Dismissed

Back in August I received a speeding ticket for going 92mph in a speed zone that was less than half of that. Honestly, I deserved the ticket. If I was a better man I probably would have conceded that fact and just paid my $411 fine. Sadly, the prospect of being bent over by my car insurance wasn’t to appealing and I decided to go with a traffic lawyer to fight the ticket.

When I contacted my traffic lawyer I originally thought my ticket was for 72mph and not 92mph. At this point I was told that I was lucky that I wasn’t cited for reckless driving and that my chances of getting out of the ticket were slim.

A week later I received a phone call from my lawyer informing me that my ticket was actually for 92mph. So not only was I extremely lucky for not receiving a reckless, but I was lucky that I didn’t end up in jail that night. The only reasonable explanation for why I lucked out is that the officer probably had somewhere else to be (talk about being lucky). Needless to say, at this point my chances for having the ticket dismissed went from slim, to very “this is a complete shot in the dark” slim.

Worst case scenario, I was looking at a $411 fine, sky high insurance rates, and a second ticket on my record (I currently have 0, but if this one stood, a deferred ticket that I received a few months back would have been added back on. Best case scenario, I was looking at a $250 lawyer fee and the not-so-great feeling of knowing that I probably deserved the worst.

Well, as it turns out, I received a call from my traffic lawyer today informing me that my ticket was dismissed. While I am surprised and somewhat elated by this news, I still have that not-so-great feeling of knowing that I just dodged a whole round of bullets.

According to Albert Einstein,

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Respectfully, I find that I must disagree with this statement. Expecting to get off scott-free every time I decided to drive like a complete donkey is insanity. Knowing that one day I’ll probably be handed a “worst case scenario” is just the reality of some of my bad driving habits.

What’s really insane is that even knowing all of this, I’ll probably continue to speed. I’ll probably find some way to justify it to myself and even feel good about it from time to time…

Ugh… is this what alcoholics go through?

“I can handle my driving.”

“I’m not hurting anyone”

“It was just that one time I drove to fast (and got caught).”

I suppose it is…

Being good at driving fast is just about as awesome as the ability to take a large number of shots, down a beer-bong, or shot-gun a beer. It’s all great and fantastic until you wake-up the next morning in the hospital, having no recollection of the previous night, with nothing but your boxers and a pair of dress socks (that you got for free with your tuxedo rental) on. Not that this has ever happened to me before…

-donkey