so i just got pulled over for a seatbelt ticket, i said fine, 50 bucks. cop comes up and asks for my info. im thinking, i gotta get to work, lets get this over with. i reach in my glovebox for my registration, and then my pocket for my license, but it wasn't there. cop laughs and issues two tickets, seatbelt and no DL. what do I do with this? i can pay the belt ticket no problem, this no license thing is bothering me.

 

Plead not guilty on the no license ticket, pay the seat belt fine, go to court, show your license and you'll most likely get it reduced or if you lucky, overturned.

 

I memorized my license number! If you ever get pulled over without it, tell him that you know it, give it to him and more than likely not, he'll drop it!

 

I'm told that here in PA, if you forget your license, you can present it within 15 days at any police station or city hall and they'll cancel the ticket.

 

I think you can just go to the court house (or where ever you go to physically pay your ticket and show them your license and they will drop the ticket and charge you a small (sub 30$) fine. Pay the seat beat ticket and get yourself a 3rd gen maxima. yum autoseat belts....

 

cant they pull it up by your name and address? probably a little more lengthy of a process but wont they still do that (assuming they are half decent police officers)?

 

Interesting--was that a local or trooper? I got pulled over by NJ State Police a month ago, he asked for license and registration and I handed him my insurance card only, by mistake. He didn't ask me for anything more and let me go without anything else.

I thought the seatbelt thing was like the hands-free cell thing. You have to get stopped for something else in order to get cited, no? He would have to be a psychic cop to predict that you would not be able to produce your DL.

 

Thats true, I dont know how the hell any cop can tell your not wearing your seat belt as your driving by. You'd have to get stoped for something else.

And when you got pulled over why didnt you slap on your seat belt real quick?

 

washington and (i think) oregon are different...the laws were recently changed - cops can now pull you over for nothing more than not wearing your seatbelt.

you've gotta be an idiot not to wear one anyways

 

In Oregon the officer could have your vehicle towed for that FTL.

 

apparently I had "sped" through a light. I was making the turn at the light, and as i was turning there was a car parked to the right and WAY too close to the corner and i briefly saw the reverse lights flicker on. so i pulled left and then right to avoid it. The cop evidently was first at the light on the cross street. saw this and pulled me over. I did put on my seatbelt real quick, and when i told him I had it on, he smirked and said yea right kid. i hate driving.

it's an easy ticket for him on a sunday morning, downtown paterson cops don't get paid much at all and they need those tickets. the guy wrote up my ticket based on JUST my registration. on one of the two tickets, he wrote a different town on the address portion. goes to show how tough that police exam is, can't even transpose writing from one thing to another.

worst part of the whole story. my license was in the trunk of my car, in my workout shorts. i hope i can just pay the surcharge and not sit through court for 2 hours to speak with the judge for 10 seconds.

 

State troopers are ruthless. i've never been "let go" for anything. =(

Thank you for calling me an idiot.

 

Jersey is weird like that...but I would definitely be fighting that one ticket...and you most certainly should always wear your BELT!!!...mine save my life once, so I will always be an advocate....besides you know the morons in Jersey can't drive anyways...a better reason to wear the "safe-belt"

 

in NJ it doesnt matter if you know your license by heart, you are required to carry it at all times so knowing it really doesnt mean squat. You can get a ticket for walking around town with no ID over 18 for crying out loud.

You have 14 days to present it IF your not given a ticket and the cop requests you present it. If you dont he can issue the ticket at that time. You need to go to court, plead not guilty on the license, and show it at court. Some judges dismiss, some make you pay court costs.

 

yeah it's one of those lame laws... licence must be on you at all times. Insurance is different, you're allowed 24 hours to prove you have. Technically you had it with you, you were just unable to locate it, but that's just your word and they don't have to accept it. Talk to the prosecutor before your hearing. If you have a clean record they'll likely give you a break

 

Nj isn't the only place that requires you carry one! It does matter depending on the officer. I have gotten out of a ticket not having one on me! Memorizing your number can be helpful to the officer rather having to look you up! The less he has to do, the more forgiving he can be! It tells him you aren't hiding anything and that you are indeed, licensed! So ScubaSteve, it does matter sometimes! It looks like you have it together, even when you have a blonde moment and forget your license anyway!

 

anyone thinking i might need a lawyer for it? i have i think 5 seatbelts in the past 6 years and 2 unsafe operations.

 

happend to me as well. ull go to court and just show em your lisence, theyll dismiss it with a $10 court fee. but make sure u pleed not guilty first

 

Having been a New Yorker transplanted to Phila. for grad school, I don't think I would consider "morons in Jersey can't drive" to be a very accurate statement. If anything, the drivers in Phila. are pretty poor on their skills. First of all, they don't observe the law, to include traffic signals. Phila. is the only place where I've seen motorists make an illegal U-turn to bypass a red light. Bizarre. Secondly, they seem to have an inablility to merge--cars will most often begin braking on an on-ramp, or even come to a complete stop at the foot of an onramp and try to barge in. It's so bizarre you have to come here to see what I mean.

Meters were installed on the Blue Route (I-476) which cause chaos due to the drivers here. They work in LA, but not in Phila.

The one thing I would say is the cost of living is so low in Phila. that if you earn a Manhattan salary here, you can easily afford a shore house and BMW.

 

Ohio law allows police to pull you over for seatbelt only. No other moving violation is needed.

 

he can cite you, but the ticket cannot have any weight. it should say something like "failure to posses/display license". you just bring it to the probate court and it goes away...

 

Eh? you Guys never heard of the "Click it or Ticket" initiative? I've driven through stretches where they were specifically looking for and stopping people not wearing seatbelts. You'd have to be an idiot not to wear one anyway. trust me, THERE IS A REASON racecar drivers wear 5-point harnesses, in fact, i would have to say that they're usually more comfortable to me.

