[wbradley]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

So, in this case, what the Cop saw was a car speeding up to make a light, making a hard turn with a potential loss of control, and then speeding at 30KPH over the speed limit (which I imagine is a good % over the limit) and then when stopped gives him grief about technically not breaking a law.

OK, it may not have been "stunt driving" but there's nothing in this description that says the Cop was "out to get you" either. Where in all this were you not breaking at least one law?

I was speeding briefly, maybe 110 in an 80 zone which is not extreme. And that was after the momentary skid as I drove off. Stunt driving is 50 kph over posted limit. And he didn't give me a speeding ticket and couldn't anyway, I wasn't clocked. You never go 75 in a 55 even for a short burst? Hardly egregious.

They shouldn't have the leeway to charge people with stunt driving if they weren't or if its questionable. In fact if the video evidence is bad and he does this regularly he should be disciplined. Even without a conviction I still have no license for a week and probably $1000 expenses (That's about $1.95 US lol). Usually there's a lesser charge the can ticket for, but this cop didn't have one, so he treated me like he would his own brother lol. I wasn't arguing with the guy, but if someone just accused you of a pretty severe offense and you're pretty sure thats not the case, are you gonna just sit there and say yes, yes, yes. Probably not. He probably woulda called in the flatbed anyway. A cop who followed me the distance he did and then suggests a severe charge is one who probably likes to bring in big charges to court whenever possible. The court backlogs cost the tax payers a fortune and the towing yard owner just put a deposit on a Bentley lol. The cop shouldn't decide whether to go thru with it based on liking or disliking me, that's not how the law is supposed to work.




Anyway my car was nowhere near losing control, this was a 3 way light entering a highway left turn east vs a right west. My car was under perfect control but when I hit the gas out of the turn I pressed a little to hard and the rears broke loose for a second until traction control cut the throttle for a second. My car has a bit more pep than a regular FR-S so it happened a lot easier keep in mind. I didn't skid or squeal my tires around the corner, I was at the same speed I drive on an onramp or offramp.

He needs to prove that I intentionally broke traction, which I didn't. If it didn't happen to be the first cool day of fall that day, my tires might not have broken loose.

As Tcoat said, I have to show them the tires breaking loose wasn't intentional, which it wasn't. Apparently it's difficult for the prosecutor to prove intent in a case like this and of course it must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Especially considering the the punitive measures ($2000 minimum up to $10,000. And up to 2 year license suspension and 6 months in jail.

Between you and I, I've sped down that road many many times, except without racing up to the light before making the turn. The power on exit broke the tires.

The key here is I wasn't deliberately performing a "stunt", I expected traction out of the turn. And it's not illegal to accelerate quickly from 40 to 110 in a couple of seconds, then down to 90 in a few more seconds. . Losing traction happened accidentally, not deliberately. Otherwise, it would be a stunt or a trick or whatever you want to call it.
It's an unwritten rule that 15 over never gets pulled over here, and I drive 15 over (that's 15% above limit) almost always as almost everyone does. The only way a momentary speed could result in a ticket is if the radar gun clocks you or possible if you are paced by a cruiser.

Had I done an actual drift, it would be on the cops video evidence. That would be difficult to do unintentionally on a dry road.

I'm sure what I did happens to many first time V8 Mustang and Camaro drivers until they get used to it, and that too would be unintentional. Luckily I don't have that kind of horsepower or I would have been in trouble for sure.

From all the info I've gathered in the last 2 days it looks like this one will not stick, just like my tires did. So it's gonna cost me beer money for a bit hopefully that's it and I will be driving more calmly since it's not worth all the stress.

FYI, cops here can make over $100K/yr with court time easily, so they aren't usually meatheads, most have university degrees now. And unlike myself, he gets paid for the court time.