Driving over 100mph

[ChainHeal]

Hi,
3 years ago, I was caught driving at 105mph at 3AM on Highway 5 in CA where the speed limit of 70mph. ( I lost track of the speed I was going at, due to loud music and there was no other car on the highway) I was ordered to appear in court and received a $1000 fine and 15 days license suspension. This is my first and only traffic ticket of any kind. Under CA laws, this is considered a 2 point traffic infraction, so I didn't have to disclose it to the pharmacy schools that I applied.

I will be attending USC this fall, and need apply for a intern pharmacist license. One of the question they ask on the application is

"8. Have you ever been convicted of or pled no contest to a violation of any law of the United States, a foreign country or any state laws or local ordinances? You must include all which have been set aside under Penal Code section 1203.4 (Traffic violations of $500 or less need not be reported). If “yes”, please attach an explanation which must include the type of violation, the date, circumstances, location, and the complete penalty received."

So according to this, I will have to let them know about the incident. (since my fine is $1000) I began to freak out, and did some research. And I found this on the CA DMV website.(http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d11/vc22348.htm)

" (b) A person who drives a vehicle upon a highway at a speed greater than 100 miles per hour is guilty of an infraction punishable, as follows: (1) Upon a first conviction of a violation of this subdivision, by a fine of not to exceed five hundred dollars ($500). The court may also suspend the privilege of the person to operate a motor vehicle for a period not to exceed 30 days pursuant to Section 13200.5.
(2) Upon a conviction under this subdivision of an offense that occurred within three years of a prior offense resulting in a conviction of an offense under this subdivision, by a fine of not to exceed seven hundred fifty dollars ($750). The person’s privilege to operate a motor vehicle shall be suspended by the Department of Motor Vehicles pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 13355.
(3) Upon a conviction under this subdivision of an offense that occurred within five years of two or more prior offenses resulting in convictions of offenses under this subdivision, by a fine of not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000). The person’s privilege to operate a motor vehicle shall be suspended by the Department of Motor Vehicles pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 13355."


According to this, I should've been fined under $500 since that was my first offense. The court can only fine me $1000 if that was my third offense in 5 years. And I don't have to disclose it to the board. What should I do? Can I get the court to adjust the penalty which I already paid? I assume I still have to let the board know about my incident since I haven't contacted the court. What would you do? Sorry for such a long post ><

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[Sparda29]

Ehh, I'd let them know about it but I doubt that they will hold it against you. It's just a traffic violation.

I could have gotten into some deep **** earlier this year though. I was actually running late for a final so I was doing insane speeds the whole way there. (I did 140 mph across the RFK Bridge, passed by a cop at that speed, and I kept going. The cop never caught up to me.)

 

[confettiflyer]

yeah 100+ is considered "reckless" and i'm surprised you weren't arrested and your car impounded, they're pretty strict about that on the 5. Oddly enough, my record was going 120 on the 5 (a diff. stretch since the only time it's 70 is between grapevine and stockton).

i'd talk to an attorney or someone familiar with filing an appeal (and check if you're past the point at which you can no longer appeal)...if you can get that fine down to $500, then you're in the clear to not disclose it; otherwise, be conservative about what you put (mention it was 3am on the 5 and no other traffic on the road).

 

[NaOH]

Ouch. Seems like you definitely have a leg to stand on, it's written plain as day. Just makes me nervous that it's been 3 years, I don't know if there'd be any time limit to contest things like this or not. Agreed that either way, it won't be a big deal. Personally I'd be more concerned with getting my 500bux back. :\

As an aside, bless shammies for keeping me alive.

 

[Passion4Sci]

Druids do it better.

I am always confused by traffic fines and such. My best friend was given a "speed contest" violation in 2004 with the same "$500 first violation" thing. She was honest and stood in front of the judge and admitted it, etc, you know textbook stuff everyone is "supposed" to do. The judge let her off with no suspension of license, no impoundment of the vehicle, nothing - Just a $1,300 fine. To MY knowledge she's never had any speeding tickets before or since (I've known her since childhood, we grew up from base to base together) and it was a good wake-up call for her. She's a police officer now, so obviously they didn't hold it too harshly against her (That was the 4ish years that transpired from the incident).

