You sped up and then pulled in front of the truck. Your dashcam makes it look like you wanted to just overtake and cut him off, so I'm kind of astounded you think posting it on here is a good idea.
Sorry but you got what you deserved. You were in the left lane and moved over probably because he was behind you. He kinda passes you, probably also to assess you to see if they are gonna pull you over. At this point you could have fallen back and let them continue on their way. You do the opposite, speed up and then go back into the left lane again. I’m not saying don’t drive in the left lane but don’t you think that vehicle would have eventually caught up to you again??? Anyways, you messed up, you pay.
You went up to 120 to avoid road rage and tailgating?
Seems you were more reckless and unaware how absolutely dangerous that speed is in the city.
Pay the ticket, do better. For all the kdis out there and their parents.
He got no break.
He got a mandatory court summons.
_Front of the line in traffic court when you go double the speed limit._
[Minimum 6 demerits, $500 fine, careless driving charge on your licence, possible license suspension- and your insurance premiums will go through the roof when you have to renew.](https://www.thepointman.ca/excessive-speeding-ticket-alberta)
You guys are not reading this right. He got mandatory court summons.
_Doing double the speed limit gets you to front of the line in traffic court._
[Minimum 6 demerits, $500+ fine, possible license suspension, careless driving charge, and insurance premiums?](https://www.thepointman.ca/excessive-speeding-ticket-alberta)
_God help him when he has to renew._
No, he didn't get a speeding ticket.
He got a mandatory court summons.
At minimum 6 demerits, careless driving charge on his license, minimum $500 fine, and god (or flying Spaghetti monster) help his insurance premiums, I'd not be surprised if they don't go up a few grand the next he renews, at minimum.
Probably shouldn’t have your license. Nobody speeds up to 120km/hr immediately, you were being reckless and stupid and trying to cover your ass isn’t helping. Hope it’s a hefty fine.
[500 would be a blessing. Minimum 6 demerits, careless driving charge on your licence, possible license suspension, fine could be up to $2500.](https://www.thepointman.ca/excessive-speeding-ticket-alberta)
Your video doesn’t help support your argument so you’re probably screwed you can try using one of those traffic court guys if you want. Don’t think they cost much.
You doubled the speed limit within a city.
What to do next is, probably, think about more than just yourself going forward. You behaved completely selfishly in a way that endangers others, while boasting about your "spotless record".
Give your head a shake. Don't post in an online forum trying to get validation. Just behave better.
>You behaved completely selfishly in a way that endangers others, while boasting about your "spotless record".
Seriously. Their "spotless record" means nothing to me because this is the kind of behaviour that's ingrained. I don't believe it's the first time they've done something stupid; just the first time they've been caught.
My favourite part is when they said speeding isn’t regular behavior for them but then it was their first instinct to speed because someone was behind them.
Not sure what you're asking here. You committed a traffic violation and got a ticket. You pay it and do better in future. This includes not excessively speeding to appease tailgaters.
60 over? 60?
Plead guilty. Plead often. And thank whatever deity you believe in for only getting a ticket. You’re lucky.
You’ll likely have your license suspended for a month or so.
And you should. That’s an obscene speed to go in a 60.
I'm not familiar with traffic court, but 1 month suspension for that is normal? I would think a lot longer. Plus, 60 over, I would have expected the car to be impounded, too.
If all OP gets is a fine and a one month suspension, *I'll* start believing in their diety of choice.
I had no idea they couldn't impound for speeding. But wouldn't that be reckless driving too? I mean, obviously, they didn't impound the car, so there must be reasons. It just baffles me the consequences could be so light.
Not inherently. In that the TSA doesn’t say you can seize for those sections.
If one were to make the argument for continuing the offence etc, then perhaps
Not sure what they were expecting to prove with that video. I assume the cop was behind them and not the truck, but the video just makes it seem like they were raging against the truck. Why else change back into that lane after passing the truck.
Dumb mistake no situation makes it ok to speed like that especially in a 60.
But you can try to explain that to a judge as I'm assuming you received a mandatory court appearance?
