Raton speedtrap - Beware!

[WritersBlock]

My father & I went through Raton week before last, and he got a speeding ticket from a gung-ho rookie wanna-be-on-the-swat-team-someday-when-I-grow-up city cop sitting on the side of the road with a radar gun pointed toward Texas.

I won't go into the details of the stop, but I did want to warn any out-of-staters who get stopped in New Mexico: if you intend to fight a ticket, be very careful to make sure that the Penalty Assessment box is *not* ticked, because if it is, and you sign the bottom of the ticket, you've admitted being guilty of the offense. Apparently, you need to ask the officer for a court date instead.

We didn't know this. We assumed that signing the speeding ticket was just like signing one in other states, where you're only acknowledging receipt of the citation, but not admitting guilt.

Shoulda clued in that something was weird when the kid kept asking, "are you going to appear in court?" No, he wasn't going to appear in court; he was going to get a lawyer to appear for him. But unless we want to spend beaucoup money now, he no longer has that option, because that box was ticked and he signed the ticket.

Lesson learned; posting this in the hope it'll save someone else from inadvertently contributing to Raton's city coffers someday.

[Cybergata]

1. There general rule about speed traps in New Mexico is . . .

if it is a small town with no visible means of income, then it is a likely place to have a speed trap. Pojoaque was a notorious speed trap for years. They would catch the speeders going between Santa Fe and Los Alamos/Taos all the time. Now that they have a big casino, they aren't out ticketing people as much. In fact, they probably should since everyone goes about 90 miles per hour on that road, which isn't as bad now that the road has been greatly improved. Still people shouldn't be going through their Pueblo at that speed, even if it is a strip mall pueblo. ;-)

[WritersBlock]

2. Kinda axes the argument that it's all about safety, doesn't it?

I'm still fuming over this thing with Dad, but I realize there's not much I can do about it.

Except, of course, to tell as many people as possible about it. It's just as easy to stop for fuel or food in Clayton or Trinidad as it is to stop in Raton. Sort of puts one out of the mood to spend any further money in a town after one of its cops has just fleeced one for $84 for no good reason. ;)