Keeping Speeding Tickets in the Family

[dazzleman]

I thought this story was pretty funny....
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Father, son ticketed for speeding within minutes of each other

(Original publication: July 29, 2007)
Talk about keeping it in the family.

A state police trooper patrolling Interstate 684 issued two speeding tickets yesterday in the span of nine minutes - one to a father and the other to the man's son.

The first stop happened at 2:03 p.m. on 684 in the town of Southeast in Putnam County. Trooper Thomas Coubertier pulled over Teodoro Diaz, 43, of New Britian, Conn., for driving 84 miles per hour in a 65 zone. After ticketing Diaz in his 2003 Subaru, Coubertier headed south on 684 to continue speed enforcement, police said.

At 2:12 p.m., on 684 in the Westchester County town of North Salem, Coubertier clocked another driver speeding, this time at 88 miles per hour. The driver was Luis Diaz, 23, also of New Britian, also behind the wheel of a 2003 Subaru. He was also issued a speeding ticket.

Yes, police confirmed, the son had taken over driving duties from the father after the first ticket.

[TurboDan]

LOL.  That's great.  I wonder if Dad feels a little emasculated that his son beat him out by 4MPH.

[dazzleman]

LOL.? That's great.? I wonder if Dad feels a little emasculated that his son beat him out by 4MPH.

Imagine if the dad had gotten a ticket for driving too slowly in the left lane, or something like that, and then the son got the kick-ass ticket that he got?? That would really be emasculating.

This, not so much.? The dad's ticket was pretty respectable, certainly not lame, and when you adjust for their age difference, you could argue that the dad is keeping up with the son pretty well.

I'm familiar with this road, and I usually go in the 75-85 mph range on it, so these two are definitely at the top of the range that I would drive in on that road.

I've heard other places that on this road (I-684), the cops set up succeeding speedtraps, so drivers who just got ticketed and now think there won't be further enforcement, and therefore continue to speed, sometimes get nailed again a little up the road.? If the son had not take over driving for the dad, the dad most likely would have gotten nailed twice.? [This is something that happened to me once, but not under such illustrious circumstances -- my tickets in this case were much more lame.]  At least they spread the tickets around by switching drivers...

I have to say -- I'd be mortified if I got a ticket with my dad in the car.? This almost happened to me about 18 months ago, up on I-84 in New York, when a statie on the median flashed his floodlight at me as I drove past (I had been going about 80 mph), but he never came out and pulled me over.  It's cool to get a ticket with most of my male friends in the car, and certain female friends, but definitely not with a parent in the car.

[dazzleman]

Speaking of successive tickets, I nearly got nailed last night at the same spot where I got my last speeding ticket on Rte. 1 in my town.

I was going in the opposite direction from the direction I was traveling when I got my last ticket.? It's a part of the road that opens up into a semi-highway, and though the speed limit remains at 35 mph (which is very reasonable for the road in general), at this point it's possible to take it up to around 50 mph or so.

Since I learned the hard way that this is a popular spot for enforcement, I was on the lookout, and spotted a darkened police car up ahead as I approached their favorite spot.? I slowed down and passed without incident, but just up the road, another police car had a guy pulled over.

One question I'm wondering if anybody knows -- is the range of lidar (laser) less than that of radar?? The cops in my town use lidar, and I'm guessing that a car must be closer with lidar than with radar to pick up the car's speed.? It seems that you can slow down pretty late and still not get tagged when they're using lidar, while radar seems to pick up the speed further back.