Traffic Ticket story Dec15, 2024

 Most Memorable Traffic Ticket

Flynn Family Story Slingers

15 December 2024

By Cary Holmquist

No particular traffic ticket stands out in my memory, but they parade ahead of me as specific moments of my mobile life.

The first ticket I had was a citation for reckless driving that I got in July 1975 for wrecking a car and before I even had a driver’s license card.  It happened a few weeks after I had taken my drivers license test and before I received the plastic card with my photo from the Montana Department of Motor Vehicles, all printed in Deer Lodge.  Anyway, I had driven off the side of the road at Vaughn, Montana, hit an irrigation culvert that crossed a deep barrow pit and overturned the car and pretty much totaled the vehicle.  I had been trying to change the heat and air flow and took my attention off the road for too long and drifted right off the road and could not correct in time.  Totally my fault.  I had the receipt that I had passed the driver’s test and paid for the license fee with me, otherwise I would have also been cited for driving without a license.

The next ones came for speeding.  Nationwide back in the 1970s, the speed limit was 55 miles per hour, mandated by the federal government as the Nixon administration’s solution to the fuel crisis and Americans using too much gas because they speeded too much.  Montana’s own limit was actually higher than that and Montanas were used to crossing the vast distances of the state at whatever speed they could achieve.  So, the Montana complied with the federal government’s policy that the posted limit would be 55 mph or lose federal highway funding.   

The thumb-your-nose Democrat state Legislature conceded that the law would be enforced by a maximum fine of $5 per speeding infraction (other offenses were more appropriately fined) and could be paid on the spot to the officer issuing the citation, which would not be recorded on the driver’s record and so no concern to insurance companies and their proclivity to raise rates following traffic citations.  I paid quite a few of these $5 fines. 

One of my earliest tickets was for running a stop sign in Missoula.  On my bicycle.  From 1975 to 1984 my main form of transportation living in Missoula was a bicycle.  I rarely fully stopped at stop signs unless the vehicle traffic was impending.  In this case, there was no traffic and the police officer in his cruiser saw me from a block away.  

By the time I figured out he was following me in pursuit, I tried to avoid him by swerving through parking lots and down sidewalks.  He was persistent and when I got to my destination at the Holiday Village shopping center, he officially stopped me and demanded my driver’s license.  Evidently, you need a driver’s license when riding a bicycle, in order to receive a ticket for an offense made while driving a bicycle.  Kids evidently get a free-bee, though I suppose kids should not be riding on the streets anyway. 

Carrie Keiser

My first and thus far only ticket was on a December morning in 2001 while I headed to drop off Cody and Shantel at school.I might have been cutting it a little close and I still had to pick up Dakotah. I should probably mention that the speedometer on the suburban we had had not been working for awhile and we just hadn't gotten around to getting it fixed. I headed to Lincoln Elementary with my one intended stop in mind. We were passing the stock yards when I saw flashing lights and the tell-tale siren. So I pulled over. Suburban loaded with my kids (only 4 at the time), cop approaches my window, I hand over the requested items and begin to explain about my speedometer. A neighbor who was also on her way to the school, stopped to ask if she could grab the kids so they wouldn't be late. Before I could even respond, the cop told her that she just needed to get back in her car and leave! So rude I really could have used them getting to school on time and couldn't understand why the cop wouldn't allow it. The officer didn't care that the reason I was speeding was because of the faulty speedometer. He just handed me a ticket with instructions to meet the judge and pay up. I took the ticket and went straight to the school forgetting to swing by and get Dakotah.  Oops! Wendy drove way too fast and got there just in time. Good ting for her the cop had gone in the opposite direction, since she was going way faster than my 40 in a 25.

I went to the court to meet with the judge on the appointed day to explain about the speedometer. I was quickly annoyed when the judge came in wearing sweat pants and Birkenstocks with holey socks and she too had zero cares about my speedometer issue. I was so frustrated that tears may have been present (but there's no evidence) and I just paid the fee and left the court.

Story Slingers 

December 15, 2024

Myrna Flynn

The Ticket I Never Paid

In 2004 I was driving for People for People. I left for work one morning, Daren was working riding with me. I pulled up to the stop sign at Naylor Junction. I looked left and I looked right, I did not see any vehicle coming. I turned left toward Ephrata then Daren yelled, "Myrna!"

There was a semi coming at us from the right also heading to Ephrata. Luckily I have faster reactions. I jerked the steering wheel to the left and lost only a mirror on the passenger side. The driver of the semi called 911.

The patrolman showed up, checked the vehicles and could see that the mirror was the only thing that suffered damage.

He wrote out the ticket and told me to go to the courthouse on trial day and tell the judge my story as to what happened.

I was sure that he would not believe me when I said that I did not see the truck, that it must have been in my blind eye section.

He asked if I had looked to the right and the left. I said, "Yes I did."

He checked my license and saw that I had no tickets. He said that since I had no citations the charge would be held and if after 2 years my record was still clear, the charges would be dropped.

(I have another story I could tell but only as a passenger, I will only tell if the driver does not tell it.)

The second story is: 

Carrie, Cody, Shantel and I had been down to Pomeroy visiting Gramma Grace. Coming back on Hwy 17 between Moses Lake and Ephrata we had been experiencing an annoying driver who would pass us and then slow down, so Carrie would speed up to get around them and they would pass us and slow down. This happened several times, a highway patrolman or trooper pulled us both over and explained that he had seen what was going on and Carrie would not be getting a ticket. The whole time the trooper was taking to Carrie, Cody who was about 2.5 years old kept singing the theme song from COPS, "Bad boys, bad boys, what ya gonna do when they come for you?  Hey my grandpa is a cop!"