HA! Physics works (to get out of going through a red light ticket).
60Meant to post this the other day. Got a ticket for allegedly going through a red light. Nope nope nope. Light was yellow and it is legal to keep going if your tires are already over the line when it turns. Cop was on the cross street 3 lanes over from the curb lane and back 4 cars from the front of the line, couldn’t see around the the corner (due to other cars and landscaping and a wall) to even see the white line, let alone to know when my light changed. He showed me the video, told me there was a 3 second delay where both were red… We both agreed I wasn’t speeding.
Thank you google maps. Got distance from that. Got time from his claims for delay and where he said I was when his light turned green (video). Thanks physics for speed X time = distance. HA!
I’d have had to be speeding to be where he said I was when his light turned green if I had crossed the line when it was red (not to mention the corner is banked the wrong way for drainage and so going much over 10mph will land you into a cement retaining wall). Gave them the google map with distances in feet (was going to tape measure it but too much traffic even in the middle of the night), the formula, an explanation and showed all the math. All written down. In detail.
The cop, prosecutor and judge looked at me in disbelief like I had tired to pull a rabbit out of a hat. Then they vanished (I presume to google the formula) for about 5 minutes, came back and then agreed that I didn’t go through a red light. They also wanted my sheet with my proof. For what I don’t know, perhaps to tell stories about a nerd who got out of a ticket. Anyway, physics works. Ha!
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When I was in college, I got cited for a noise violation (it was a pretty good party and ran late, but my neighbor called the cops instead of asking me to tone it down, the douche) and had to appear in court.
While I was waiting to be seen, I watched another case where a man stole 2 cartons of cigarettes. He pleaded guilty with a minimum $25 fine, max $75 fine, max 1 day in jail. He got the $25 fine and was out the door.
I was next. Judge told me the noise violation carried with it a minimum $150 fine, max $1000 and max 3 days in jail, and asked how I pleaded. What?
With as much respect as I could muster, I raised my hand and said, “Your Honor, I apologize if I’m speaking out of turn. I’ve never been to court before, but I have a question.” Exasperated, he sighed, took off his glassed and placed them on the bench. “What’s your question, sir?”
I explained what I had just witnessed and simply asked, “Based on the relative punishments, why is stealing preferred to playing my stereo too loud?” After that the judge dropped his head and shook it. The silence was deafening. I wasn’t sure at that point if I made a bad thing worse.
He finally replied, “Young man, I don’t make the laws. My role is to simply enforce them. This is a college town and as such rules are more strict around noise and parties as they usually accompany underage drinking. That being said, because you asked this question, I’m going to make your fine retroactive meaning if you ever appear in my court again you will pay both this and that fine. Do you understand the accommodation I’ve made you today?”
“Yes I do, your honor.”
“Case dismissed.”
@ACraigL Cool. Good thing the judge was reasonable.
@Kidsandliz Totally. I ran out of there before he could change his mind.
@ACraigL Seems like a noise violation (with probably arbitrary language as to what ‘loud’ means) was used to “teach them damn college kids a lesson” when they couldn’t find something more definitive?
@ACraigL Neat!
@ACraigL Missed my edit window.
But:
I lived next to a Man Child. Spoiled by his parents with no responsibility and too much privilege. This probably 25-35 year old did not have a job. Dad bought his house because he was tired of living with him.
He would throw parties until 3 am, the music would get so loud the pictures on my walls would vibrate. We did not confront him as the neighbors had already. The 3 times (different nights) we called the cops they turned down the music right before they arrived. The 4th time we suggested the neighbors have a scanner and turn down the music before the cops arrive. The 5th time the cops talked to us about “You really should not bother Troy and his gang”
Anyway Troy went to jail for writing bad checks.
It’s funny I always forget Troy’s name until the quote from the cops comes to mind.
He had an important (to the town) last name.
I will share my new driver’s accident. My son, the new driver, got in an accident, we lived close so we came out. The other party had obviously been drinking but the good ol’ boy rule kept the sobriety test at bay, I mean this man had probably has not seen a sober evening in 20+ years, but I digress. My son was issued a ticket for failing to yield on a green arrow to on coming traffic. What ever he will pay the ticket.