But still, should she have been fined 1,300$? The verbiage is very clear, that first violation should be $500. Maybe the judge can say whatever s/he likes, and if you complain, you can lose your license for X months and have your car impounded.

I never even try to figure this stuff out. Just like finance in the Army... Take what they give you, because trying to figure it out is nigh impossible. There's probably fine print somewhere that will contradict everything else you've read, heh.

 

[Praziquantel86]

Ehh, I'd let them know about it but I doubt that they will hold it against you. It's just a traffic violation.

I could have gotten into some deep **** earlier this year though. I was actually running late for a final so I was doing insane speeds the whole way there. (I did 140 mph across the RFK Bridge, passed by a cop at that speed, and I kept going. The cop never caught up to me.)

You did 140 on the Triborough? In the middle of the day? With no traffic? I'm calling B.S.

 

[crazybob]

^ I second that B.S. Your move, sparda. lol

if the court was supposed to fine you only $500, then you can argue that you don't have to list the fine you paid for your traffic violation.

to the OP: would this show up on the background check?

 

[NAVY DDS 2010]

Ask CopToPharm. He/she might know the answer to this and whether it will show up on a background check.

 

[UArk2014]

Not sure about Cali, but in Arkansas your motor vehicle record only goes back 35 months. I'm not suggesting you lie or anything, but since it's not a felony, I doubt it will show up on a BG check.

 

[Sparda29]

You did 140 on the Triborough? In the middle of the day? With no traffic? I'm calling B.S.

Yup, around 9:30AM. I've never seen traffic on the Triborough Bridge, usually a lot of cars are stopped in Queens waiting to get off the Grand Central and into Astoria, so for a stretch it is pretty empty.

My lane happened to be clear, and people were actually moving over when they saw me coming up. (The truckers were pissed though, apparently those guys HATE being passed from the right side, right after I passed the truckers, they immediately moved into the lane to prevent others from doing the same thing I was doing.)

Yep, I calculated my speed wrong. I have a digital kilometer/hour display so that's what I remember looking at. Hmm, so if it was 205 kilometer/hour, then that means I was doing 128 mph.

 

[Passion4Sci]

Digital kilometer/miles per hour display...

I'm going with Corvette? Like a C5+?

 

[NaOH]

If I recall, he drives one of those fancypants new VW coupes. You ever get that thing chipped, Sparda?

 

[Passion4Sci]

If I recall, he drives one of those fancypants new VW coupes. You ever get that thing chipped, Sparda?

Oh, I don't know about those... woops.

 

[Cutubaman]

During one of my pharmacy school interviews last year, the dean explained to us interviewees that the only reason pharmacy schools want to know about your law violations is so that they will know that you will be able to matriculate and perform your rotations in your P4 year. Some of the settings in your P4 year prohibit students with serious infractions from studying there.

With traffic violations, you will probably have no trouble matriculating. However, a serious offense, such as bludgeoning a patient to death on the job, would probably hamper your chances of matriculation.

 

[Praziquantel86]

Yup, around 9:30AM. I've never seen traffic on the Triborough Bridge, usually a lot of cars are stopped in Queens waiting to get off the Grand Central and into Astoria, so for a stretch it is pretty empty.

My lane happened to be clear, and people were actually moving over when they saw me coming up. (The truckers were pissed though, apparently those guys HATE being passed from the right side, right after I passed the truckers, they immediately moved into the lane to prevent others from doing the same thing I was doing.)

Yep, I calculated my speed wrong. I have a digital kilometer/hour display so that's what I remember 9looking at. Hmm, so if it was 205 kilometer/hour, then that means I was doing 128 mph.

Right. There was such a low traffic volume that you could do 128mph over incredibly potholed, narrow lanes over a bridge to Manhattan in the middle of the day. By the way, there's a toll plaza in the middle of said bridge.

 

[Carboxide]

Right. There was such a low traffic volume that you could do 128mph over incredibly potholed, narrow lanes over a bridge to Manhattan in the middle of the day. By the way, there's a toll plaza in the middle of said bridge.

My thoughts exactly. I call bull****.

 

[type b pharmD]

Right. There was such a low traffic volume that you could do 128mph over incredibly potholed, narrow lanes over a bridge to Manhattan in the middle of the day. By the way, there's a toll plaza in the middle of said bridge.

sparda is known to be a very fast and skilled driver, i wouldnt put it that far past him.. 128mph isnt hard to attain in a half decent car.