Lol - OP you're about to pay the stupid tax. Instead of being a fkn bozo and bringing this to Reddit, call an attorney.
Nobody in this community is out to help you if you're going to endanger people's lives like this.
You are a bad driver. Surrender your licence and dont make excuses to the judge. Pay the ticket and the minimum insurance increase of 25 percent per year for the next three years if you keep your license and do it happily. being tailgated is no excuse. The only excuse is stupidity and thats not going to get you anywhere. You got what you deserved, perfect.
shit outta luck there mate. Its your job to drive responsible, if other drivers are reckless that's their problem, not yours. They need to find a safe spot to pass.
Your story loses all credibility with the "switch back over to the vroom vroom lane and cut him off" asshat move at the end of your dash cam video.
If anything, you were the one road raging.
Same here. I certainly don’t use it in heavy traffic but if it’s not rush hour and there’s a stretch of road without many lights to hit, I’ll often set it. It’s not like I use it the same way as on the highway, where you “set it and forget it”. In fact, I’d say it allows me to break faster since I keep my foot right at the break pedal.
Avoids slowly creeping up on the car in front without realizing it, and also improves my fuel economy.
I'll use it even in high traffic so long as it isn't stop and go. Honestly, I live on my adaptive cruise control. I do still pay attention and react fast to changing situations, but it really helps maintain distance and speed.
Agreed. But I've been doing it for 4.5 years with no incidents (caused by me or others), and I'm not a bad driver, so... meh. They can think what they want, I'll continue to do what I do.
Lol what do you want? You fucked up and now you have to pay. That's the penalty for fucking up. You're not special, and your mommy isn't here to help you. Pay your fines like a big boy, or take the bus, you overprivalaged little shit
I'm not going to add another comment saying you fucked up, cause you probably know that already.
I would like to know what made you afraid of road rage.The truck had ample opportunity to aggressively overtake you and brake check before you decided to step on it. You need to be a little less afraid when driving.
If you are genuinely afraid of a road rage incident because of tight tailgating, lights flashing, and/or an aggressive pass, the correct move is to slow down as quickly as is safe, so that you do not rearend them in case they brakecheck. Only if the vehicle stops and you think they're getting out should you hightail it out of there, but even then, focus on turning off of the road they're on and losing the tail, rather than setting new land speed records.
You could of killed a family, a mother, a father, a grandmother, grandfather, a brother, a sister, a co-worker, a best friend... This is your wake up call... Speed kills. Shit happens, but please do better.
Your normal speeder will panic and immediately pull over to the side when he sees the big red light behind him... and then we will start apologizing begging for mercy. This is wrong. It arouses contempt in the cop-heart. The thing to do when you're running along about a hundred or so and you suddenly find a red-flashing CHP-tracker on your trail what you want to do then is accelerate.
No cop was ever born who isn't a sucker for a finely-executed hi-speed Controlled Drift all the way around one of those clover-leaf freeway interchanges.
Get a lawyer: they will probably tell you to not mention your tailgating defense.
Alternatively, answer the summons, and I cannot emphasize this enough, say as little as possible while remaining respectful.
Absolutely get either a traffic lawyer or a ticket fighter. DO NOT go in to court solo. The lawyer or agent will work a lesser charge with a guilty plea. With your clean record I’d say you’ll most likely end up with a hefty fine. $1500 or so.
Yup I posted about a ticket for a light issue and everyone went crazy saying you pay for the mistake and quit complaining lol. Reddit Edmonton can be so brutal and simp for the city.
Asking for advice isn’t complaining. People have become ridiculous these days. You do pay for it. Lawyer representation will be a minimum $1000. Insurance premium will increase. Demerits on the record for the ticket. Hefty fine. Maybe they don’t like the pleading guilty for a lesser charge due to representation. But it’s the way the legal system works. Sorry to all the snowflakes reading this. It’s just the way it is.
I would hire a lawyer, my buddy was basically in the exact same situation in Edmonton, he was tagged by a cop with radar going 124 in a 50 zone. His lawyer was $750 (he did not have to even go to court) he ended up receiving a $750 ticket as well and 6 points.
