A quick history: about 1 1/2 years ago (late in September 2000) I received two traffic tickets, 5 minutes after a leaving pleasant afternoon drive with about 10 of my Toronto S2K buddies. One of the tickets was for speeding (85 kph in a 65 zone) and the second was for failing to come to a full stop at a stop sign. If you've ever felt the sinking feeling in your stomach when a cop is giving you a ticket, believe me, it's way more than double when he gives you two tickets at the same time!

I brought in my summonses to the court office, pleaded not guilty, and requested evening court. A couple of weeks later, I received my court date... October 2001 (i.e. over a year later).

Time passed. I blissfully ignored my impending doom until a couple of days before the court date. I decided it was time to take positive action, so I called POINTTS, one of a number of organizations in Toronto staffed by ex-police officers. They go to bat for you in court, and the deal is, if they don't get you off, you don't have to pay them. I spent about 15 minutes talking with the chap running the local office (i.e. the ex-cop who would be going to court for me). Lovely man; said his success record was close to 90%. I prayed.

I got the call the morning after my court date: both charges withdrawn! How did he do that??? Just before court, my Hero talked to the cop who had charged me. The guy had forgotten his notes in his car; my Hero convinced him to just let it go, because it had been more than a year since the alleged infraction. It's just amazing how conducive a cop is to the power of suggestion... from another cop!

Anyways, POINTTS gets two big thumbs up from me. I thought the board members would like to hear about a WIN for a change!

 

Cool.

I was involved in a collision with my truck. It's an 86 Nissan hardbody and I was cruising at about 65, just like every one else on their way home. At a light a semi was in the left turn lane so I couldn't see an ambulance waiting to cross the highway. Well a big ol' utility truck in front of me decided to slam on the anti-lock brakes on his dualies. Well I had some distance but my truck just couldn't stop, about 5 feet from the truck my front brakes locked and I slid right into him(if they hadn't locked, it would have stopped) . . . well we pulled over and looked at it all, I didn't care cus its my beater - If I was in the S it would have stopped and I would have been rear-ended . . .

His truck had a HUGE rear bumper so nothing more than a dent and a scratch. He didn't care, so as we were leaving a state trooper shows up. So I get the ticket, I was kinda pissed because neither one of us involved really cared about it. The guy stopped right in the middle of the intersection of a green light, lemme tell you that utility truck stopped FAST. I was shocked at how short a distance it took for it to stop.

Anyhow, I showed up in court and the other guy didn't just because there was no reason to, so nobody could contest my non-guilty plea. The cop was there but couldn't say anything because he didn't see it, and he didn't even look at my truck to asses damage

So I got off, went home and fixed the brakes on my truck Also bought a big ass front bumper for it

 

Cool story, cmnsnse. I hate when cops give tickets for accidents when there wasn't any real negligence. I fell asleep on the highway about 6 years ago driving home from college and rolled my '92 Civic Si (RIP). I had to wait around for an hour after the mess was cleaned up for the highway patrol to show up and give me my ticket for "Driving in a manner not reasonable and proper". As if the fact that my insurance rates would increase and that I had almost died would have no deterrence from my falling asleep again that a $100 ticket couldn't take care of. I realize that I'm very lucky to have come away uninjured and that I didn't hit any other cars. I learned my lesson that day, but that officer's ticket has NOTHING to do with it.

Just last week a guy rear-ended my civic and we called his insurance company right there on the spot. He admitted he was at fault and the insurance people took my information down and I'm getting the estimate done tomorrow morning. I had what I needed, which was getting my car repaired. I seriously considered calling the police knowing that their accident report would make sure that he would be determined to be at fault, but the guy admitted fault and he did rear-end me so I wasn't about to let the city of Round Rock, TX get any money from this guy's accident.

GR8-S2K, I hate speeding tickets as much as anybody else and I think cops could do much better things than set up speedtraps, but if you were speeding and did roll a stop sign, how does that make you the good guy and the cop the bad guy? You broke the law and he caught you. Your story just shows how corrupt and ridiculous the whole traffic court system is when a guy can show up and use his past history as a cop to get this thrown out. I guess this POINTTS thing is just part of the police officer's pension plan for after they retire.