so many of the posts, that is easy to see.
Those that think they own the road, well, … fine the hell out of them. Maybe hitting their pocket book might make them think twice about their dangerous driving.
#44 – where does it say that “minimum speed 40” wasn’t posted?
As an aside, the average DU reader should ask their parents to drive them at 34mph in a 50mph zone. Late at night in low traffic it may very well be even more dangerous since traffic behind could be inclined to go faster in open roads.
I think the officer was ticketing the driver for reckless obliviousness, and I for one compliment the effort.
I once got a warning for passing a very slow moving earth mover, on a two lane county road. The police was trailing behind me, in an unmarked car, apparently waiting for me to loose my patience. I had no idea how far this behemoth was going to go, a good 10MPH helow the posted speed. So when a wide enough shoulder came in sight, I took off around him. I thought it was much safer than going around the other way, head on into oncoming traffic. As it was one of those lengthy machines, you couldn’t pass quickly. Anyway, the cop probably realized it would be a nuisance citation, in court. And made it a warning. Or maybe he already had trapped too many others that day. Doing the same thing. And it might look bad for him, if the court got too many of us. Though they probably spread out the hearing dates, to cover that up.
Until the same county road got widened, it was a favorite speed trap for the cops. It’s easy revenue, because most people will just pay the fine by mail, rather than lost a day’s wages, and still get fined, plus pay Court costs. If they didn’t charge for the Court time, more people would probably protest their fines. But the triple whammy of wage loss, fine and fee, is usual the back-breaker. So it’s basically exploitation of the working class. Who can’t afford to tangle with the court system. Who rarely cares if you’re innocent. Just pay up.
#47 Glenn – Where I come from the cost of paying for a ticket includes the court cost no matter if you contest it or not. The ticket is usually the lowest amount of money on the ticket with court costs being the most. So a $10.00 seat-belt ticket would cost you $135.00. $125 for court and $10.00 for the fine.