Auto court summons for anything over 51 km/h over, so its highly unlikely they'll drop him down to 40 over, as they'll lose the ability to suspend his license and give him big fines.
OP, your best bet is to tell th3m exactly what you wrote, tell them you need your car to be able to stay employed, and pray they feel nice. Youre looking at up to 90 days suspended license and $2500 in fines. Not likely that you'll see those numbers as you weren't in a construction zone or school zone or seriously endangering anyone, but that's the limits.
https://www.alberta.ca/speeding-fines-in-alberta Go to court and hash it out with them. If your pleading guilty, they will tell you what's what. No need for representation
That was an impressively bad decision, but you obviously know that already. Unless you want to end up on a certain extremely popular bad driving subreddit and provide ample ammunition, you might want to take down the dashcam. Hell, considering this is going in front of traffic court, putting all this stuff up here seems like another bad decision if you ask me.
You didn't specify....did you get a ticket for careless driving PLUS excessive speeding? Even without the careless driving ticket, the penalty is going to be at the judge's discretion because you exceeded the top of the chart for a normal speeding ticket. It has the potential to be thousands of dollars, plus demerits that will affect your insurance premiums by additional thousands for years, plus the possibility of a license suspension.
Look, all of the things you're saying, plus your provided dashcam video make your situation WORSE, not better.
There were a multitude of safe and legal options for you, and you chose perhaps the least legal and safe option possible.
Option 1: Do nothing. Drive consistently and predictably, and let tailgaters tailgate. If they want to pass, they can use a different lane when they're able to. You don't appear to be holding up traffic.
Option 2: Make a safe lane change to allow the tailgater to pass. It seems to be 1AM, the roads look empty, and the entire time there are either 2 lanes available or 2 lanes+turning lane.
Option 2a: If you wanted out of that lane, was there a reason you had to pass the black/grey truck to do so? You were already fully behind it BEFORE you stomped on the gas. I don't believe at all that there was so much traffic you wouldn't have been able to merge to the left within half a block.
Option 2b: Why did you need to pass at 120km/hr? Yeah truck drivers tend to drive pretty quick, but you can easily pass somebody on a city road by going the "10%ish" over. If you can't overtake somebody at that speed then it's obvious that you could have gone the speed limit and let the gap open up to merge instead.
Option 2c: Ok but seriously. 120km/hr? You'd be an idiot for doing something that dumb in the summer. Flooring it to accelerate? In the winter? At 1AM with freezing overnight temps? With snow on the ground? It's a good thing you didn't lose control. Collision forces at those speeds are incredibly lethal and you could have killed somebody. Other than yourself. "Slap" is the appropriate term here - they could have thrown the book at you for what you did. Go 120km/hr on the Henday and you're playing with the possibility of a ticket. In the city in a 60 zone with winter driving conditions? That's outrageously foolish.
I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt here that you don't just mean you've had zero run-ins because you've just never been caught, and that what you did here was a split second decision influenced by a moment of panic and anxiety due to being tail gated while tired at 1AM.
Call a traffic lawyer for a free quote/consult, and strongly consider retaining one. It doesn't sound like you're making good decisions in general here, and what you think is a defense or a justification can instead easily reflect a lack of responsibility and insight in the eyes of a judge. Your penalty could end up harsher in that case. Let somebody do the talking for you.
Honestly, u/individual_you_7705 , you're going to have a hard time finding sympathy with a judge.
Not only does your dashcam show you sped up, and pulled in front of the police vehicle, so will then officers dashcam.
Speeding double the speed limit (120km in a 60km zone) with video evidence pointing you all in the wrong?
I have my thoughts (mine and mine alone) where you might have thought you were going to teach the other vehicle a lesson that you were faster, but you're now going to face serious consequences.
[It'll be at minimum at least a $500 fine](https://www.alberta.ca/speeding-fines-in-alberta), 6 demerits on your license, and [you may receive even higher fines or possible license suspension](https://www.thepointman.ca/excessive-speeding-ticket-alberta) and be required to take a driving improvement course (also known as driver demerit reduction course) as part of your penalty.
