Google Is Worthless

[Atrocities]

I was east bound on I-84 in the left lane traveling at the posted speed limit of 65 mph. I had just passed several slower moving vehicles and was approaching two semi trucks that were moving slow in the right lane. I opted to stay in the left lane to cruise by them. Unfortunately an Oregon State Patrol officer pulled me over and sighted me for "slow drive not moving to the right."

When I asked how fast I was going, he didn't know, he just chewed me out for not moving right. I knew how fast I was going because I had my cruise control on set to 65. I asked him what the speed limit was, he said 65. Then I asked him if I was driving 65 then how could I be considered slower traffic? He said it didn't matter, that the left lane is for passing only. The law does not state that, it only states that slower traffic must move right if they are obstructing the "natural flow of traffic" which I was clearly not doing. Given the fact that traffic was especially light, and I was passing traffic at the speed limit, I contend that I was the natural flow of traffic and thus did not need to move right given that I was passing cars on the left. Go figure.. OBTW, it isn't a cheap ticket either.

I am going to fight the ticket. I may not win, because OSP love to lie on the stand. (And the cops word is considered more believable than ours.)

[Atrocities]

Gandalf Parker said:
+defend +court +ors +citation
27,200 hits

I don't get how you did that. I only get a small handful and none of them are relevant to my situation. .

[capnq]

Gandalf Parker said: I hear complaints all the time about the search here in the forums also. But I think its usually from people who dont know how to use a search.

Nobody expects a search engine to require the + delimiter on every term to get useful results, the way this forum's search does. Even knowing that, I often have trouble finding things here.

[Mindi]

Atrocities said:
I was east bound on I-84 in the left lane traveling at the posted speed limit of 65 mph. I had just passed several slower moving vehicles and was approaching two semi trucks that were moving slow in the right lane. I opted to stay in the left lane to cruise by them. Unfortunately an Oregon State Patrol officer pulled me over and sighted me for "slow drive not moving to the right."

When I asked how fast I was going, he didn't know, he just chewed me out for not moving right. I knew how fast I was going because I had my cruise control on set to 65. I asked him what the speed limit was, he said 65. Then I asked him if I was driving 65 then how could I be considered slower traffic? He said it didn't matter, that the left lane is for passing only. The law does not state that, it only states that slower traffic must move right if they are obstructing the "natural flow of traffic" which I was clearly not doing. Given the fact that traffic was especially light, and I was passing traffic at the speed limit, I contend that I was the natural flow of traffic and thus did not need to move right given that I was passing cars on the left. Go figure.. OBTW, it isn't a cheap ticket either.

I am going to fight the ticket. I may not win, because OSP love to lie on the stand. (And the cops word is considered more believable than ours.)

Ugh, good luck. I expected some sort of story how you were having car problems or something, but if you are going the speed limit and passing people who are to the right of you, I don't see what possessed him to pull you over, much less make it stick. However, as you said, if the cop shows up and argues the case he will probably get the benefit of the doubt, not you. Let us know how it turns out. Maybe you will get lucky and he won't show up to court.

[Atrocities]

It is the consensuses of most of the people I have talked to that I was the targeted because I was an out of state driver. Given that he cited me over a 100 miles from home he opted to give me a ticket rather than a warning which is the SOP for such stops as these figuring that I would just pay it rather than fight it.

[Gandalf Parker]

Atrocities said:

I don't get how you did that. I only get a small handful and none of them are relevant to my situation. .

Sorry I should have provided the link
http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&complete=1
That is one of the lab/test links so it does provide different results.

I know that California has a law that says that you can be ticketed for going the speed limit if you are driving a very different speed than the traffic around you. Too fast because a situation has caused everyone else to drive slower, or too slow if everyone else is driving well over the speed limit. I can even be ticketed for driving in a surprise snowfall because I grew up in iowa and I know how to take a corner without a great big sliding swing which makes ME the dangerous driver.

[Mindi]

Atrocities said:
It is the consensuses of most of the people I have talked to that I was the targeted because I was an out of state driver. Given that he cited me over a 100 miles from home he opted to give me a ticket rather than a warning which is the SOP for such stops as these figuring that I would just pay it rather than fight it.

Yep, that's probably it. He figured it was easy money/quota because you were out of state and would just pay it rather than go back to fight it. Again, good luck!

[Atrocities]

Well I won.

I had originally asked to have todays trial date posponed but the court never issued me another date so I went ahead and drove the 150 miles to the Dalles. The clerk was surprised to see me and mentioned that my citation plea had been changed because I failed to appear for court today. I found that funny given the fact that the time I was too appear for court wasn't for another 30 minutes. (They lied to me. That flat out lied to me. They said that my case would be postponed but in fact it had not been. Instead they simply changed my plea expecting that I would not show.)

My case was called before the judge and the office was present. The judge did his thing and then the Trooper made his statement. The judge asked me if I had any thing to say and I asked him if I could ask the trooper some questions. He indicated I could so I asked the trooper how fast I was going. I said that he did not indicate my speed on the ticket so how fast was I going? The officer said he didn't recall. I then said, "Was I traveling at 65, 64, 63 miles per hour?" Trooper - "I don't recall."

I then asked him "Isn't it a true fact that I asked how it could be possible if I was traveling at 65mph with my cruise control on to be considered a slow driver? You stated that, and I quote you 'The left lane is for passing only.'"
Trooper - "I recall saying that yes."
ME - "Let me get this right. It is your interruption of ORS 811.315 that the left hand lane is for passing only?"
Trooper - "Correct, that is the law."
Me - "I see." I then turned my attention to the judge and said, "Your Honor I have here a copy of ORS 811.315 and with your permission I would like to read it to the court." The judge stuck out his hand and asked to see the document. I handed it too him. He read it for a moment and then told me to show it to the officer. I did. The officer just glanced at it and handed it back to me.

Me - "Now Trooper-" The Judge cut in. "Mr. Christopher, how fast were you going?" Me - "65mph with my cruise contro-"
The judge puts his finger to his temple and kinda started to rub his head. At this point I felt like I was about to loose my lunch. The then says "Trooper M****** please tell me that you didn't cite Mr. Christopher for driving 65 in a 65 mile per hour speed zone?"
Trooper - "No your honor, I cited him for slow drive failin-"
Judge - "I've heard enough." He had put up his hand palm out at the officer when he said that. Then he looked to me and said "Citation dismissed. Your free to go Mr. Christopher."
He then turned back to the trooper and said. "In the future Trooper M****** please leave the interpreting of the law to the court and stick with simply enforcing it.

The trooper acknowledged with a real pitiful "yes your honor."

I didn't know what to do... I had won. It cost me $60.00 in fuel to drive up there just to save $180.00 x 2 in fines. So I guess I can count this one in the win column for now.

[Edi]

That court hearing story is priceless.

Congrats.

[Gandalf Parker]

Good job. You should find some blogs on the subject and give them the story so that it can float around to inspire others.

One of my lines is...
"I know that the numbers on the white signs the minimum we are allowed to drive without getting honked at or fingered."

Gandalf Parker