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The other day I was driving in Newark NJ back from the ironbound area and was stuck behind some ridiculously slow drivers that were blocking me. After a few miles of following them I had not yet had a chance to pass them. I was on a 2 lane road and another Prius vehicle got was now in front of all of us. It looked like one of those transport vehicles to me and had lights on the top. This Prius was going slower then the speed limit in the left lane on a 2 lane road, so I accelerated in the right lane and passed the from the right. I know it is not the right thing to do but I was frustrated.
This Prius ended up being one of those university transit police for the colleges in newark, I think it was rutgers. This officer then proceeds to pull me over. I have a family member who is a newark police officer and I have a newark police gold card. I have a 100% clean driving record with no tickets or violations with over 10 years of driving.
I'm polite to the officer, explain myself and apologize. Officer takes my info, gives me back the gold card.
Comes back to the car 5mins later with a Improper Passing ticket. Officer says I could have given you careless driving but I gave you a break with improper passing, says she doesn't think it is any points. I tell her it is actually 4 points and more points then the careless driving ticket. She says she doesn't know the points system, not sure how you can be a transit cop and not know the point system but thats beside the point. She says if I don't want to pay it online then I can see her in court.
I know I made a stupid stupid move but I felt like this officer did not take the proper action considering my clean driving history. Obviously I would have never passed like that if I knew it was a cop.
Anyway now I have this Improper Passing ticket and wondering what I can do about it. I believe its around $180 fine and 4 points. I guess if I goto court I can get it reduced to 2/4 points if I plead guilty to a lower offence but probably end up paying around 400-600 in fees. If I plead not guilty and get a trial is there any chance I can get off? How much would I have to pay in court fees? If I just get the 4 points and then take a defensive driving course I'll get 2 points reduced. For 2 points in NJ how much does the insurance really go up? 3 points are removed after 1 year of incident free driving (i believe), so even if my insurance went up like 10% (100$ since my policy is 1000), wouldn't it just be cheaper to just get hit with the ticket?
University rentacops are allowed to ticket people??? Since when?
Anyway, always plead not guilty. AFAIK there are no extra court fees, and if the cop doesn't show up then you can even get away from paying the ticket. Just explain the situation, apologize (sincerely) and say you will never do it again. 9 out of 10 times they will reduce it to a lesser offense (i.e parking ticket) but the fine will still be the original amount (in your case $180)
Also don't fall for the scammers at the front desk that will say they can make your ticket go away if you pay some ridiculous amount of money (usually $400-500) They will use scare tactics like 'you know this is 4pts and your insurance will sky rocket blah blah blah'
Usually nothing happens to your insurance after your first offense. Even if they find you guilty and tack on the points your insurance will most likely not be effected
I know I made a stupid stupid move but I felt like this officer did not take
the proper action considering my clean driving history. Obviously I would have
never passed like that if I knew it was a cop.
You are legally allowed to pass on the right if you are in a continuous line of traffic, etc. I would look up the official details of the law,etc. Im on vacation. And I still would be pissed if some university rentacop was playing traffic cop. I dont think you have to apologize for anything, just stick to the laws as written.
I got the same ticket few years ago, the police told me the same thing, he gave me a break and gave me improper pass instead of careless driving They all use the same excuse to make you feel they work with you, so you won't give them a nasty look.
I plead not guilty and went to the court (took a day off from work), arriving in the court with 50 other people, waited for 3 hours.
Finally, the prosecutor asked for me and I got up in front of the prosecutor, he asked me if I want no points but paid $495. I said no thanks.
Finally it was my term to stand up and go to the front to face the judge.
Judge asked me "Are you pleading Guilty or not Guilty"? I said "Not Guilty".
He said "Come back another date (XX-XX-XXXX). He said he will hear my story then. I knew I was screwed, I took the day off for nothing." BTW, he does that to everyone who pleads not guilty.
I then went back to the prosecutor and took their offer $495 with no points. Because I know I won't win this NJ corrupted state.
If that happened to me I would fight it all the way, considering you are legally allowed to pass in a situation like that. They're probably betting you will give in out of frustration and pay them money.
If that happened to me I would fight it all the way, considering you are legally allowed to pass in a situation like that. They're probably betting you will give in out of frustration and pay them money.
I had to re-read the OP's post; I thought you might have passed in the shoulder. If all you did was pass in the right lane, I would fight it, too. It's not illegal to pass on the right; read up on the laws.
"Most passing should be on the left. Passing on the right is allowed only on roads with more than one lane going in the same direction, if vehicles on the roadway are moving in two or more substantially continuous lines or when the motorist ahead is making a left turn and there is room to pass. Never pass on the right shoulder of the road. This is against the law. (N.J.S.A. 39:4-85)"http://www.state.nj.us/mvc/pdf/Licen.../Chapter_4.pdf
She might mean two lanes in each direction because she specified the Prius was in the left lane, but of course we won't know till she comes back. The way it's described it sounds like entrapment to me - go below the speed limit in the left lane and refuse to move over, then when someone inevitably passes on the right, pull them over and ticket them.
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They all use the same excuse to make you feel they work with you, so you won't give them a nasty look.