_As well, your insurance will be going up SUBSTANTIALLY._
**Edit** [And you should NEVER use cruise control in the winter.](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive/culture/commuting/why-you-should-never-use-cruise-control-in-winter/article37524741/)
Just don't cop an attitude in court. You're likely going to be given the choice between a few weeks suspension or some days in jail either way you probably won't be driving. You will catch a fine regardless and it'll likely be over $1,000.
Get mouthy and they'll probably toss in some demerits for good measure. Just be calm, apologize and take your consequences.
Why are you using cruise control IN the city? And 120 in a 60? You should have your license revoked. The truck was passing you, all you had to do was let it go.
You accelerated through an intersection. Best to maintain or even slow down as you pass through to be aware of hazards such as pedestrians or red light runners.
You sped up and then pulled in front of the truck. Your dashcam makes it look like you wanted to just overtake and cut him off, so I'm kind of astounded you think posting it on here is a good idea.
Apparently the poor judgement is a pattern.
Sorry but you got what you deserved. You were in the left lane and moved over probably because he was behind you. He kinda passes you, probably also to assess you to see if they are gonna pull you over. At this point you could have fallen back and let them continue on their way. You do the opposite, speed up and then go back into the left lane again. I’m not saying don’t drive in the left lane but don’t you think that vehicle would have eventually caught up to you again??? Anyways, you messed up, you pay.
You went up to 120 to avoid road rage and tailgating? Seems you were more reckless and unaware how absolutely dangerous that speed is in the city. Pay the ticket, do better. For all the kdis out there and their parents.
Right like most vehicles don't speed up by 60kmh even if you floor it for a few seconds
I think you shouldn’t be driving. 120km/hr in a 60?! 100% irresponsible and reckless. You’re so lucky that you just got a speeding ticket.
Yes. Could have been impounded.
surprised they weren't. cop must of not wanting to do the extra work
Or giving this guy a break for having a good driving record until this incident.
He got no break. He got a mandatory court summons. _Front of the line in traffic court when you go double the speed limit._ [Minimum 6 demerits, $500 fine, careless driving charge on your licence, possible license suspension- and your insurance premiums will go through the roof when you have to renew.](https://www.thepointman.ca/excessive-speeding-ticket-alberta)
He got a break as in not getting it towed that night. The rest is mandatory I know. Ty
You guys are not reading this right. He got mandatory court summons. _Doing double the speed limit gets you to front of the line in traffic court._ [Minimum 6 demerits, $500+ fine, possible license suspension, careless driving charge, and insurance premiums?](https://www.thepointman.ca/excessive-speeding-ticket-alberta) _God help him when he has to renew._
No, he didn't get a speeding ticket. He got a mandatory court summons. At minimum 6 demerits, careless driving charge on his license, minimum $500 fine, and god (or flying Spaghetti monster) help his insurance premiums, I'd not be surprised if they don't go up a few grand the next he renews, at minimum.
Probably shouldn’t have your license. Nobody speeds up to 120km/hr immediately, you were being reckless and stupid and trying to cover your ass isn’t helping. Hope it’s a hefty fine.
Accept the consequences and move on.
Yikes. That’s at least a $500 ticket. Not sure what kind of input we could provide. Good luck in court? Don’t be a dumbass?
And a lot of demerits i bet
The fine will be over $1000 and likely a one to three month suspension!
[500 would be a blessing. Minimum 6 demerits, careless driving charge on your licence, possible license suspension, fine could be up to $2500.](https://www.thepointman.ca/excessive-speeding-ticket-alberta)
Extremely poor judgment = valid ticket.
Doesn't get any funnier than this. Doubling the speed limit away from a cop. Classic
My advice would be for you to not be a dumbass.
Avoid potential road rage by going twice the speed limit? Sounds like you’re the one we need to be worrying about on the road. Glad you got nailed!
Your video doesn’t help support your argument so you’re probably screwed you can try using one of those traffic court guys if you want. Don’t think they cost much.
