Texas guys MUST READ! and those passing through...

[JKDGabe]

This is not my story but as far as I can tell, it's true.

 

Let my misfortune be a lesson for you. This is a long story, but a

must read. This really happened to me on 12/10/03.

Yesterday, I was driving into town along the Southwest Freeway around 12:30 PM. I was in the far left lane doing the posted speed limit of 65 and going with the flow of traffic. When I got over the Bissonnett/Braeswood

overpass, there was an HPD squad car parked on the left shoulder with the officer standing out in front of his vehicle pointing his radar gun at

oncoming cars. Your inclination automatically tells you to slow down,

whether you were speeding or not.

 

Not a 1/2 mile down the freeway, there was another HPD officer that had

someone pulled over on the left shoulder giving the person a ticket. I

thought, man this was an obvious speed trap and kept on going. I had slowed down to around 60 at that point as now the posted speed limit was 60.

 

About a mile up the road, around Gessner, another HPD officer had someone else pulled over to give them a ticket and literally in front of that traffic stop was another HPD officer (yes we are up to 4 cop cars now in just over a mile) walking around to the front of his car. Just as I was

approaching him, he pointed his radar gun at me and signaled for me to pull over. I was shocked, because I know that I was going the posted speed limit (60) as I immediately looked at my speedometer.

 

The officer came to my window and said "do you know how fast you were

going?" I said yes, I was going 60. He said "you were doing 58" and he

showed me his radar gun, which read 58. I said okay. He said "you failed to slow your speed down by 20 MPH or move over to the adjacent lane when an emergency vehicle was stopped in the flow of traffic." I said, I did not know that was a law (of course that is never a defense) and he said it was and asked for my license. I offered that and my concealed handgun license to him (as I am required by law, being a CHL carrier), as well as the knowledge that I was carrying my pistol under the rear passenger seat. The officer wrote me a ticket that carries a $200 maximum fine for this infraction.

 

 

Come to find out, this is a new state law as of September 1, 2003. From the TX DPS website

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/director_staff/public_information/pr081903b.htm

, the law reads:

 

SB 193 requires drivers nearing a stopped emergency vehicle that has lights

activated, unless otherwise directed by a law enforcement officer, to:

Vacate the lane closest to the emergency vehicle, if the highway has two or

more lanes traveling the direction of the emergency vehicle; or

 

Slow to a speed not more than 20 miles per hour (mph) less than the posted

speed limit when the posted speed limit is 25 mph or more; or

 

Slow to a speed not more than five mph when the posted speed limit is less

than 25 mph.

 

A violation is a punishable by a maximum fine of $200. If the violation

results in property damage, the maximum fine increases to $500. If the

violation results in bodily injury, the offense is enhanced to a Class B

misdemeanor.

 

Yes, I got a ticket for going less than the posted speed limit, but not 20

miles per hour below the posted speed limit. My perception is that the

local law enforcement folks have found a new revenue source and are aching

to get your $200!!

 

[/url]http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/director_staff/public_information/pr081903b.htm

[RB26powered74zcar]

I can understand the logic in that law, but man that stinks when they apply it huh......

 

I'm in Texas fairly often, I'll be on the look out for that trap.

 

Thanks for the heads up, and sorry bout your ticket

[Guest TM240Z]

I think that they are doing that everywhere.Here we have to slow to 60km/h ( 40mph). I think its a good idea as cops have been killed from being hit by passing cars. My brother got pulled over for the same thing, let him go with a warning. He's lucky, as the fine is $500.

[BillZ260]

IT's fine that they pass a law but they need to advertize it on the local news or something. I think it is totally unfair to post a new law that wasn't voted on and not let the public know about it. It seems that if they would have covered it on the 10pm news that everyone the next day would be talking about it and you would have heard, whether you watch the news or not.

[johnc]

Out of habit I tend to move over a lane when passing a vehicle stopped on the side of the road. I would think though that Texas HWP would do what the California HWP does, and that's approach the stopped vehicle from the passenger side. From the story above it looks like a classic speed trap with a twist. If I was ticked in that situation I would go to court and fight it.

 

Also, passing a law doesn't save lives. Here in California we've passed laws requireing 55mph or less near construction sites, double fine zones, etc. and the number of Caltrans workers killed each year by motorists remains basically the same. The only result of these laws are increased revenue for the state.

[Guest bluex_v1]

We just had a variant of this passed in GA. At least they had radio messages during the traffic reports to give people a heads up. Ours requires motorists to change lanes to ensure there is at least one clear lane between you and them, and if traffic conditions don't permit that, you must slow to 'below the posted speed limit'. little more reasonable I think.