* * Going to court(s)

A few weeks ago, in an entry here on this blog called, “Bumping another car,” I spoke about receiving a traffic violation. The stories got much more complicated before it got simpler again.

I did not yet have the chance to document here the fact that I got a second moving validation only three weeks later. I was driving through the town of Independence, Virginia, there to do research for my next book. I was evidently paying less attention to my driving than I should've been, because as I approached the town center, the speed limit dropped but my speed didn't. I was pulled over and given a ticket for going 60 mph in a 45 mph zone.

Interestingly, my two scheduled court dates were only one day apart, with the speeding ticket being first on Monday afternoon in Independence and the second being on Tuesday morning in Pulaski.

This sudden placement in outlaw status messed with my mind in several ways. First, I began to doubt whether I was even capable of driving anymore without doing something wrong (Have you noticed that some speed limits are REALLY slow?). Second, I wondered about the punishment, particularly in light of the possibility of having one infringement weighing on the other. Was it possible for one plus one to equal more than two? Would the jurisdictions even communicate to each other? I decided to appear in court and take my chances.

The courtroom session opened at 1:30 PM in Independence for my speeding ticket. After going through the metal detector and entering the courtroom, I found that there were perhaps only eight other people charged with traffic violations. Likely given my typical place at the beginning of most lists alphabetical order, I was called first. The judge swore me in and asked me for a plea. I pled guilty. Then, he asked the policeman to indicate what I had done wrong. I was given the opportunity to accept a fine of $30 plus $61 in court costs and three points against my driving record or to pay $61 in court costs and have the fine and the points against my driving record expunged after completion of a daylong driver education course.

I left the courtroom wondering what might happen the following day and whether two infractions could be wiped away with a single driver education course completion certificate.

The next morning, I was in a Pulaski at 8:30 AM, my scheduled court date. the Pulaski County Court was much more crowded, with perhaps 50 people waiting their turn for judgment. The judge worked with the lawyers first, both those who were representing clients alone and those who were representing clients who were in attendance. The judge was thorough and fair-minded. He punished severely the people who deserved to be punished and he was lenient towards the people who had made simple mistakes.

I was very glad that I had brought along a library book to read, because by the time we adjourned for a break for a recess at 12:15 PM, I was still sitting on the hard pew; the backlog of people waiting in the audience had barely been touched. Across the street from the courthouse is a public library. Fearing that I would finish my book before my case came up, I went inside and bought some old magazines and a paperback book.

To my pleasure, however, my case came up quickly thereafter.

The state trooper who investigated this accident and I went through the same swearing in procedure as the day before. The judge asked the trooper what happened. Because the trooper did not see this accident, he got his information from me and the other driver. Therefore, I had no objection to what he said. The judge turned to me and asked me to tell my version. I told him that I had a moment of inattention and it caused me to bump another car. I pleaded that this was the first time in over 40 years of driving that I had ever damaged someone else's car. He chuckled and said, “I'm guessing you have probably not had similar model of attention deficit since then.” I thought about the speeding ticket that happened only three months only three weeks later but didn’t mention it. I said, “I have tried to be more attentive.” He said, “I suppose everyone makes mistakes. I think I am going to let you go on this one. I don't think that someone who has been driving for 40 years without an accident is going to learn much from driver education. I am not even going to ask you to pay court costs.”

I left that courtroom borderline ecstatic!

Because I am facing only one violation rather than two and because the speeding ticket only carries three points, now I am considering whether to simply accept those points and paid a fine rather than going to school.

This story has a much happier ending than I feared a few weeks ago. Now the challenge is to start the next no-ticket streak and avoid the piercing eyes of the law for several more years to come.