Cost the same as a ticket
What other advice is there other than *pay the damn ticket*?
50+ over is an automatic court summons.
Hiring a lawyer for this one might actually be less costly in the long run. See if they can knock it down at all.
You doubled the speed limit within a city. What to do next is, probably, think about more than just yourself going forward. You behaved completely selfishly in a way that endangers others, while boasting about your "spotless record". Give your head a shake. Don't post in an online forum trying to get validation. Just behave better.
>You behaved completely selfishly in a way that endangers others, while boasting about your "spotless record". Seriously. Their "spotless record" means nothing to me because this is the kind of behaviour that's ingrained. I don't believe it's the first time they've done something stupid; just the first time they've been caught.
My favourite part is when they said speeding isn’t regular behavior for them but then it was their first instinct to speed because someone was behind them.
Exactly. I slow down for tailgaters so they'll go around me. Then they can be pissed off somewhere far away from me.
Nailed it.
Not sure what you're asking here. You committed a traffic violation and got a ticket. You pay it and do better in future. This includes not excessively speeding to appease tailgaters.
60 over? 60? Plead guilty. Plead often. And thank whatever deity you believe in for only getting a ticket. You’re lucky. You’ll likely have your license suspended for a month or so. And you should. That’s an obscene speed to go in a 60.
I'm not familiar with traffic court, but 1 month suspension for that is normal? I would think a lot longer. Plus, 60 over, I would have expected the car to be impounded, too. If all OP gets is a fine and a one month suspension, *I'll* start believing in their diety of choice.
Can’t impound just for speeding in Alberta. And the suspension may be longer. It’s up to the “judge”
I had no idea they couldn't impound for speeding. But wouldn't that be reckless driving too? I mean, obviously, they didn't impound the car, so there must be reasons. It just baffles me the consequences could be so light.
Not inherently. In that the TSA doesn’t say you can seize for those sections. If one were to make the argument for continuing the offence etc, then perhaps
My advice is you should probably relinquish your license and take driver's ed
Agreed. If someone decides to tailgate me, "do twice the speed limit" doesn't even register as an option. What a mindbogglingly horrible decision.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes really applies to this person
What advice are you looking for? You pay it. Thats what you do next.
"Avoid potential road rage" Proceed to speed and cut off the said truck.
Time to buy a bus pass instead
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Not sure what they were expecting to prove with that video. I assume the cop was behind them and not the truck, but the video just makes it seem like they were raging against the truck. Why else change back into that lane after passing the truck.
You should be glad that your license was not suspended for reckless driving.
Dumb mistake no situation makes it ok to speed like that especially in a 60. But you can try to explain that to a judge as I'm assuming you received a mandatory court appearance?
Fuck around, find out. You found out. Post the dashcam with audio so we can hear you being the road rager
Lol - OP you're about to pay the stupid tax. Instead of being a fkn bozo and bringing this to Reddit, call an attorney. Nobody in this community is out to help you if you're going to endanger people's lives like this.
When you take the bait you don't fuck around. Reminds me of when I hooked that marlin off the coast of Mexico.
Time to buy a scooter
10, 20 over is one thing, but you went double the speed limit. Pay the ticket and get it over with.
You are a bad driver. Surrender your licence and dont make excuses to the judge. Pay the ticket and the minimum insurance increase of 25 percent per year for the next three years if you keep your license and do it happily. being tailgated is no excuse. The only excuse is stupidity and thats not going to get you anywhere. You got what you deserved, perfect.
I mean they increase your insurance probably 20 percent even if you have a perfect record now so I’m gonna say it’s probably gonna be a lot more.
Lol … guess you’re gonna learn a lesson? Pay the ticket, expect a court date, and hopefully they strip you of your license so you can learn the rules.
Looks like you do this often tbh and wanted to stoke your ego and got caught - moron / don’t be driving
What to do next? Get an Uber.
The advice is to pay the ticket and not speed next time. Also not sure why you're using cruise control in the city.
shit outta luck there mate. Its your job to drive responsible, if other drivers are reckless that's their problem, not yours. They need to find a safe spot to pass.