But that night and the next day it kept bothering me, I even had the cop explain what happened after my son explained it.
Then suddenly Ah ha! If my son had a green arrow then the on coming traffic had a red light. Went out to the intersection verify. Called the cop 2 days after he issued the ticket, he dropped the charges.
@caffeine_dude pheeww… I was about to question everything I knew about green arrows!
@caffeine_dude Failure to stop at a >hic!< green light!
Oh, how stupid they must think we are.
@caffeine_dude Good thing too. Way to go.
@caffeine_dude I’m glad you figured it out. I’m a little crazed that the cop totally missed the concept of what a green light means. I guess he was too focused on the, um, er, look! something shiny~
@caffeine_dude @magic_cave More like assuming that in any accident it’s always the kid’s fault. (Being a kid once and knowing how well I drove, I would put teen drivers at fault just about 99% though.)
Haha, so glad it worked for you!
I tried something similar for a speeding ticket 30 years ago, with only partial success. It was for an old-fashioned style speeding ticket, where the officer had tried to match speed with my car, then read the speedometer. I drew up a page full of equations proving that the officer didn’t have enough time to accurately speed match with me. The judge looked at my equations with a glazed donut look, and hemmed and hawed and gave me a gave an explanation of how the county officers are carefully vetted for integrity. Then he dropped the fine to court costs ($20) and one point. Close enough
@mehcuda67 Well at least it sort of worked. That’s a plus.
That’s great. My wife got a ticket for something like three hundred dollars for passing a school bus that had just put out their stop sign. The busses had cameras installed on them to catch people, and this was before it was widely known that the company was super corrupt and a waste of money. ANYWAY I wasn’t happy so I wrote a letter contesting it, using the provided video evidence and citing government documents and math and trying to sound as lawyery as I could.
On why she didn’t have enough time to stop:
and on why she didn’t have enough distance to stop:
Eventually I got a letter that said it was dismissed from a cop who I’m sure thought I was a jackass.
@Moose Good job.
@Moose
Im just glad nobody was hurt, i have to take your word that the stop paddle just popped out, as it is possible for a driver to make the mistake or intentionally just habe the red flashing lights come on without the yellow warning lights 1st being activated, which signals that the bus will soon be stoping and the stop paddle and redlights will then be flashing (similar to a typical street light turning yellow then red), as the bus shoild be stopped when the red, it appears from the data you provided your in TX, which like most states has school bus drivers activate the yellows 5-10 seconds (based on speed), prior to the planned bus stop, to give drivers the heads up, that the reds are about to come on. No we have all seen it done and may have done it ourself, when the light turns yellow they gas it, hoping to beat the red, (not saying your wife did that), i see it often. So in this case the bus driver should have activated the yellows 10sec prior to the stop, thus at 45mph, any driver paying attention would be able to stop in 145ft. (That only takes 2SEC To stop AFTER HITTING THE BREAK) so with the 1.5 im paying attention perception + the 1sec reaction + 2sec to stop, theres still 5.5 sec left on the road. Also when the yellows go on the bus is moving at a similar rate of speed as the traffic behind it as it is slowing down for the stop. Much like if your following someone and they use their nice yellow flashing blinker to warn other they are planning slowing down to make a trun, if the vehicle in front of you is warning you its about to stop you should also have no problems stopping in that amount of time as well.(i bring this up as the portion of HWY you menitioned is divided so traffic on the other side of the divide is not required to stop only traffic going in the same direction, thus your wife would have been going in tbe same direction as the bus).
Again the activation of the yellows and drivers being attentive would be ideal. It goes out the window, If the bus driver does not provide adequate notification to other drivers with the yellows or just stops out of tbe blue and puts the reds on, or if other drivers are distracted from yelling at their own kids becuse they missed the bus or forgot their homework or because they think their cell or other device is top prority, which is way to common these days.
Note a school bus usually travels the same route everday at about the same time. In morning picking up kids and pm dropping them off, if you dont like waiting for a bus to load or inload avoid its schedule.
