How many moving violations have you gotten?

[merithyn]

I'd fail any FSTs no matter the time of day or amount of alcohol (or water) I've had. I would refuse them no matter what.

[Barrister]

None.
Pulled over once for doing 43 in 35, they had me do the whole sobriety test as it was 5am.

Don't do the FSTs!

Isn't that, like, terrible advice?  UP here failing to comply with a demand carries the same penalty as being impaired would.

The field sobriety tests (and the preliminary breath test) aren't required, and generally aren't to your advantage to perform.  Refusal to give an evidentiary blood or breath sample (in e.g. a Datamaster) almost always results in a civil suspension of your license (to the same extent or longer as being impaired would).  In VT it is also the basis for a separate charge of "criminal refusal" if you already have a prior DUI conviction or there is an accident with death or serious bodily injury.  I don't think the FSTs (dexterity, modified Romberg, etc.) are part of the "implied consent" laws anywhere in the US.

So we advise clients to submit to a breath or blood test at the station but refuse the field tests and refuse the "drug recognition expert" tests.  They tend to do the opposite.

Okay, so while the common law world has broadly similar legal principles, once we dig down into minutiae like impaired driving regulations they're fairly different.  UP here if you refuse to comply with a field sobriety test (which is so rare I've never seen one, despite practicing in this area) or a DRE test (uncommon, but not unheard of) you will be charged with an offence equal in penalty to impaired driving, regardless of whether you have a record or not.

[DGuller]

Can a cop lie to you about whether you're obligated to submit to FST?  I imagine that if you refuse, and the cop says that you'll get punished for refusing it, most people are not going to be confident enough in their interpretation of the law to call the cop's bluff and risk conviction.

[lustindarkness]

I'd say about 4 or 5 tickets, not sure. I've had 2 speeding tickets the same day in two different states.

And I am also glad the few points I had left in PR did not transfer over to the states. So those don't count.

[DGuller]

No tickets.  I came close to opening the score in a big way when I was doing 95 in 45 on Pulaski Skyway, under what turned out to be a mistaken assumption that there are no cops there at night when it's nearly empty.

[Barrister]

I think I've been given the grand total of 1 speeding ticket.  2001 in Calgary.  I thought the limit was 60, and I was travelling 70.  Turns out the limit was 50.

Back as a kid under similar circumstances (not knowing the limit) I was given a warning, but not this one time.

[Ideologue]

You should've flashed your wig.

[Iormlund]

Perhaps he did.

[The Brain]

Never gotten a ticket. Small wonder since I can't drive 55.

[sbr]

I have had a handful of speeding tickets.

I dated a gal from a very small town and the local barney Fife really didn't like me.  The speed went from 55 to 45 to 35 in about a 3/4 mile stretch of road and he would sit there and try and get me every time I came into town.

I also had a "following to closely" to some jackass who cut me off then slammed on his brakes when he realized there was a cop right there.

I completely ran a stop sign up in the rural gravel roads I used to live on, it was a T intersection with no reason for me to stop and I didn't notice the cop sitting 20 feet in front of me.  As soon as I went through it I saw him and I was pulled over before he had finished making his u-turn.

Also a DUII that I might have had a chance to fight, but the way the laws are written you really can' fight it if you are offered diversion.

Pulled over and warned many, many times.  Mostly for BS reasons.

[sbr]

I guy I used to work with had an amazing driving record.  He was ~50 years old and brought in a full sized photo album full of traffic tickets he had gotten in his life.  There must have been over 100 in there easily.  At one point when he was in his 20's he was paying something like $500 a month to drive a shitty broken down motorcycle.

[DGuller]

The thing that I find grossly unfair about the traffic ticket system, apart from the usual speed traps and such, is that it makes no allowance for how much you drive.  If you drive 100,000 miles a year, it's probably easier for you to rack up enough points to have your licence suspended than if you drive 5,000 miles a year.  You also probably really need that licence if you drive that much.

[Razgovory]

Can a cop lie to you about whether you're obligated to submit to FST?  I imagine that if you refuse, and the cop says that you'll get punished for refusing it, most people are not going to be confident enough in their interpretation of the law to call the cop's bluff and risk conviction.

Probably.  Cops lie all the time.

[CountDeMoney]

You should've flashed your wig.

That's how he gets through red lights.

[DontSayBanana]

Every time I feel bad about my driving record, I remember that Ide is also a member of this forum.