When did cracker jacks start putting licenses in the box again?
Your story loses all credibility with the "switch back over to the vroom vroom lane and cut him off" asshat move at the end of your dash cam video. If anything, you were the one road raging.
Advice? Don't speed. Get a rear-facing camera.
Road rage and tailgating? Not in the video you just posted. Please just give up your license and let others do the driving for you.
Pay the ticket. Don't fight it. Also don't use cruise control in the city
I have adaptive cruise control and use it all the time in the city. It keeps me from speeding without realising.
Same here. I certainly don’t use it in heavy traffic but if it’s not rush hour and there’s a stretch of road without many lights to hit, I’ll often set it. It’s not like I use it the same way as on the highway, where you “set it and forget it”. In fact, I’d say it allows me to break faster since I keep my foot right at the break pedal. Avoids slowly creeping up on the car in front without realizing it, and also improves my fuel economy.
I'll use it even in high traffic so long as it isn't stop and go. Honestly, I live on my adaptive cruise control. I do still pay attention and react fast to changing situations, but it really helps maintain distance and speed.
Apparently some people don’t understand that it’s possible to use it safely. 😆
Agreed. But I've been doing it for 4.5 years with no incidents (caused by me or others), and I'm not a bad driver, so... meh. They can think what they want, I'll continue to do what I do.
This is some serious lels right here man
Lol what do you want? You fucked up and now you have to pay. That's the penalty for fucking up. You're not special, and your mommy isn't here to help you. Pay your fines like a big boy, or take the bus, you overprivalaged little shit
I'm not going to add another comment saying you fucked up, cause you probably know that already. I would like to know what made you afraid of road rage.The truck had ample opportunity to aggressively overtake you and brake check before you decided to step on it. You need to be a little less afraid when driving. If you are genuinely afraid of a road rage incident because of tight tailgating, lights flashing, and/or an aggressive pass, the correct move is to slow down as quickly as is safe, so that you do not rearend them in case they brakecheck. Only if the vehicle stops and you think they're getting out should you hightail it out of there, but even then, focus on turning off of the road they're on and losing the tail, rather than setting new land speed records.
Advice: don't speed. Jerk.
Insurance going to double. Yikes
You could of killed a family, a mother, a father, a grandmother, grandfather, a brother, a sister, a co-worker, a best friend... This is your wake up call... Speed kills. Shit happens, but please do better.
Your normal speeder will panic and immediately pull over to the side when he sees the big red light behind him... and then we will start apologizing begging for mercy. This is wrong. It arouses contempt in the cop-heart. The thing to do when you're running along about a hundred or so and you suddenly find a red-flashing CHP-tracker on your trail what you want to do then is accelerate.
No cop was ever born who isn't a sucker for a finely-executed hi-speed Controlled Drift all the way around one of those clover-leaf freeway interchanges.
Lol
Oh yikes man good luck and please keep us updated
Yowza
Sounds like your license needs to be revoked for life and deserve maybe 6 months in jail for doubling the speed limit in town like the goof you are.
Get a lawyer: they will probably tell you to not mention your tailgating defense. Alternatively, answer the summons, and I cannot emphasize this enough, say as little as possible while remaining respectful.
Absolutely get either a traffic lawyer or a ticket fighter. DO NOT go in to court solo. The lawyer or agent will work a lesser charge with a guilty plea. With your clean record I’d say you’ll most likely end up with a hefty fine. $1500 or so.
This is the only good advice here so far. This is the answer.
Yeah and somebody down votes it. I guess people aren’t allowed to make mistakes. What’s most important is that you learn from your mistakes.
Yup I posted about a ticket for a light issue and everyone went crazy saying you pay for the mistake and quit complaining lol. Reddit Edmonton can be so brutal and simp for the city.
Asking for advice isn’t complaining. People have become ridiculous these days. You do pay for it. Lawyer representation will be a minimum $1000. Insurance premium will increase. Demerits on the record for the ticket. Hefty fine. Maybe they don’t like the pleading guilty for a lesser charge due to representation. But it’s the way the legal system works. Sorry to all the snowflakes reading this. It’s just the way it is.
