Try this...

Some threads ago I remember someone posting about the use of cell phones and I remember lambasting their frequency of use commenting that my only reason for having a cell phone is so that my ailing, aging mother can contact me in case of an emergency and to be used in the prospect of vehicular trouble on the road. Well, you can imagine my chagrin when today, while driving home from work, I was pulled over and issued a traffic ticket for talking on the cell phone while driving! What really gets my goat is that I wasn’t!

 

The scenario:

 

I’m driving home from work and it’s about 3:00 PM.

I stop for a light and when it changes I move on.

Suddenly behind me I see a patrol squad car with flashing lights.

Thinking they need to pass me on the left, I pull over to the curve.

I then realized they where pulling over behind me and I could not understand what the reason for that was.

Two police officers approach my car as I rolled down my windows. The officer on the passenger side who gets there first signals me to talk to the officer on my side. He says, I pulled you over for talking on your cell phone. I said: “Cell phone?” then realizing the situation I said: I wasn’t” he then abruptly asked for my license, registration and insurance card.

They both go back to the patrol car and immerge moments later handing me back my documents and a traffic summons. When I tried to tell him I wasn’t speaking on my cell phone he simply said: “Just follow the directions on the back of the summons” and walked away.

 

I’m now wondering what to do about this miscarriage of justice and further wondered that this being a moving traffic violation, how would that affect my insurance premiums? Upon getting home I realized that the ticket incurred a $40 fine plus a $50 surcharge, $90 in all! I called my insurance lizard (Geico) in trying to determine what effect this summons would have on my driving record. She tells me that I’m a “preferred, safe” policy holder and that at present it would have no affect on my premiums but that there is no telling how future policy guidelines will change saying that since it is a hand handed summons it will go directly onto my driving record and suggested I call the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) and see that if I decided to fight the violation and win, would it come off my driving record. Further, the insurance company reviews all driver’s records going back 5 years to make their determinations.

 

Calling DMV tells me that it will definitely go on my driving record but if I should win (plea not guilty and win), it would indicate not guilty. This is all fine and dandy but in order to plea not guilty requires that I be present in court and therefore loss a full day’s wages which are considerably more than the fine! And assuming I can’t win my case since there where two police officers in the car, I will then be fined for the amount of the summons and loss a days wages on top of it…big loss for me.

 

I then called my cell phone provider and asked if I can get a record of the day’s incoming and outgoing calls on my cell phone and he proceeded to say that for a $20 charge I can have a detailed printout of the last 45 days of service both incoming and outgoing…what a racket! While talking with him he said that there is no way I can prove that I don’t have more than one cell phone service provider. It then ocurred to me that I can wait and mail my not guilty plea and wait until they send me a hearing date and time and hope that by then I would have received my regular detailed cell phone bill.

 

This is what I think happened from the police officer’s perspective: I often place the elbow of my left arm to rest on the window panel (in the U.S.A. we drive on the left side of the vehicle as seen from within the car) and rest my head on my hand while waiting for a light…an action I do all the time. I think that they, viewing my silhouette from the rear, thought I was putting a cell phone to my ear. 

I have 15 days in which to submit my plea, how would you plea, guilty or not guilty, would you fight it and loss a day’s wages or possibly have your insurance premiums raised

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All the Woes of a World by Jonathan Icknield aka The Bryster

And in my final hours - I would cling rather to the tattooed hand of kindness - than the unblemished hand of hate...