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How small of town is it? Is it small town to you because you live in a city of 1mil+ or is it a small town of less than 1000 people?
As some have said, the less than 1000 resident small town will be very hard to fight a ticket on your own.
If it's not, you can easily fight the ticket yourself.
I've fought two tickets, and just plead guilty with reason. Were you speeding? Of course you were. Guilty. But you have a reason. If the truck in front of you is going 68, and you want to pass him to rid yourself of danger, do you need to go 86 to pass him? Of course not, you could do 69 and pass him... eventually. You need to speed up to a higher speed to pass him in a way that you are not in the oncoming traffic lane for too long putting yourself in more danger and also the truck driver if something were to happen during the pass.
Most of the time, due to the city just wanting your money, they don't care if they give you reckless driving, speeding, improper signal use, etc. All they care about is your fine. So instead of giving you the reckless driving charge they'll probably just drop it down to a lesser charge with a high fine. Paying more now is a lot cheaper than paying a lot down the road in increased insurance premiums.
Some pretty good stories & decent legal advice here.
As for the idea that they didn't "have to" accelerate to 86 to pass the freaky truck, no, no they didn't. But what if they accelerated and passed at a rate more in line with YOUR thinking, Comissar, & in the meantime something flies off the truck & the wind carries it into OP's lane & they crash and sustain serious injuries? Bet they wish they had accelerated to 86 mph & quickly but safely passed the incompetent guy, huh?
The fact of the matter is, speeding tickets are not about safety. If they were, situations like this wouldn't happen. Avoiding potential hazards by passing them is a safe course in many situations, but the revenue-generating punks lose out on revenue if they used logic, decency & applied the spirit of the law. (Which is supposed to keep us safe, isn't it? Ha!)
My own personal story was on I-35 in Austin, Texas in September 2009. Some lunatic was tailgating me to an extreme in very heavy traffic in all 3 lanes. How extreme? I could see the whites of his eyes, that's how extreme! Was I scared? You betcha. So I accelerated to get out of this idiot's way and first chance I got transferred 1 lane over. Unfortunately, my fight-or-flight response kicked in & I ignored the undulating elevations of South Austin & got pulled over by Austin P.D. The officer spent literally about 180 seconds with me & when it was over, he pulled out as quickly as possible to another hiding spot. Now, if it was anything at all about safety, wouldn't he have pulled over the tailgater? Of course not. That would minimize the possible revenue from an easy speeding ticket. Did I put anyone in as much danger as the punk behind me? Considering the fact that I've driven that particular car at 110 mph & keep it very well-maintained....I doubt that driving 81 mph for a few seconds severely endangered anyone enough to legally steal $193 from me. Alas, that's just the way the system works & until us citizens change it (via elections or the market: just take public transport) it's going to self-sustain in the sad, pathetic present form.
The "But officer, I had to speed to get of a dangerous situation" excuse rarely works. Given how scared you were, it was worth $193 to get you out of what you perceived as life threatening danger.
I choose not to let tailgaiters bother me. In fact, I like to let them build up their speed behind me, then I pull over to let them accelerate even more and finally blast by me. Knowing the roads as I do, this occasionally happens right near one of those hilly speed traps and DPS is just waiting in the wings. Bingo.
my advice in this situation is first determine if you can work off the ticket in traffic school. most jurisdictions allow you to do this. the nice thing is that when you complete the course, the ticket is essentially suspended and no longer a part of your record, and is erased after 18 months depending on jurisdiction. if you cant go to traffic school, then talk to the prosecutor, and see if a deal can be worked out given the mitigating circumstances. reckless driving can be pleaded down to simple speeding, for instance, or even lower depending on your driving record. as an example of the second choice, i once was involved in a traffic accident, i was not at fault in case anyone is wonrdering, but i got two tickets, one for no registration, and one for no proof of insurance. the only reason iw as driving that car was because my primary driver was down while i replaced the cylinder heads(they were cracked rather badly). when i explained this to the city prosecutor, she went to the judge and had both tickets dismissed, as i did have the registration for the car, just not with me at the time of the accident, and i did have insurance, just not on that car at that time. remember to be very polite with them and you too may get real lucky, or you may be able to plead down to a lesser offense.
PAY. I never had an issue after paid ticket and my insurances never found. Until we landed back to WA state. Here - oh yeah, they report you no matter what.
Disagree. Always go to court. I've never hired an attorney, so I can't speak to the merits of that, but I've always been successful in getting tickets reduced just by showing up. The last two times I received one, I was able to get them reduced to non-moving violations that stayed off my record. You probably won't be able to do that with a reckless driving, but they may knock it down to a 16 over speeding ticket or something like that. That counts as intermediate speeding on your record and is much better than reckless driving. Your insurance company WILL find out about it. I got a ticket in Georgia 12 years ago with a Wisconsin license and, even at that time, my insurance company found out about it. If you just pay the fine you are pleading guilty to what they wrote the ticket for. Don't do that! At least give yourself a chance to get it knocked down.
You can, of course, always show up in court. Many places have special traffic courts and they will routinely drop certain things down. Often, you can talk to the ADA ahead of time and they will tell you what they are willing to do. Sometimes, even the cop will not show up and you can get off in some jurisdictions. Others they will continue the cases.
This works best if you live near where the ticket was given of course, because having to drive a few hours somewhere you are not familiar to sit in court a half day or all day even is not so fun.
The advantage of getting a lawyer is they know the ADAs and the judges and they know what type of deals they are willing to sign off on. In my area, two counties will allow you to plead down to improper equipment, a non-moving violation, (say if your speedometer was not accurate) on minor speeding tickets, but at least one county will not anymore. Some areas have a prayer for judgement to be continued, where if you don't get another ticket in a a period of time, it will essentially go away. some places have traffic school (my state does not). Especially if you are not familiar with the area, the lawyer can get you a deal that you probably will not be able to because you just don't know.
Also, around here, for most cases, the attorneys will take the case for only about $100 more than the ticket cost is. Sometimes less. They do a few cases on the same day, so they can make money anyway. If I have to potentially take a half day off, $100 is worth it to me fore sure.
So, if it is a minor offence, you can definitely do it yourself, but for something like the OP is talking, I wouldn't do it unless I really knew the deal in that local area.
Just don't go and pay the ticket and plead guilty without going to court. That is the absolute worst thing to do.
The "But officer, I had to speed to get of a dangerous situation" excuse rarely works. Given how scared you were, it was worth $193 to get you out of what you perceived as life threatening danger.
I choose not to let tailgaiters bother me. In fact, I like to let them build up their speed behind me, then I pull over to let them accelerate even more and finally blast by me. Knowing the roads as I do, this occasionally happens right near one of those hilly speed traps and DPS is just waiting in the wings. Bingo.
Adjusting your driving for the sole purpose of antagonizing other drivers makes you one thing. An eFFin kunt.
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