I was thinking about the traffic tickets I’ve been given. I’ve been driving steadily with my own cars since 1997. I used to get pulled over occasionally and if I count a few times in the 80’s, I’ve been caught red handed by cops about 10 or 11 times. Funny enough, I have been guilty of traffic offenses 8 times that the cop just let me off with a warning.
Usually it was speeding. The first couple times it was like 12:00 am and the streets were deserted and I was speeding and got caught. I told the cop I was hurrying home because I had to be to work early the next morning. It was just something I came up with on the spur of the moment but the cop let me go without a ticket.
Exactly two nights later: same time, same street, speeding again. Pulled over and gave same story. Let go again.
All the other tickets, this time I was clean and sober and didn’t lie. I got pulled over, I was polite and calm and admitted my guilt. Apologized without kissing ass. The cops let me go.
My most serious offense was about 5 years ago. I was on the freeway and I needed to take this off ramp. I was going too fast and was going to miss it and I pulled onto it at the last minute. What I didn’t notice was that it was closed off for about 50 feet with cones and a cop was parked there. I took the ramp but realized my mistake at the last minute I had to swerve to try to get back on the freeway.
The cop nabbed me. I just got out of the car and was acting so apologetic and contrite and looking really serious. I wasn’t kissing ass but the cop was taking himself way too seriously and I did play to his ego a little. The unfunny part was that he told me that he could give me a ticket for reckless driving which was a minimum $1000 fine. AND I would lose my license for a year. That scared me and I poured on the apology’s. And he bought it.
I told him I was on the way to a job interview. He lectured me for a minute then just let me go. I couldn’t believe my luck. It was one of those things in life that your life could change in a minute and it was very sobering.
I rarely get pulled over now. Last time was about 4 years ago when I was living in the board & care and didn’t stop completely while making a turn from a freeway to a city street.
You’ve got to consider the danger of getting mangled in an accident. I never thought it would be me, but here I am with a broken neck and a shattered body. I mean, I’ve healed up a lot, but it never goes away
Once I was driving in a 45 mph street and the lady in front of me slammed on her breaks basically going from 45 mph to 0 mph in a few seconds of course I run into the back of her totaling my car and getting a huge ticket
When we were 19 years old, my buddies and I bought a box of beer…went down to the local baseball diamond at midnight…turned the switch on for the lights…and started playing.
A dink of a homeowner close by called the cops on us. So this female cop arrives. My buddy was way out in right field wearing this huge ten gallon cowboy hat he had put on from the party we had just came from.
So the lady police officer gets out of her car and yells at my buddy…
“Hey Tex! Get over here NOW!!”
We couldn’t stop laughing. The lady cop said she could charge us for the open beer case outdoors and noise violations.
We were all cool and friendly with her though, so she basically told all of us to pack up and go home and just gave us all a warning.
That was around 35 years ago…and we still call my buddy ‘Tex’ after all of these years because of that crazy night of baseball!
Yeah, you’re right. Everyone runs that risk every time they drive. I don’t want to make light of the injuries you sustained but an accident could happen to anyone, at any time whether you’re driving carefully or not. Of course if you’re driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol it raises your odds of getting in an accident. I drive a lot more safer and carefully now that I’ve gotten older but I could be doing everything perfectly and someone could run a red light and slam right into me and I could get seriously hurt or killed.
This is what I try to stress to everyone. It’s not the mistake you make, it’s the other guy you have to worry about. You have to always assume the guy in front of you, in the guy turning the corner, and the guy behind you… are capable of bad judgment, just like everyone else
It’s not paranoia, that would be debilitating. It’s more of a profound awareness of what’s around you