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reckless driving in VA--advice?

doodle

doodle

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Feb 22, 2008
Messages
1,810
On our drive from NYC back home to Georgia, we got pulled over in Virginia, and the officer wrote DH a ticket for doing 81 in a 70, which in Virginia qualifies as reckless driving rather than a speeding ticket; if found guilty, it counts as a misdemeanor and has some scary ramifications involved. We're definitely getting a lawyer since we have to go to court rather than just pay a fine, but I was wondering if anyone on here had actually dealt with that whole process. To say that I'm terrified would be a total understatement! Thanks for letting me vent for a second, and please keep your fingers crossed for DH!
 
The highest speed limit in VA is 65, and anything either 20 miles over the speed limit or over 80 is considered reckless.

That said, I'm not sure that it's actually considered a misdemeanor unless something has changed. I got a reckless driving ticket in VA several years ago (maybe 7 or 8?) and it was just like a regular ticket. The fine was probably higher but that's it.

Good luck-hopefully you can get it reduced to regular speeding since it was only 81 and wasn't 20 miles over the speed limit. (I'm assuming you were in a 65 mph area.)
 
Thing, we were on I-85, which is the only interstate in VA with a speed limit over 65, so the speed limit through there was definitely 70. Reckless driving in Virginia is a Class 1 Misdemeanor the same as getting a DUI. Their law is if you're speeding by 20 or if you're doing anything over 80, it's reckless driving rather than speeding. Its max punishment is 12 months in jail, 6 months license suspension, and/or
$2,500 fine. The officer said he was doing 81 in a 70, which I seriously doubt since the cruise control was set to 75, but what judge would believe that considering how often people claim their cruise control was set to something lower, you know? The thing that gets me is with it being only 1 mph difference between reckless and just speeding, I'm hoping a lawyer could convince a judge to reduce the charge! Lesson learned--drive super slow in Virginia!
 
Yikes-that must be a relatively new thing because I know I wasn't charged with a misdemeanor. That's pretty ridiculous actually-I hope you can get it reduced if you agree to driving school or something.
 
doodle said:
Thing, we were on I-85, which is the only interstate in VA with a speed limit over 65, so the speed limit through there was definitely 70. Reckless driving in Virginia is a Class 1 Misdemeanor the same as getting a DUI. Their law is if you're speeding by 20 or if you're doing anything over 80, it's reckless driving rather than speeding. Its max punishment is 12 months in jail, 6 months license suspension, and/or
$2,500 fine. The officer said he was doing 81 in a 70, which I seriously doubt since the cruise control was set to 75, but what judge would believe that considering how often people claim their cruise control was set to something lower, you know? The thing that gets me is with it being only 1 mph difference between reckless and just speeding, I'm hoping a lawyer could convince a judge to reduce the charge! Lesson learned--drive super slow in Virginia!
Click to expand...


If you know you were doing 75 and not 81 then I highly recommend getting your speedometer checked. I knew a woman who got a speeding ticket and she swore up and down that she wasn't speeding. Her job requires daily travel and she needed to maintain a spotless driving record to keep her job. She got her speedometer checked and it turned out it was showing 8 miles off! The dealer recalibrated it and she got them to put it in writing. She was fighting the ticket, took it to court, showed the judge her spotless driving record and that her speedometer was wrong, that she had it fixed and he threw her case out. It might be worth a try!
 
I agree to getting the speedometer checked. I just found out that mine is about 4 over!! So here I thought I was doing 30 and I was really doing 26. YIKES!
 
doodle said:
Thing, we were on I-85, which is the only interstate in VA with a speed limit over 65, so the speed limit through there was definitely 70. Reckless driving in Virginia is a Class 1 Misdemeanor the same as getting a DUI. Their law is if you're speeding by 20 or if you're doing anything over 80, it's reckless driving rather than speeding. Its max punishment is 12 months in jail, 6 months license suspension, and/or
$2,500 fine. The officer said he was doing 81 in a 70, which I seriously doubt since the cruise control was set to 75, but what judge would believe that considering how often people claim their cruise control was set to something lower, you know? The thing that gets me is with it being only 1 mph difference between reckless and just speeding, I'm hoping a lawyer could convince a judge to reduce the charge! Lesson learned--drive super slow in Virginia!
Click to expand...

Doodle, it's that stretch of 85 just north of NC, right? I drive that all the time - they're definitely tricky.

A friend of mine got a reckless ticket doing 82 - she was passing a truck, and the cop got her right as she was accelerating to get by. I'll ask her what the process was like for her. I think she got her ticket reduced, but I don't remember how.
 
Princesss, yup, you're exactly right! I'd love to know how things worked out for your friend, how much it cost her, who her lawyer was, anything you can tell me! I'm sooooo nervous about this! I told DH to get his speedometer checked out by someone who can notarize the results, and I also told him we needed to find out when the last time the officer calibrated his radar gun was.
 
Hi, doodle-

I don't have much to add. I just wanted to let you know I've been following this thread since you started it. (In fact, I e-mailed a link to it to my teenage daughter so that she could read the information Karl came up with.) I have a Virginia driver's license and legal residence in Virginia although I drive back and forth between Connecticut and Virginia all the time. My daughter and I have taken a a couple of vacations south of us-one in Charleston and one in Savannah-that involved driving through southern Virginia as you did. Either I am a slower driver or I was just lucky. I had no idea the penalties for speeding in Virginia were so severe...and I have lived there since 2004!

I am going to be a lot more careful when driving long distances. It is hard to speed in my area (the DC suburbs); there is far too much traffic!

Deb/AGBF
:read:
 
Okay, she says that she got a lawyer that specialized in this (she just Googled them), and that they got it down to just a speeding ticket. She did get her speedometer checked, and it was off, so that's what the lawyer used to petition it down to just a basic speeding ticket and not a $2k reckless ticket. She doesn't remember who she used or how much it cost, but she did say they were easier on her since she wasn't a VA resident.

HTH!
 
Wow, I was driving home from VIrginia to Georgia when I was 18 or 19 and also got a reckless driving ticket going 81 on I-85 too (about 12 years ago). I remember it being a more expensive ticket than the rest of my other speeding tickets (I drive fast). I believe it was around $300 or so. I just mailed mine in and never heard about it again. I remember thinking the good thing was that it was in a different state and the insurance company wouldn't find out about it.

I guess things have changed since then! I can't imagine paying a $2k fine!
 
Thanks again for the info and advice, everyone! Princesss, you seriously made me feel a little better about how this could all work out, so thanks for sharing! AGBF, glad to hear that all this was at least helpful for you guys--silver lining, woot! :))
 
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