Ticketed For Helping Others Get Away With Speeding? Sue!

[Andara Bledin]

You're not allowed to flash your lights at other drivers. It's in the driving laws of his state. He quite literally did do something wrong and they decided to enforce the law against him.

I have to ask; if someone flashed their lights at you, would you even think that they were trying to warn you about a speed trap up ahead? Or would you, like me, think they were trying to let you know that you didn't have your lights on or some other issue that was about the condition of your car and not the road ahead?

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[Rageaholic]

I never thought of it that way. A speed trap wouldn't be the first thing to come to mind. He may not have handled it the best way, but if he found another way to alert drivers of speed traps, I would have no issue with it.

[DrFaroohk]

I have to ask; if someone flashed their lights at you, would you even think that they were trying to warn you about a speed trap up ahead? Or would you, like me, think they were trying to let you know that you didn't have your lights on or some other issue that was about the condition of your car and not the road ahead?

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Where I come from, you flash your high beams up and down at someone if

A) their high beams are on

or

B) to warn them of something up ahead

I believe it basically serves as a snap back to reality from long driving sessions. So when I see someone flash their beams at me I know SOMETHING is up. Maybe my high beams are on, I check, they're not; so there's a cop ahead, or a dead moose in the road, or an accident, or something.

[Andara Bledin]

So when I see someone flash their beams at me I know SOMETHING is up. Maybe my high beams are on, I check, they're not; so there's a cop ahead, or a dead moose in the road, or an accident, or something.

If you're on a road with someone else driving next to or ahead of you, how do you know who they're flashing? Is the person ahead of you driving with their beams on? Or maybe you, or someone else, has a badly adjusted light and it just looks like your beams are on. Or maybe they're trying to signal the person ahead of them and it has nothing to do with your side of the road.

It's just too ambiguous and distracting to be useful.

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[DrFaroohk]

Well, it works for a lot of people around here! You're complicating it too much.

You see someone's 4-ways flashing. You don't stop and pull over and puzzle over why do you? Same as seeing blue lights, you don't contemplate the reasons, you get out of the way.

All this is is just another signal. You see the lights, somethings up. Maybe it's for you, maybe its for the guy in front of you, but there's a good chance if the guy directly in front of you is on the verge of plowing into a moose, so are you.

[Andara Bledin]

The fact that it's the lawyer trying to start up a class action suit makes me think it's all bullshit. The only people who win class actions are the lawyers. The people get shit, the people sued lose a ton of money (which will be paid by the people, since it's a public service) and the lawyers walk away laughing all the way to the bank.

The only time I've seen this not be the case is when dealing with labor laws that already have set penalties against the guilty party.

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[Evandril]

No, getting caught and being punished for it might actually make people think about not doing it again. I mean, why bother having laws if we won't enforce them?

You mean like the laws against drinking and driving? The responses in this thread and the one about drinking and driving confuse me quite a bit, I'll admit. Most of the speed limits we have currently were reduced to save gas back when we were at war, and only recently have been edging back up to reasonable amounts.

Speeding is not the same as driving recklessly, and it's far safer to match the flow of traffic than to do the speed limit when everyone else is going 5-10 over. Flashing your lights has been a signal for cops/danger ahead for longer than I've been driving, though it's far less known now than it used to be. (I've been driving since 1986, btw)

That being said...He did something against the law, and should have to deal with the consequences of his actions. While I find the law as stupid as the ones saying you can't tape a police officer doing their job, it IS still a law, for now.

[Greenday]

Habitual drunk driving is very different from speeding. People who continually drive drunk have an actual problem. People who speed do not.

I'm not saying to drive slower than the flow of traffic and neither do cops. Cops at speed traps don't pull over people speeding that are going the same speed as everyone else. They pull over people doing 10+ mph faster than everyone else. And those people are a danger to others on the road too. If they never get ticketed for it, be it by cameras or the police, they'll have no reason to ever change their behavior.

[Evandril]

Habitual drunk driving is very different from speeding. People who continually drive drunk have an actual problem. People who speed do not.

I'm not saying to drive slower than the flow of traffic and neither do cops. Cops at speed traps don't pull over people speeding that are going the same speed as everyone else. They pull over people doing 10+ mph faster than everyone else. And those people are a danger to others on the road too. If they never get ticketed for it, be it by cameras or the police, they'll have no reason to ever change their behavior.

Really?? Awesome! Can you please tell NC and Colorado to give me back the few hundreds of dollars they mistakenly collected from me, please? I've gotten tickets for both going the same speed as the rest of traffic, just made the mistake of having out of state plates (more than once), and have gotten tickets for going between 5-7 miles over as well. If the cops played by the rules you stated, I'd have much less problem with speed traps...but they don't, not even close.

[Greenday]

Really?? Awesome! Can you please tell NC and Colorado to give me back the few hundreds of dollars they mistakenly collected from me, please? I've gotten tickets for both going the same speed as the rest of traffic, just made the mistake of having out of state plates (more than once), and have gotten tickets for going between 5-7 miles over as well. If the cops played by the rules you stated, I'd have much less problem with speed traps...but they don't, not even close.

I've heard of people getting pulled over for going faster than traffic and I've heard of people getting pulled over for going slower than traffic. This is the first I've heard of someone getting pulled over for going the same speed as the rest of traffic (I'm going to assume you aren't lying like 99.9% of people who make excuses for why they get tickets since I don't know you).

[Andara Bledin]

This is the first I've heard of someone getting pulled over for going the same speed as the rest of traffic (I'm going to assume you aren't lying like 99.9% of people who make excuses for why they get tickets since I don't know you).

It's being pulled over for "driving while not a local." They'll make a point to tag people who they don't recognize who appear to be just passing through because there's almost no chance that you'll choose to fight it.

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[Evandril]

I've heard of people getting pulled over for going faster than traffic and I've heard of people getting pulled over for going slower than traffic. This is the first I've heard of someone getting pulled over for going the same speed as the rest of traffic (I'm going to assume you aren't lying like 99.9% of people who make excuses for why they get tickets since I don't know you).

It was while driving cross country, and I was in the middle of a bunch of people with 'local' plates...while I was obviously from out of state. Amazingly enough, the ticket came with an envelope to mail the money in with, or I could make the court date if I wanted to contest it...With the date being a few months down the road.

[HYHYBT]

They *can* ticket for going the same speed as everyone else if everyone else is speeding. They just usually don't. Some, though, do indeed preferentially ticket non-locals. You don't even necessarily have to be from out of state; if they see you're from the far end of a large state that works just as well.

Since we've already headed off into different meanings of flashed headlights, there's another signal usage I might as well ask about. My parents insisted, when I was learning to drive, that if you are behind someone who is signaling a turn, then you should signal also, even if you are going straight. I don't do this, because I think it would confuse other drivers; certainly I wasn't expecting it the three or four times I've seen anyone do it in the 21 years since. So: is that legal, and whether it is or not, would it be a good idea?

[Andara Bledin]

I've not heard that you should signal because the person ahead of you is turning. That really sounds confusing to everyone involved, since the idea of the turn signal is to signal that you are intending to turn.

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[Greenday]

My parents insisted, when I was learning to drive, that if you are behind someone who is signaling a turn, then you should signal also, even if you are going straight. I don't do this, because I think it would confuse other drivers

If someone has their turn signal flashing, they better be turning or switching lanes. You signal what you are going to do, not what others are going to do.