Got Ticket - pls help

T

tagoregc

Registered Users (C)
Hi,
I have got a traffic signal violation ticket in PA. Its a jughandle and ended up
3/4 into the intersection when it turned red. cop gave me a citation with $105. Cop added costs of ems, cat, costs etc other than $25 fine.

Has anybody got ticket like this? I am wondering why all the additional costs added on top of fine.

I wanted to contest pleading not guilty.. Plz post your experiences.
Is it ok to contest.. Should I go to court and explain my case and plead guilty? Not sure how many points for this?

Will there be a chance to ask for fee reduction/point reduction if found guilty?

Thanks in advance
 
it is very different from state to state and county to county. I don't leave in PA so I don't know what goes on there.
In North Carolina for example in some counties they make you go through a driving class (1 day) to reduce your first ticket.
In California your first ticket won't go on your record again if you go to class.
In some other counties in NC the DA proproses to reduce your speeding ticket to 9 over (automatically if you show up on your court date) and this way you insurance doesn't go up.

Contensting the ticket is very hard. You have to come with some very good strategy. Just showing up and telling a story to the judge will not help. It will be your word agains the cop's word and they always win. Cops bring tickets which include court fees and judges get paid from that so why would they ever go against the cop unless there is a very good reason to do it.

I suggest you call the court and check what options they offer you.
 
Also it's very usual for them to add all this stuff to the ticket.

The ticket I got in NC was a $10 fine and $100 court costs.
 
tagoregc said:
Hi,
I have got a traffic signal violation ticket in PA. Its a jughandle and ended up
3/4 into the intersection when it turned red. cop gave me a citation with $105. Cop added costs of ems, cat, costs etc other than $25 fine.

Has anybody got ticket like this? I am wondering why all the additional costs added on top of fine.

I wanted to contest pleading not guilty.. Plz post your experiences.
Is it ok to contest.. Should I go to court and explain my case and plead guilty? Not sure how many points for this?

Will there be a chance to ask for fee reduction/point reduction if found guilty?

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

you want to plead not guilty because you are not happy with all addition fees? or you think you really are not guild?

from what you described, you did voilate the traffic laws.
 
Thanks for the responses. I started when it just turned yellow. That intersection is very tricky. There is another signal light just after around 6 car length distance and already that turned to red when I started crossing the previous signal light. So the cars ahead of me slowed down thus forcing me to slow down while in the intersection. By the time I reached 3/4 into intersection cars ahead of me came to stop and then slowly adjusted.. So I believe cop saw my car moving when it was red.. and then might have assumed that I may have started crossing when it was red.. Thatswhy he put the reason as" defendant did fail to stop when there is a steady red light" - which is not true as I did start crossing when it turned yellow.

As per the books I think I violated traffic rules by ending up in intersection.. but practically this is a typical scenario one can possibly end up.

Will the above details help me in defending my case or I better call court and know the options and chose best?
 
I think it may help you. If you explain how you started crossing the intersection in green and in the middle it got red an you had no choice you may be fine.
 
gcardo said:
I think it may help you. If you explain how you started crossing the intersection in green and in the middle it got red an you had no choice you may be fine.
Click to expand...

he started crossing the intersection in YELLOW, and not in green. i do not know traffic laws much. however, if a driver knows once he starts crossing the intersection, and his car would not go thru the intersection and be stucked in the middle of it, should he take a chance?

not sure if the judge would buy it at all.
 
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