Outran the cops BUT...
 

Today is the NICEST day of the year so far in Pennsylvania, and I was out driving with a buddy in my 911. I let him drive for a while, and he took it for a spirited run. We stopped to have lunch and noticed about half way into it that 3 police cars were surrounding my 911 in the parking lot. Mind you - we had been there for AT LEAST 15 minutes. As we left, the police informed us that we passed the scene of an accident where at least one officer and 3 civilians witnessed "a white 911 driving by at a high rate of speed". I sincerely do not remember going by an accident, but anyways... my buddy fessed up to driving fast, didn't try to get out of it, and took the near $300 "reckless driving" citation.

The sickeningly neat thing to me is that my buddy wasn't even trying to outrun the police officer who left the scene of the accident to chase us down, and the police didn't find us until 20 minutes later. Nice car, but your sins do catch up with you...

You can not be convicted unless your car can be specifically identified by a witness, basically that means if no one saw your license plate you are free and clear.

This sounds bogus. Fifteen minutes later they see you parked and charge you because you have white 911? And your friend doesn't try to get out of it? Come on...

Haha - you don't know my friend. He didn't even inquire about the circumstance they "caught" him in. He just confessed. It's alright if you don't believe me - not going to ruin my day!

Was he out on a day pass?

Just a guy with a really sensitive conscience...

Too bad you have the ONLY white 911 in the state.


Seriously, I think that if a cop was in pusuit he would have caught you guys. ...not 15 min's later.

Where I live, the witness would have to make a citizen's arrest.

The cops won't ticket or arrest based on someone's say-so; only if they witnessed the infraction themselves (even if, as your friend did, one admits guilt to the officer).

They gotta catch you in the act.

Edit: Oops - you did say one of the witnesses was a cop, so maybe not.

back roads + 911 driving spiritedly = hard for Ford to catch

It's unlikely - I admit.

$300 for what? Why wait until his insurance rates double. Reckless driving is nothing to scoff at. At the very least he should try to get it dropped to excessive speed. How did they determine he was reckless?

He should contest the ticket. A good mouthpiece would have that kicked out.
Believe me it is worth the effort.

Fight ALL tickets ( tie the bastards up in court) but ESPECIALLY fight this one!!! it's win-able

Good story, you ask for no advise, I give you none.....The laws differ in each state - end of story.....

Point taken, but I have to add my .02 that this one needs to go to court. The driver did the right thing by not protesting the ticket. It never does any good to give a cop any lip. You can't try a ticket on the street, only in front of a judge. Perhaps the cop who wrote the ticket won't show out of some sort of dignity (OK, fat chance) or something else like not being able to POSITIVELY identify the driver or the vehicle. He damn sure can't ID the driver. On the ticket in CA it says that signing is not an admission of guilt, only a promise to appear.

if caught red handed, ok , i would admit it, fair enough

but if caught with something like this, hearsay, or whatever

i'de stone cold deny it... let them try and prove it
witness says high speed? define high speed?
how did the witness establish this? engine noise? did he have a Lidar speed gun?? what is his eyesight like? 20/20? what angle did this witness see me from?? what distance?? is this witness trained and calibrated for speed measurements??

on his court date show up with your car.... and as many white 911s as you can round up, request a line-up.
see if the "witnesses" can pick out the right car?
if not, should be case dismissed based on the purely circumstantial aspect of the situation.

hahahaha - SO many good ideas! My favorite is the white 911 line up. I'm going to show this post to my friend. Though I wasn't asking for advice (as someone noted), my buddy's conscience may be persuaded by all the logical (and comical) advice in here. You guys are great!

If it was 15 minutes, with two adult occupants, and the car was out of sight of the police, even briefly, then they have no way to prove who was driving. And I find it unlikely they would issue a ticket under these circumstances.

I still call this as B$.

not to shower this with a cold soak, why would you not slow down driving by an accident? if for nothing else but to look at the carnage? and this is tech how?

blame it on cliffy, he has a white 911 and rarely an alibi.

T$

That's the thing man - we didn't even see an accident. Like I said... my buddy didn't make any inquiries.

How fast was "Spirited?" What was posted speed?

Paul