 

[Passion4Sci]

sparda is known to be a very fast and skilled driver, i wouldnt put it that far past him.. 128mph isnt hard to attain in a half decent car.

My Mustang can hit 128 without a problem. The problem at 128 is that every single pothole, pockmark, imperfection in the road will nearly send any vehicle careening into the median. This is why, if you've ever been to a drag strip, the asphalt is excruciatingly perfect. That's their point. Not that 128 mph is hard to attain (it isn't), but rather that all the other circumstances, traffic notwithstanding, make such an operation extremely difficult, if not impossible.

I've never driven said bridge so I am just trying to explicate their stance, with no stake in it personally.

And I don't know about you guys, but we have speed camera things on our toll plazas, so if you're flying at ~130 mph, you're going to get pwnt by the CHP, either then or in the mail.

 

[will7678]

I wonder if your $1000 fine was actually a $500 fine with a $500 court surcharge to bring it up to $1000. I know that whenever I have recieved a speeding ticket their was always a surcharge equal to the actual value of the fine. Of course I am in NY state so I am not sure if this holds true elsewhere.

 

[koercive]

Hey passion4sci , did your friend receive a misdemeanor for her offense?

I had the exact same thing happen to me 5 years ago. I was going 50 in a 50 messing around with a friend, and we both received a speed contest ticket, which is a misdemeanor. (we both have clean driving records to this day , only that 1 event on our records - we sure as hell learned our lesson).

My situation is that my fine was $400 and 40 hrs community service. Do I need to disclose this because it is a TRAFFIC VIOLATION under $500, but it is also a misdemeanor... it falls under both categories.

OP, I'm thinking it's safer for us to just disclose just to be safe?

 

[Passion4Sci]

Hey passion4sci , did your friend receive a misdemeanor for her offense?

I had the exact same thing happen to me 5 years ago. I was going 50 in a 50 messing around with a friend, and we both received a speed contest ticket, which is a misdemeanor. (we both have clean driving records to this day , only that 1 event on our records - we sure as hell learned our lesson).

My situation is that my fine was $400 and 40 hrs community service. Do I need to disclose this because it is a TRAFFIC VIOLATION under $500, but it is also a misdemeanor... it falls under both categories.

OP, I'm thinking it's safer for us to just disclose just to be safe?

It was the lowest-grade misdemeanor I am pretty sure. She was really scared due to her desire to go into law enforcement, but apparently a single misdemeanor in someone's history isn't that big of a deal (A lot of her academy class had a MiP or something dumb in their past).

I'd probably disclose it man, safer than sorry. What's weird is the difference in sentencing there... $400 and community svc compared to $1,300 and nothing else, for the same VC violation. Maybe CA is just more strict about it (probably). Apparently the other dude denied racing her (When she stood there 5 minutes prior and admitted to racing him, lol) and got 6 months license suspension, $500 fine, and a weekend in county.

 

[Praziquantel86]

sparda is known to be a very fast and skilled driver, i wouldnt put it that far past him.. 128mph isnt hard to attain in a half decent car.

Says who? The internet?

 

[thephoenician88]

Ok, here's what I heard about intern licenses from the dean at our school. If you're in doubt, put it on there anyway and let the school know, because they can help. If you don't put it on there, but they find out later, you'll have to appear in front of the board and explain why it wasn't on there.

 

[PetrucciM3]

Ehh, I'd let them know about it but I doubt that they will hold it against you. It's just a traffic violation.

I could have gotten into some deep **** earlier this year though. I was actually running late for a final so I was doing insane speeds the whole way there. (I did 140 mph across the RFK Bridge, passed by a cop at that speed, and I kept going. The cop never caught up to me.)

Haha, what kind of car do you have that can maintain a speed of 140.

BS

 

[Passion4Sci]

Haha, what kind of car do you have that can maintain a speed of 140.

BS

Well, it depends on how long you want it sustained for.

But, if you'd kept reading, you would've seen his explanation of his fancy km/h mp/h converting thingee in his car, and the speed was 128 mp/h, not 140 km/h.

