speeding in florida.

[Stingray01]

My son got pulled in our hire car for doing 89mph. in a 70mph motorway. The copper obviously did'nt go to charm school, took him and his buddy about 20minutes plus to give the citation out, folded with sons documents and sealed in an envelope.When we opened the letter he had put on the ticket doing 99mph, my sons date of birth 10 years out making him 16, spelt his name wrong, date was wrong, car colour was wrong. What a muppet! This was just over a week ago and we have another 3 weeks to send the fine off, $220. have we any comeback on all the mistakes the muppet made. What would you guys do? One good thing came out of it, we bought the Nissan Titon LE.

[steve.c]

Depends how you look at things, some will say ignore it as your back home and others will say pay it! the reasons given for paying up are..you might just want to go back to Florida and getting hauled out by police at immigration might just spoil your holiday!

[Matt Harper]

Stingray01 said:

My son got pulled in our hire car for doing 89mph. in a 70mph motorway. The copper obviously did'nt go to charm school, took him and his buddy about 20minutes plus to give the citation out, folded with sons documents and sealed in an envelope.When we opened the letter he had put on the ticket doing 99mph, my sons date of birth 10 years out making him 16, spelt his name wrong, date was wrong, car colour was wrong. What a muppet! This was just over a week ago and we have another 3 weeks to send the fine off, $220. have we any comeback on all the mistakes the muppet made. What would you guys do? One good thing came out of it, we bought the Nissan Titon LE.

Sounds like you got off pretty lightly, to me. State Troopers usually escort tourists to the nearest ATM. If he's cited you at 99mph that's a done deal - unless you choose to contest it in court. Where did he get the DOB from? Verbal or from his UK license? Spelling? Irrelevant. Date of the offence being wrong - now you have something. But in order to exploit it, you will have to appear, which I'm guessing you've declined to do. $220 is cheap. My daughter was fined over $300 for 25mph in a 20mph (school) zone. Suck it up and pay it - your boy was doing around 20mph over the limit on a highway - and didn't even see plod? He deserves it.
Chances of you getting busted at immigration on a return visit, for a traffic offence is possible, but minimal. However, if you ignore it and get pulled again in the future, you're going to spend a little time in the slammer, no error

[Stingray01]

See you're from florida Matt Harper, then your sure to know that to pay $300 for 5mph over the limit is just not true. the fine is about half of that as stated on the back of the citation. The fine goes up in increments (that means stages) to a maximum of what my son will be paying. Mind you the yanks are known worldwide for doubling everything up are'nt they. Yes the lawman who pulled him over told us that he had the speed at 89mph which would have been less of a fine, then he put 99 on the ticket, taking the pi..s or what? Obviously he took my sons D.O.B from his licence but had it wrong by 10 years. As you will know if you drive there in Florida, the lawmen hide in ditches and whatever camouflage they can find, a bit like in England, but our bobbies soon catch up with you if you are excessive speeding, whereas your lawmen take 10 minutes to catch up. I say give them a car like mine... a C6 corvette. I will be going back again to Daytona as we have a villa there so we'll pay up and look cheerful, would hate to be arrested by your dumb bobbies.

have a nice day.....

[Matt Harper]

Stingray01 said:

See you're from florida Matt Harper, then your sure to know that to pay $300 for 5mph over the limit is just not true. the fine is about half of that as stated on the back of the citation. The fine goes up in increments (that means stages) to a maximum of what my son will be paying. Mind you the yanks are known worldwide for doubling everything up are'nt they. Yes the lawman who pulled him over told us that he had the speed at 89mph which would have been less of a fine, then he put 99 on the ticket, taking the pi..s or what? Obviously he took my sons D.O.B from his licence but had it wrong by 10 years. As you will know if you drive there in Florida, the lawmen hide in ditches and whatever camouflage they can find, a bit like in England, but our bobbies soon catch up with you if you are excessive speeding, whereas your lawmen take 10 minutes to catch up. I say give them a car like mine... a C6 corvette. I will be going back again to Daytona as we have a villa there so we'll pay up and look cheerful, would hate to be arrested by your dumb bobbies.

have a nice day.....

Hi Stingray
Yes, I live here (though I'm English). My daughter was busted in an Orange County school zone, hence the hefty fine. Whatever the LEO told you is kind of irrelevant, it's what is on the citation that is what you are judged/penalized on. When it's a case of 'your word against his' you are kind of screwed. Where did this all take place? If on I4, which county was he in? Was it an FL State Trooper, or local plod?
If he gunned your son, he has to have been 'line of sight' (i.e. to have been visible) - I'm yanking your chain a little, I suppose, but the reality is this: If you speed here, you have to remain aware of the clues regarding lurking cops - and there are plenty. You also need to think like a cop - "Where would I position myself on this highway, so that I can rack-up my ticket quota double-time and go back to scoffing donuts?" - and if you are a regular visitor and it sounds like you are, get a radar detector - but don't get busted for speeding with it in the car.
This has been covered in another thread, but if possible, it's always best to contest and elect to appear, because there's a good chance that the officer won't/can't, which earns you a free ride.
If you spend a lot of time here, I'd go ahead and pay it, like you've said.
Another consideration, while my mind's on this - you stated that it took plod a long time to catch up - he could have been traveling in the opposite direction, of course. I know of a lot of tourist friends who didn't realize that an on-coming cop can clock you u-turn over the median and chase you down.
Finally why is it that the folks who think cops are 'dumb' are usually the ones who've just been pinched? He busted you, remember.....
P.S. Thanks for letting me know what 'increments' means, I'd have never figured that one out.

[adu]

i would pay just for peace of mind stingray, we have a villa too, and have just come back, must have been there when you were, save those sphincta twitches at immigration lol, it takes long enough to get through as it is, did'nt see any cops with speed traps when we were there, really well hid probably, there were some nights when there were cops parked in the central reservation on the 192, did'nt see any on i4, best of luck, >>andy

[granada28]

If you are planning on going back to florida soon request a court date and speak to the prosecuter before court starts. If the cops have your sons details wrong the prosecuter will drop the ticket down to a lesser offense. If you are not going back just pay it as you may have problems with the rental car company in the future. Hope this helps and good luck

[Afroman]

Typical Florida cops. They always do that BS to everyone. It would be so easy to fight it.

[wdnheed]

Think yourself lucky as usually 100mph or over and its automatic jail.Was it state or a highway trooper?, as the county your in is where the fine will have to be paid.The chance of being arrested at a florida airport is not very likely as various beaurocratic institutions do not share info!.If you dont pay and get pulled again committing any offence when next in florida you will be arrested and have to see the county judge where they issued the arrest warrant for non payment of the original fine.Just pay up and forget about it or do like i did,take the piss(they have know idea of irony)and go to the county court and treat it like a another day in disneyland and appear to pay the fine.Hey i met Boss Hogg,Cleetus and Rosco p Coltrane...in DICKSON county court in Tennessse.

[johnzy]

Hi i've been done for similar offence couple of years ago had a bigger fine was supposed to attend a driving course(while i was on holiday) just forgot about it ,sent a letter to the house couple of months later threatning bailiffs still ignored it nothing more ever happened, went back to florida a year later was a bit apprehensive at visa desk but no problems,dont know if i was just lucky?