5 traffic violations! (Phoenix, Tucson: fit in, transplants, buying)

[lsatfeb]

Just go to the Justice Court and bring your proof of insurance, and Arizona vehicle registration and AZ driver license. Explain your situation about the expired registration (and why you crossed the painted line) to the Judge.

Arizona has a similar law about cancelling registration if you don't have IN-STATE insurance on file, so the judge might be understanding of that one. It also may help if you got AZ plates for your truck very soon after getting pulled over.

Be polite, honest, and reasonable, and the outcome may be good. Hiring a traffic lawyer or seeking free legal reprsentation (if you have really low income) is a good idea as well.

Sorry to hear about your experience, but imagine if you were a police officer and pulled over a vehicle and the computer came back showing expired plates, plus the driver couldn't produce proof of insurance. They hear stories all day long, without any way of knowing which ones are true.

Anyway, good luck to you and ignore the vindictive folks on here who lack sympathy and want to throw the book at you. Throwing things is for kids and athletes, and "sticking it to em hard" should be reserved for serious criminals imho. Keep it in perspective - these are just traffic citations, not felonies or aggravated misdemeanors. You'll get through it!

[Kimballette]

Originally Posted by lsatfeb

Anyway, good luck to you and ignore the vindictive folks on here who lack sympathy and want to throw the book at you. Throwing things is for kids and athletes, and "sticking it to em hard" should be reserved for serious criminals imho. Keep it in perspective - these are just traffic citations, not felonies or aggravated misdemeanors. You'll get through it!

I haven't seen any "vindictive folks" on here. Just people who don't believe a person who moves from out of state months ago and fails to get a new license and registration in their new home state deserves much sympathy. Sometimes, people get caught cutting corners and sometimes those actions have consequences. Blaming the situation on being "at the mercy" of DPS is disingenuous. This is a problem entirely of the O/P's making.

[westcoastforme]

What the heck is the gore?!? Lol

[locolobo13]

Originally Posted by westcoastforme

What the heck is the gore?!? Lol

This should explain.

Marking

[observer53]

Originally Posted by westcoastforme

What the heck is the gore?!? Lol

In simpler terms, it's that long triangle shape, bounded by solid white lines, between freeway ramps and the freeway itself. People do cut across them when both entering and exiting freeways, and that's the violation.

[CheyDee]

Originally Posted by Reedus

Maybe we agree to disagree, but I would venture that most people moving to AZ have no idea that you have 10 days to get a new license and registration, otherwise you're at the mercy of DPS.

If I were to simply guess, without researching and without knowing, I would have suspected it was within 30 days. Still, you're here months longer than that.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by observer53

In simpler terms, it's that long triangle shape, bounded by solid white lines, between freeway ramps and the freeway itself. People do cut across them when both entering and exiting freeways, and that's the violation.

After the law changed, they painted diagonal stripes through many of them. I remember the days when getting on the freeway the a-holes behind would pass and cut through the gore to to beat the others. You don't see that much anymore. Still see a lot of cell phone users and day dreamers who (almost) miss their exits and drive through the gore though.

[nidex]

Originally Posted by lsatfeb

and ignore the vindictive folks on here who lack sympathy and want to throw the book at you.

Happens on this forum all the time. I'm sure everyone who bashes the OP (and others in similar threads) have never broken a single law in their life. They're freaking traffic violations, we aren't talking about criminal cases here.

To the OP, I've never been to a court in AZ, but I will say that usually if you show that you have resolved the problems, and bring the proof to court, many will get dropped and you will end up paying just a small fine.

[Reedus]

After simmering down and sleeping over it, I can see where the dps officer declined to cut me any slack. The fact that I had no proof of insurance and my Utah plates were revoked as a result of no insurance, was a no brainer for him. I would venture to guess that if the plates were current even despite being Utah plates and I had poi, he would have warned me on all the offenses and ticketed me on the gore. To him I was just another uninsured liar trying to get out of a ticket.

Got plates yesterday and am currently in line for the dl. Keep ya posted on how it goes down April 3

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by Reedus

202 North bound. Needed to get off to 60 east bound. The lane for east bound 60 does not open up until after the west bound 60 two lanes split from the 202. I barely crossed into the solid line to get out of west bound exit into the exit lane for the 60 east bound.

You should probably learn to read those green signs above the freeway, that tell you well in advance which lane you should be in. It might save your life. Do you have any idea how many accidents are caused by drivers not paying attention to the signs, and then make sudden unpredictable lane changes in front of other traffic?

As for the other charges, the AZ laws seem to be pretty much in line with most states. It's your responsibility to know the laws.