OT, but is there such a law in CA? (I’m nosing about for it, but no luck)
I’ve never seen anyone here slow down when a cop’s pulled someone over; then again I’ve never seen anyone drive under 75mph either.
I have no idea what the name means but I like it.
Must be a regional thing. I know there is no such law in NJ.
True, I don’t know the details of what happened in this case. However I was a Wisconsin resident for 17 years and have spent countless hours driving their freeway system. So my statement was biased by what I have witnessed in the past. Also had a good friend that got written up for this same offense on I-94 North of Madison. Same scenario.
I’m not saying I blame the troopers. They do risk life and limb to stand beside a vehicle along the highway. I see stories all the time about officers getting hit. But I’m also cynical enough to realize that if they are wanting to write tickets it’s much easier and better rewarded dollarwise to nail someone for this offense than it is to catch someone speeding.
I always heard the rumor that district 4 was where they sent all the rookie troopers to train, so they are hyper vigilant. Kinda like Minnesota near Albert Lea. As a lifelong Minnesotan, I haven’t heard any stories of pleasant interfaces with the WSP.
Two troopers working together of the sole purpose of catching people breaking the law?
The bastards!
If you think that’s bad, I understand that firefighters in that same state work together in large groups with the sole intent of putting out fires. Is there no end to the corruption?
I just wanted to note that despite what millions of people think, money is not on the minds of 99% of civil servants. They don’t get kickbacks, so they don’t really care. They are supposed to enforce the laws and rules. I can’t tell you how many times my husband has been accused of keeping inmates in prison (inmates not being paroled) to pad their numbers and make money. The line staff, standard civil servant, does not care. What they care about is enforcing rules, laws and procedures since they are in a Bureaucracy.
Now, give me a cite where law enforcement falsified radar detector results to get tickets under orders from superiors to make money for the town, and I will back anyone up 100% on a rant. However, many times, certain districts that are more aggressive are that way because of the local interest to maintain safety. Which, for those of you who forgot, is why roadway safety laws are there in the first place.
In the OP’s particular case, I would need all details before rendering a decision. Sometimes out of state travelers should be given some leeway if they did not have reasonable access to the rules of the road.
Sorry to say it, but this has been my experience, too.
I thought your husband worked at a university, Lissa?
I’m stunned that anybody would pass a parked car in the right lane. That’s how people get killed. I’d say it was a well deserved ticket.
But even if it’s not well deserved, it was absolutely effective. I guarantee your MIL will never committ that infraction again.
I vote “not a dick”.
I move over whenever I can for even stalled cars, whether they’re occupied or not. If someone’s changing a tire on the freeway, I move over. Tow truck, police cruiser, it makes no difference to me. If it’s at all possible, I’m going to move as far to the opposite side of the road as I can. Just tonight there was an accident on 35 (gotta love the first snow; Minnesotans forget how to drive over the summer, apparently) and every car on the road slowed down* to the minimum speed (40 in a 70) and moved to the right, away from the police cruisers parked on the left shoulder.
I agree with everyone who said law or not, this just makes sense.
*This probably has more to do with “rubbernecking” than with the officer’s safety, and we were already going slow anyway (55-60mph) because of the road conditions. Most people on a clear day would probably blow right by a cop who just has a car pulled over, but the majority of them do it in the opposite lane.
Don’t know about WI, but here in Washington the troopers are always out in force on holidays. It’s even broadcast on local radion/tv stations that troopers will be heavily patrolling during the holidays. That’s when there’s more traffic, more accidents, and perhaps coincidentally, more opportunities to write tickets. Also, we’re near the end of the month when troopers start realizing they may not have written enough tickets to look good that reporting period (cite is anecdotal–my cousin is a former WA state trooper).
True, money is not on the mind of most civil servants. Police officers are in a slightly different situation. They are partially funded by the tickets they write.
There was a little bit of a tizzy here in Washington about local cops pulling over everybody and their brother when our a first seatbelt law went into effect a few years ago (other WA dopers, I’m not talking about the primary offense law, but the secondary offense law a few years ago). I don’t remember all the details, but it was discovered that local cops got a ‘kickback’ for the tickets written in their counties for violations of the new law in the form of special equipment financed by the state. This was causing cops to pull folks over for non-moving violations (headlight out, defective equipment, what have you) just so they could hopefully bust them on a seatbelt infraction as well.
