So, what happens if you say, run a red light and kill a family of people and you have no insurance!
No, it’s been the Old Man of the Mountains for decades. I don’t know of any flowering tree license plate for NH. We have moose plates for conservation.
A related question I have is this. If I’m legally driving in New Hampshire without insurance, am I still legal if I cross the border into Massachusetts where insurance is mandatory? I asked a lawyer friend and he thought the answer is yes and mentioned something about the constitution guaranteeing free trade between states. We didn’t discuss it further so I don’t really understand the relevance but it seems that it could be an interesting situation.
I was visiting home one Christmas and the IL police had a roadblock. They checked my seatbelt (I always wear it). They asked for proof of insurance and I gave that. They checked it then said, “Oh, you’re not from IL. Well we can’t check this then.” :dubious::rolleyes::mad:
JohnnyLA, you’ve been away a LONG time! In Northern CA, carpool fines were $385 from what I remember.
Generally traffic fines are several hundred dollars, and parking is less than $100, usually $30 or so, at least in these western states.
Yikes! :eek:
I was only down there a year and a half ago. But I didn’t notice the increase. (Being on a motorcycle, I’m allowed to be in the HOV lanes.) Five years ago it was ‘only’ $141.
Huh guess it is a the Old Man. When I lived over in the Boston area and used to see NH plates it looked like a blurry flowering tree to me. But then again license plates are usually the least of concerns driving on the East Coast.
If it is a moving violation the fine is the least of your worries. When the information gets to the insurance company they will raise your rates and you will pay for your transgression for years to come.
Also, the states are under pressure to increase revenues. The easy way to do that without rewriting the statutes is to tack on a surcharge. I recently had a non-moving violation. The fine was $50, the surcharge was $65. How’s that for getting both nuts in the vise.
And in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the failure to pay a parking fine, and allegedly repeating warnings and fine increase, forces the city to foreclose on your home. In this case, there is more to the story.
I just found out that parking fine in the UK is £25.
If you pay this within 14 days it stays at £25, if you pay it after it doubles. I have no idea what happens if you continue to ignore it and not pay.
Seems to me that you Americans are hit hard when it comes to driving offences.
Then again you don’t have to pay road tax and your petrol is dirt cheap:p
The last ticket was 65 in a 50 and the judge agreed the speed was lower than it should be and charged me court costs of $30. It probably would have cost me around $80 total. The current one is going to get expensive because I didn’t show up in court. :smack:
Passing a school bus?
WTF is this all about?
I’m assuming it refers to passing a school bus at a bus stop, where the concern would be hitting kids crossing the street after disembarking from the bus. Then again, it might also include passing the bus just while driving along because of concerns about people cutting off the bus driver while passing, or getting into blind spots or whatever, but mostly I think it concerns bus stops.
I think this varies from place to place. It was £35 when the son and heir stopped on double yellow lines in Oxford a couple of months ago. (He only left the car for two minutes while he went into a office to tell the people he was giving a lift to that he was there :dubious: Should have stayed in the car and used his mobile. Ah, well, you learn from your mistakes! )
Not passing a school bus was one of the differences between the UK and USA I was warned about before I hired a car in the States a few years back. This didn’t cause me any problems, it was the ever changing and apparently arbitrary speed limits that got me, with the same road going from 65 to 35 then back to 50 before droping to 35 again for no obvious reason with most of the signs semi-hidden by trees. Inevitably I missed one of them and sure enough a police car appeared behind me immediately. At that point I was mostly concentrating on keeping my hands in sight - I’d been filled with dire warnings about drivers being shot by nervous police while reaching for their licence :smack:. Fortunately, once he discovered I was a British tourist, he took pity on me and just let me of with a warning so I never discovered the size of the fine.
FWIW, here in Michigan we don’t have “bus stops” per se. Although the kids will call the point that they group and wait for the bus a “bus stop,” there’s no marking to indicate such. Instead the law here (and elsewhere I’ve driven it would appear) is that red flashers mean you aren’t permitted to pass the bus. (The red flashers are important. All too many people stop for yellow flashers!)
I thought it was a low fine too. What ticked me off is this: I parked in a carport, and there’s a steep hill to the street. There’s a sidewalk, and then the driveway. I’d forgotten my shades and left the bike on the sidewalk. I went back to my apartment and was only there two minutes (I timed it) and when I came out the Parking Enforcement guy was pulling away. Really rotten timing. 
W. Virginia, 1997 - zapped by a state trooper doing 89 on an empty freeway with a posted limit of 65.
Tried in court in absentia (because I was back in the UK), convicted of dangerous driving or the WV equivalent, and fined $850.
Was informally told that if I’d have been clocked at 90, I would have spent the night in jail.
SOOO glad he didn’t clock me ten minutes before when I was doing 130, which I was told would probably have been 3-6 months’ in chokey…
From the MA Drivers Manual (warning, PDF)
If you are a non-resident and drive less than 30 days/year in Massachusetts, you don’t need insurance. If you drive more than 30 days/year, you need to have insurance equal to the minimum required in MA. So theoretically, all the NH residents who commute daily to the Bay State are required to have insurance, but obviously it’s not generally enforced. I have no idea if they try to nail such people if they have an accident and are uninsured.
But woe betide those who live in MA but register their car in NH to get around the insurance and tax laws if they get in an accident and their dodge is found. The courts tend to have no mercy on them.
I don’t think Europe has the same idea of a school bus as we do in the U.S. The link below shows what a U.S. school bus is and I believe they are what Canada uses them as well. They are a very simple and utilitarian design that has remained basically the same for many decades. U.S. school buses serve even the most rural areas and stop at individual houses or small sections of of a neighborhood.
When school buses stop to make a pick up or drop-off, they put on flashing red lights and extend STOP signs in both directions. You have to stop no matter what even if you think it is obvious that no child will be in danger by passing. Some kids have to cross the street in a blind spot to traffic to get home. Keep in mind that we are talking about some young children here.
Passing a school bus with its STOP signs out and red lights flashing is one of the most socially unacceptable things someone can do. No one thinks it is funny and habitual offenders can face harsh consequences in some jurisdictions.
You were back in the Uk and still got fined?
Didya pay it? huh, huh?