FIVE SEATBELT VIOLATIONS??? Holy Sheit, my motther woulda beat the **** outta me had i ever not worn a seatbelt. Your arm broke or something? i downright feel STRANGE not wearing one, even if the car's stopped.

 

I'm gonna call your bluff on the first one. Michigan vs. Sitz applies to sobriety checkpoints, if you want to apply it to a seatbelt checkpoint, post the supporting facts.

I went through (literally) a set of cones where a cop was handing out click it or ticket propoganda. The purpose was to educate, not issue summons for lack of seatbelts. I decided not to stop, which caused the cop to start screaming, but too bad.

I believe in wearing seatbelts, but again, I also believe in factual information, even on an anonymous fourm and the web. I'm going to say again in the State of NJ you do not get pulled over for no belt or not using a hands free cell if that's the only violation. The checkpoints for seatbelts, that's pure hollywood. If you want to say they were handing out information, that would be altogether different.

 

If I knew a cop that pulled me over on a no seatbelt violation I'd say "but officer, with the way I was driving if I got in a wreck the last place I'd want to be is in the car"

 

well, Frank, what do you want me to find? a blogger's experience with one of these checkpoints because he wasn't wearing a belt? A friend of mine's a cop in Northville Township, MI and can vouch for it. This wasn't a coned checkpoint like you're thinking, this was a busy, SLOW intersection at the north end of Monroe on Telegraph where they had one cop standing just past the intersection, a cruiser about 10yards up, someone pulled over by a bike cop another 30yards up, and another cruiser about a mile up the road. Based on the traffic volume when i was heading through the area i have SERIOUS doubts that it was a speedtrap(also since nobody was running their gun, a testament of my Escort 8500 with POP enabled) and third off, on a different day i was leaving a shop and a guy on a motorcycle warned me about a 'seatbelt enforcement zone" in the same area. So, i may not have video of someone getting pulled over for this, but I have enough information from some coincidental encounters to say with some degree of certainty that it's true. I know they were running this campaign over a year ago, so my guess is that they went to active enforcement this year. As for NJ, I don't live there, so I wouldn't know. What I do know, is that Ohio and Michigan have some of the strictest enforcement of traffic laws in the nation, and it's not uncommon for one or the other to institute a law or action that has the rest of the states utilizing in some form of within 5 years.

 

Again, I don't agree with Ohio and Michigan as being states which prompt the other 48 states to follow-suit. California, yes. New York, maybe. Detroit having the violent crime record that they do, I would think cops have their hands busy chasing criminals, not making sure motorists are belted-up.

 

I know NJ is stopping strictly for seatbelts.

 

2 more lessons learned in life.

 

I had the same situation with me forgetting my wallet and memorizing my license # and expiration. It doesn't matter if you memorize your license; Insurance & registration #. A law enforcement officer have every right to see physical proof. I don't agree with this however it's the law. I got my ticket signed off by an officer showing proof of license and just paid the court cost by mail which was $15. Fee's may vary by your state. Don't worry so much about this. It ain't no big deal. No points will be added to your dmv report.

 

So you dont agree with a law that is enforced for the safety of citizens such as yourself? Remembering your wallet is a small price to pay for freedom and safety.

 

I was not arguing whether or not it was law enforcements right to see the license, I was mentioning that it can help (and has for me), having it memorized.

All of this bru-ha-ha over his foolishness!

 

I got a ticket for not having insurance and not displaying my registration. The not wearing a seatbelt, and something else were put on the ticket as warnings. When I got to court, I just showed the judge my proof of insurance and proof of registration. Both got dismissed and I walked without paying anything.

Remember, you don't have to get out of the car if they ask you. Just tell them "no" if they ask you to step out of your vehicle and they can't get you out to do any kind of sobriety test, or anything.

 

Wow, this is great advice that nobody should follow...

If a police officer wanted to, he cold tazer your a$$ out the car, lock you up and have your car towed at your expense if they believe you are under the influence of alcohol or drugs...

 

yeah but if you're not high or drunk and the office has no reason to suspect you are, he can't just arrest you for being difficult. I don't recommend being a douchebag to your local police.. but definitely know the limits to their power and you're own rights.

 

Well, since you put it that way, maybe I'm in agreement, however thats not what you said the first time. Anyway I agree, don't be a douchebag to your local police...

 

Actually, he CAN. I suggest you go back to law school professor before you get yourself in trouble.

 

If you refuse to submit to field sobriety test, then the only assumption the officer can make is you are intoxicated. Remember in a court you are innocent until proven guilty.....the officer on the other hand you have to prove your ability to drive safely. This is called implied consent (at least here in Alabama) your license is a privilege, not a right, so when an officer has reasonable suspicion that you are intoxicated you MUST submit to the test, or prove to a judge/jury your innocence later.....after you are arrested.

 

i keep my expired license in my car. so they should be able to look up my info and see it's active.

not wearing belt FTL
wow you have teh smarts huh?

 

exactly i have family high up in the police ranks and they tell me the same thing. one captain tells me they cant pull you over without a reason and they cant search, make you get out of the car unless they call in that there might be weapons in the car, but if i have nothing to hide i should grant them these wishes because it could escalate into something more serious.lets say the officer is a b*tch and you **** him off by saying no, he can start harrasing you to get you agitated then lock you up for diorderly conduct and say it was you acting eratic and refusing to cooperate. of course it will get thrown out but he just locked you up for the night and caused you a lot of headaches for nothing.

 

The law must be REALLY different up there becaus ein 99.9% of this country its called reasonable suspicion and thats all they need.