I have more anecdotal info. My husband works with a retired cop. He’s flat out told mr.stretch that cops will pull you over for anything they possibly can if they need to write a ticket to make themselves look good or look like they are actually doing something. Also, if you drive an interesting car they will pull you over just to check it out. “Sir, do you know how fast you were going? Well, how fast do you think that little car will go? When did you buy it? I use to have one just like it.” Twenty minutes of your life gone cuz the cop wanted to look at your super-cool lime green Gremlin. 
Sorry, gotta call bullshit. They may say there are more cops on the road but that is not usually the case. Manning is set by the contract the department has. Unless they have a horrible contract, you can not force someone to work a holiday if minimum manning is reached. For instance, we have to have 5 per shift and a supervisor. How often do you think we have more than the minimums on a holiday? Never. Some departments may put together special overtime details for certain days like New Years and St Patricks day (the drinking holidays). I have never heard of it done for Thanksgiving. I have worked many Thanksgivings. I assure you, it is dead out there. There is much less traffic, fewer accidents and much less opportunity for tickets, even if anyone was inclined to go out and look for them on a holiday. The usual daily work traffic is a lot more than a bunch of people going to grandmas and back. For highway cops the busy days are the Wednesday before and the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
Do not assume this is true all over the country. In my state over 90% of ticket revenue goes directly to the state, it does not go to the town. Believe me, that money never comes back. The remainder of the revenue is used for court overhead such as the court clerks and the judges. In other words there is no monetary incentive for the police to write tickets. They do it because that’s their job. Some write more than others. That is more due to personal preferance or, for lack of a better term, corporate culture.
Yes, yes, I agree that it’s somewhat common sense but, man, $250? That’s steep. I think a warning would have been the ideal solution here. The driver wasn’t impaired, she wasn’t driving recklessly. She just didn’t know the law.
Honestly, how many of us in a similar situation would pull into the left lane AND reduce their speed by 20mph? If I see a disabled car or a person walking on the shoulder, I always move over to the left lane, but I confess that I never slow down to 45. Would an officer be justified in giving me a $250 fine? Gosh, that’s a tough one.
I would imagine the $250 includes court costs.
Here in NC you can get a $10 fine for speeding but then they tack $115 for court costs making the total $125.
The law, at least in Illinois, is to pull over OR reduce your speed. Both are not necessary. I usually pull over AND slow down (albeit not by 20 MPH), but if I can’t pull over, I slow way down.
Acc. to the OPer, Wisconsin expects you to do BOTH, which I don’t believe falls into “common sense” guidelines. I have no doubt that any of the fine folks above who so flippantly disregarded the OP could have gotten a ticket under similar circumstances. I also have no doubt that they would have opened up a Pit thread bitching about it. With some justification, IMO.
I’m a Law and Order girl, too.*
*For instance, I think that people that blame the cops for high speed chases that end in fatalities are pointing their grubby fingers at the wrong party. In Pundit’s World, you run from the cops and drive recklessly, you get 5 years in jail, minimum. You injure or kill someone in the process and your sentence increases exponentially. You can then re-live your glory days every time you watch Fox’s “Wildest Police Chases” from your jail cell. There’s a difference between driving recklessly and breaking the letter of the law.
Well, I don’t know about Wisconsin, but around here (northern Illinois in the Rockford area, which isn’t all THAT far from Wisconsin), they were out in force. My husband and I were driving home last night (the day after Thanksgiving), and we were pulled over. My husband wasn’t speeding, wasn’t driving a stolen car, and wasn’t driving erratically. Neither of us had anything to drink (for months). His headlights and taillights were working, and we hadn’t had to turn, so he didn’t fail to use a turn signal.
So what, pray tell, did the cops pull us over for? One of the two lights that light up the license plate was out. Not both the lights–ONE of the lights. So we sat in the car for 5-10 minutes and ran his license, then issued us a warning. This was in a small town that honestly had nothing better to do.
I mean, I guess he could have issued a ticket (which we would’ve fought, because the license plate was still visible), or he could’ve just pulled us over to say “hey, this is out.” On the way back (about 20 miles) after we were let go, we saw two other cars pulled over, and at least one state trooper on the side of the road. This was after midnight in a fairly rural area. This is not unusual here over holidays; they really do come out in force.
He works at both. He is an instructor at the University and a Administrator in a prison.
Yeah. A technical violation which is very likely posted prominently every thirty or forty along the interstate, just like it is in every other state where this law has been enacted.
No it doesn’t. The law says a driver must slow only “reduce speed” and yet maintain a speed safe for current traffic conditions.