 

[Sparda29]

Volkswagen CC, 4 cylinder turbo. Chipped it and added a cold air intake. Should be pushing 270 HP and 310 Torque. (If you've seen the commercial on TV, its the one where there's this guy talking about how he's doing his own oil change on his Mercedes, and then the Volkswagen car comes out and says, actually VW has free scheduled maintenance, even on the CC)

I don't know when's the last time you've been to the Triborough bridge, but they had construction on it, and the road quality is MUCH better. BTW, I was driving from Queens into Manhattan. When I got on the bridge, I was already at 95 mph, hit 128 mph in not much time, and sustained it until the curve on the bridge, then coasted to the toll gate from there.

Narrow laned, yes, that bridge is quite narrow laned, which is probably why almost every driver I passed was flipping me the bird because they can't manage to keep their cars within the lanes. (multitasking *******s, that's the one thing I don't do when I drive, I don't pick up my phone, no eating, no reading newspapers, no shaving)

Oh, by the time I got anywhere near the toll plaza, I was doing an innocent 55 mph. The only thing that worries me about driving that fast in the city is being spotted by a "spy in the sky" aKa helicopters, but when you're running late to a Therapeutics final, that **** doesn't worry you.

 

[Passion4Sci]

A 4-cylinder with more torque than HP?

Now out comes the BS flag!



A chip and a CAI took you from 200/207 to 270/310? A chip... and a CAI... netted you 103 ft-lbs of torque? That's better gains than the Supra TT gets from bolt-ons, ROFL. Whoever told you what performance gains you'd get from your mods was blowing some serious platinum smoke up your ass.

Dyno sheet or it def. didn't happen.

That is a really nice car, though. Looks sorta like a Mercedes.

 

[Sparda29]

A 4-cylinder with more torque than HP?

Now out comes the BS flag!



A chip and a CAI took you from 200/207 to 270/310? A chip... and a CAI... netted you 103 ft-lbs of torque? That's better gains than the Supra TT gets from bolt-ons, ROFL. Whoever told you what performance gains you'd get from your mods was blowing some serious platinum smoke up your ass.

Dyno sheet or it def. didn't happen.

That is a really nice car, though. Looks sorta like a Mercedes.

The guy who designed it, also designed the Mercedes CLS. Yes, it has more torque than horsepower, which is why I got it instead of the Civic Si (no point in having power if you can't have it at the lower RPMs.)

The chip took me from 200/207 to 254/297 (yes, part of the chip's programming was to go into the boost solenoid). The CAI added about 10-20 HP/Torque. I do need to find a dyno place though. I'm estimating that once I add a downpipe, an intercooler, and the new turbo kit, I should be pushing 400 HP. But I'll probably do the brakes before adding any extra turbo. I have hit 150 mph in this car before I chickened out, it is definitely capable of 165 mph.

I got the mods done by APR. http://www.goapr.com/

This is the dyno sheet from the APR website. I'm guessing this refers to the power at the crank, and not at the wheels.

 

[Passion4Sci]

Is the APR Stage I on pump in that graph?

I've seen the Steeda and Kenne Bell graphs too, on their website. In reality, it never matches up to what the mfr. suggests it should.

I've got no doubt the chip did good lovin' for your car, but 10-20 hp/tq (unless you're talking about flywheel, which translates into ~5-10 hp/tq at the wheels, which is all that matters) but for those two mods, 310 ft-lbs of torque is really optimistic.

The ROUSHCharger on my Mustang was rated for 135hp/80lb-ft flywheel and it ended up putting only 97 more ponies and 53 more lb-ft of torque to the ground from naturally aspirated. Accounting for a bit of parasitic drive train loss, the dyno man was expecting more like 115hp/65lb-ft to the wheels. Was pretty disappointing given the price tag... And the induction system I had added prior was a whopping 3hp/4ft-lb increase to the ground. Bottom line: Companies lie through their teeth to sell ****. Hell, the 73mm "high boost pressure pulley" that Roush hawked me as a related item was claimed to give me a nice 15-hp increase at the wheels and that definitely was not the case, LOL.

If you've never had your VW do a dyno pull you really should. It's almost depressing...

I'm sure a sleek car like that could easily hit 150. I have had my bulky Mustang around Laguna Seca at 140+ on high test and its co-efficient of drag is probably a good degree higher than your lithe import.

The resemblance to the Mercedes is more stark every time I look at that thing.