Its all comes down to the safety of the kids be extra catuious around school buses it dosent matter if you may or maynot know whos kids getting on or off the bus, its a kid who has no chance against your vehicle. Also note a kid is also a pedestiran and in most states i know they have the right of way. Buses are only stopped for 15sec to 100sec to load or unload students, thats usually less then the time a street light is red.
Keep all kids safe.
@dtwsportsfan They are supposed to turn on yellow lights? Hmm the one that stops next door to pick up 3 kids never does (I have been caught behind it a handful of times). That women puts out the stop sign and at the same time flashing lights get turned on.
Congratulations.
I am a bit amazed that they listened.
@f00l When I started out I am not so sure they realized where I was headed with this so didn’t cut me off at the pass. They did ask me where my attorney was and I told them I didn’t need one; that science would prove me right. That statement got some raised eyebrows so I think they were hoping I was a dumb ass and they could then give me my comeuppance. In that court anyway no one had apparently tried this in the 25+ years that judge had been on the bench. I guess attorneys don’t take, or remember, much science. Since I did this in front of a pretty full court room I am sure a couple of attoney’s learned something LOL.
I must admit though it probably took me the better part of a half hour of trying to think how I could argue that I didn’t run a red light until it occurred to me to use physics. Initially I was more thinking about would they believe my daughter or not, from where he was he couldn’t even see my car until I was part way though the intersection, let alone the line, etc.
@f00l @Kidsandliz
Channeling Sheldon from Big Bang Theory here?
@edgriebel @f00l If I had been channeling I would have thought about that first LOL
@Kidsandliz You are lucky that you had a good judge. You really should get a lawyer because without one you can (and many people do) get screwed over if you get a lazy/incompetent/corrupt judge.
Awesome! How much would have the fine been for you?
@canuk I have no idea because If I had lost, besides the $220+ ticket, I would have had added court costs.
dammit. i knew i should have paid more attention in physics.
a^2 + b^2 = mc^2
right?
@carl669
Fuck.
@carl669 @narfcake
Narf - You’ve never mentioned the issue with the ‘m’ at the 1: 24 point of the clip.
@PlacidPenguin I’m pretty sure it was nitpicked already at some point in the past.
Speed X time = distance. So 35 mph times 5 seconds = 175 miles. Hmmm, sounds about right.
@support units.
@Seeds So I should have measured the speed in furlongs per fortnight?
@support yes
@Seeds @support Yup units. The correct answer to your equation is 0.0486111 miles
@Kidsandliz
@support Details details details. I’m tired.
In my defense I did know that " furlongs per fortnight" was a joke… That has to count for something. Right?
Best. Traffic. Ticket. Story. Ever. Yay you!!
@magic_cave Thanks. I am just thankful it finally occurred to me how to prove I didn’t run a red light. While I would have preferred not to have gotten the ticket to begin with, it was the best way tell them “I told you so” and metaphorically give them the finger for handing out a ticket when they shouldn’t have. I would have liked to have sent them a bill for my time, some of it at time and a half due to getting up to try to measure the intersection at 3am (still too much traffic).
There are certainly a couple of other traffic tickets stories on here that are equally - if not more - are you kidding me stories (green light ticket). Not to mention again proves the laws of physics holds (bus story). Maybe we should use those “use science to prove you didn’t break the law” stories to get kids to take their science classes more seriously?
You won, then they walked away to figure out how to save face. Also, never volunteer to leave behind an exhibit like that - if you made an error in calculation some cocksucking pimple faced prosecutor will find a way to charge you for perjury.
@karamazovsdevil Thanks for the advice. Fortunately the arithmetic was third grade math and simple; the formula incredibly basic.
I take it you must be in a state that is permissive yellow, not restrictive yellow.
@MrMark No clue. I looked up the law. If your front tires had crossed the line before it turned red you could keep going.
Good god, that’s an old joke.
/giphy crusty old man
@TheMonkeyKing What’s an old joke?
@Kidsandliz @TheMonkeyKing
A joke that’s been told for a long time, but that’s not important right now.
@Seeds Ha ha. @TheMonkeyKing What joke is are you referring to?