Baby's First Speeding Ticket

The ride to and from Penn State usually takes me about two hours and forty five minutes. To be honest, I usually don't speed that much - generally not more than like 15mph over the speed limit. Mom and Dad are always really surprised at how fast I get there, but that's just because I don't have to stop for food and/or to pee every twenty minutes, so if you think about it, a 180 mile trip should take a little less than three hours if you're average speed limit is 65 and you're going maybe 10-15mph over that.

I see a lot of people going really, really fast, though. I've seen people going 90, 95, 100, 105 miles per hour as they pass me. There was a little black car on my way home once that stayed at 95mph for as long as I could see it. There was a red Lancer on my way back up this weekend that was going somewhere between 95 and 105 for as long as I could see it [until it got backed up by traffic and I felt vindicated going slower than it].

So anyway. I left at about 3:24 and I looked at my clock at about 5:24 and though, okay, it's been two hours and I am probably a half an hour or so away, I guess this was a pretty good trip. So I kept driving - I was on the two lane section of 322 West just before you get to the part where the trucks have to put on their lights, stay in the right lane, and only go 20mph for 3 miles. I was singing, I think, and I came down a hill. There was a car in front of me going exactly as fast as I was, and I believe a car behind me, too. Then I saw a cop car on the right side of the road put on his lights and pull out. I was pretty sure it wasn't me - I wasn't watching my speed, but I wasn't going any ridiculous speed, not any faster than anyone around me, so I figured there must be some crazy going 95 about to whiz by and he was going after him. Instead, he pulled out and pulled up behind me. I couldn't believe it. Really? Okay.

I'm afraid of pulling over on highways - probably more afraid of that than getting a speeding ticket - because I'm afraid someone will hit me and kill me, especially if it's on the downslope of a hill. I didn't know whether to pull to the left or right, so I signaled with my hand and he pointed to his passenger side so I pulled over and stopped. I don't remember if I put my emergency lights on or not - probably not, I like never do.

I was sort of afraid of the cop. From all those ACLU videos I thought he was going to accuse me of smoking pot or selling meth or ask to search the car or ask me to get out or pat me down or something like that and then arrest for me having an ice scraper in the back seat or something. Instead he just came up and said that he got me with radar going 76 in a 55 zone, so I would be getting a traffic citation and then I was free to go. He went back to his car after I gave him my license, insurance, and registration.

I'm pretty sure at that point I texted Gina that I was getting a speeding ticket. She got back to me really really quickly and asked how bad it was, but I just said I didn't know yet. I didn't think 21mph over in a 55mph zone would be that bad. My camera is always in my car's console when I make that drive, and I realized that the sunset was really pretty. I put it on color accent and picked the orange near the top of the mountains and took a couple pictures. Looking back I should have taken them as panoramic shots, but I was a little nervous.

Shortly after that he came back - my window was all the way down the whole time, and I can't remember if my doors were locked or not. He gave me the ticket and all my papers back and said I could go. I looked at the ticket - $160 !!!

I'd like to take a minute to reflect on how ridiculous this whole thing is. First of all, PA doesn't even have a penalty for going 1-5mph over the speed limit, so they already admit it's really not even a speed limit. Furthemore, when's the last time anyone went down that highway with a speed limit 55mph going less than 65mph? What if someone was going 68mph? would they be arrested? So let's assume the realistic speed limit is 65mph. So I was going 11mph over the limit. Okay. Whatever. I'll take that. But $160? That's ridiculous. I could understand if I was driving wrecklessly, or on my cell phone, or drunk, or something like that, but I wasn't. I just don't really see the crime part of speeding. Oh well.

When I pulled back onto the highway, I think I forgot to use my blinker and I was afraid he would pull me over again. I went to get gas because I was pretty low - it was a really sketchy gas place where you had to go inside, give them your credit card, fill up, and then go back in later, and it didn't feel very secure at all. I took some pictures with my ticket while I was there to celebrate my very first time screwing up my life (!).

I looked my ticket over a little bit later, after talking to my dad about it. (He said it wasn't a big deal, the money's not an issue even though I offered to pay, we just have to make sure I don't get too many points on my license or anything.) I thought it was ridiculous though, because in the part where it tells how much money I have to give it says:

Fine: 67.00
EMS: 10.00
MCARE: 40.00
COSTS: 33.00
J.C.P./A.T.J.: 10.00

??? Emergency Medical Services? Medical Care? I didn't require any of that... I don't really understand why I had to pay $50 for it, or why there were $33 worth of costs incurred by the state when they gave me that ticket. Really?

I realized now, looking over it, that the time of the ticket was 1745. I was a little disappointed when I read that to think that he probably rounded.

Peace out.