Me and a friend of mine were heading down 295N driving towards a friends house. We see a cop up ahead on the side of the road at the 301N exit with his blue lights on, where we need to get off. There's a car behind him and I had thought he'd just stopped someone and thought nothing of it. Well my friend gets on the off ramp and realizes he's halfway in the road, and halfway on the courtesy lane(whatever its called). Well we're both slowing down when my buddy in front of me slams on the brakes, forcing me to do the same. My brakes really suck and if I would've kept braking I would've slammed in the back of his sentra, so I swirved around him and got back on the slow lane of 295 and followed another car onto the 301N exit. Well the exit is backed up because of a tractor trailer accident, the cop runs from his car, down near the beginning of the exit ramp, to my car with a flashlight. He almost breaks my glass beating on my window, so I roll my window down and he rudely asks for my license and registration. I said yes sir, and handed him both my license and registration. He told me the off ramp was blocked off, there were no signs, and his car on the side of the road with a plymouth breeze isn't exactly telling me the ramp is blocked off. Mind you I followed another car onto the off ramp, and many cars pulled onto the off ramp even after I did. Also, my car has no muffler and he asked me where I got my muffler from because he heard me "downshift" going by him, mind you the car was in 3rd the entire time on the off ramp. Well I bought the car like that because I've heard it was legal not to have a muffler as long as it meets the sound requirements which I think it does, it's not very loud at all compared to most cans. Also, the car passed inspection without a muffler. Well he had no decibel meter, or a sniffer. He comes back after 30 minutes, pulling his car up the off ramp and behind me. He gets out and has 2 tickets, one for improper muffler, and one for RECKLESS DRIVING. He also NEVER mentioned why my exhaust was improper, or how I was driving reckless. I signed both the tickets, said thank you sir, and went on my way. Now I don't see how anything I did was reckless. I had to swirve out of the way to avoid an accident. Would he rather I just run into the other car? Everyone I've talked to said the ticket is complete bullshit after hearing the story. I am getting a lawyer and I am fighting this reckless ticket regardless. I understand getting the exhaust ticket kind of, but I wasn't revving my car or flying by a cop acting like an idiot. I was driving like a normal person. But getting this reckless ticket just blows my mind and I would like for you to tell me what you guys think about it...

 

damn retarded if you ask me, just a jack ass cop wanting to bust someone for no reason

 

getting a lawyer would be wasting your money.

just think of a speech to say to the judge that you think will convince him to reduce or throw out the tickets for this type of bullshit

 

so you were driving a car that was probly unsafe, almost rear ended someone cause it didnt have appropriate braking, swerved off the road to avoid that accident while doing this? wreckless was justified. you could bring in evidence that your brakes dont work well, etc and it MIGHT be reduced to improper equipment, but you were the driver, and you were responsible for the safe operation of your vehicle. if there was a problem in any system, you are responsible to get it repaired and make the vehicle road worthy.

you can pass inspection with no muffler, but it is illegal to operate a motor vehicle on the highways of VA without one.

 

I got the same thing last year... wreckless (speed) and illegal exhaust on my 300ZX.

The road was wide open at like 7am on a Sunday...

Oh well... 321 dollars. No biggy.

I got the illegal exhaust thrown out but fessed up about the speed. I was guilty all the way.

First ticket ever...

 

I don't understand how you argue the wreckless driving? You were obviously 'following to closely'...which is undebateable, because you had to swerve out to avoid hitting him. That always carries wreckless driving with it.

Oh, and the exhaust thing isn't debateable either. Anything that isn't like OEM is illegal. If OEM has mufflers, yours better have a comparable muffler to it.(good luck finding a cop that thinks a big shiny muffler is comparable to OEM either, because it isn't )

 

Honestly you would have gotten a reckless driving ticket whether you ran into him or not.

If you had hit him, in the eyes of VA law you "failed to maintain control of your vehicle"...being reckless driving. And if you didn't hit him, following so closely could be interpreted as reckless driving as well.

So even if you got in an accident, he would have handed you the same ticket.

As for the muffler.... driving around without one is just asking for a ticket. Its almost too blatant for a police officer to overlook and still uphold his duty.

 

Unless you have an SRT-4... we don't have a muffler.

 

I wasn't aware of that.

But I'm 100% sure that there is a sound difference between a stock SRT-4, and a 1990 civic hatch with no muffler whatsoever.

Most of the SRT-4's I've driven past are relatively moderate or quiet cars, unless the driver is at WOT or something.

Regardless, the standards that a 1990 civic hatch have to meet..include having a muffler to drive on a VA highway.

If you choose to drive without one, getting a ticket is an assumed risk by the driver.

 

Yeah, it's pretty quiet unless you're decellerating...

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