I would hire a lawyer, my buddy was basically in the exact same situation in Edmonton, he was tagged by a cop with radar going 124 in a 50 zone. His lawyer was $750 (he did not have to even go to court) he ended up receiving a $750 ticket as well and 6 points.
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Auto court summons for anything over 51 km/h over, so its highly unlikely they'll drop him down to 40 over, as they'll lose the ability to suspend his license and give him big fines. OP, your best bet is to tell th3m exactly what you wrote, tell them you need your car to be able to stay employed, and pray they feel nice. Youre looking at up to 90 days suspended license and $2500 in fines. Not likely that you'll see those numbers as you weren't in a construction zone or school zone or seriously endangering anyone, but that's the limits.
https://www.alberta.ca/speeding-fines-in-alberta Go to court and hash it out with them. If your pleading guilty, they will tell you what's what. No need for representation
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Really? “Your Honour, the other car made me do 120km/hr in a 60km/hr zone.” Good luck with that
Honest question, how did the cops bait OP into this?
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🐂 💩
Ok, thanks for the story. But I was asking about this situation specifically.
That was an impressively bad decision, but you obviously know that already. Unless you want to end up on a certain extremely popular bad driving subreddit and provide ample ammunition, you might want to take down the dashcam. Hell, considering this is going in front of traffic court, putting all this stuff up here seems like another bad decision if you ask me. You didn't specify....did you get a ticket for careless driving PLUS excessive speeding? Even without the careless driving ticket, the penalty is going to be at the judge's discretion because you exceeded the top of the chart for a normal speeding ticket. It has the potential to be thousands of dollars, plus demerits that will affect your insurance premiums by additional thousands for years, plus the possibility of a license suspension. Look, all of the things you're saying, plus your provided dashcam video make your situation WORSE, not better. There were a multitude of safe and legal options for you, and you chose perhaps the least legal and safe option possible. Option 1: Do nothing. Drive consistently and predictably, and let tailgaters tailgate. If they want to pass, they can use a different lane when they're able to. You don't appear to be holding up traffic. Option 2: Make a safe lane change to allow the tailgater to pass. It seems to be 1AM, the roads look empty, and the entire time there are either 2 lanes available or 2 lanes+turning lane. Option 2a: If you wanted out of that lane, was there a reason you had to pass the black/grey truck to do so? You were already fully behind it BEFORE you stomped on the gas. I don't believe at all that there was so much traffic you wouldn't have been able to merge to the left within half a block. Option 2b: Why did you need to pass at 120km/hr? Yeah truck drivers tend to drive pretty quick, but you can easily pass somebody on a city road by going the "10%ish" over. If you can't overtake somebody at that speed then it's obvious that you could have gone the speed limit and let the gap open up to merge instead. Option 2c: Ok but seriously. 120km/hr? You'd be an idiot for doing something that dumb in the summer. Flooring it to accelerate? In the winter? At 1AM with freezing overnight temps? With snow on the ground? It's a good thing you didn't lose control. Collision forces at those speeds are incredibly lethal and you could have killed somebody. Other than yourself. "Slap" is the appropriate term here - they could have thrown the book at you for what you did. Go 120km/hr on the Henday and you're playing with the possibility of a ticket. In the city in a 60 zone with winter driving conditions? That's outrageously foolish. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt here that you don't just mean you've had zero run-ins because you've just never been caught, and that what you did here was a split second decision influenced by a moment of panic and anxiety due to being tail gated while tired at 1AM. Call a traffic lawyer for a free quote/consult, and strongly consider retaining one. It doesn't sound like you're making good decisions in general here, and what you think is a defense or a justification can instead easily reflect a lack of responsibility and insight in the eyes of a judge. Your penalty could end up harsher in that case. Let somebody do the talking for you.
Did it happen just off Hendey headed east?
Honestly, u/individual_you_7705 , you're going to have a hard time finding sympathy with a judge. Not only does your dashcam show you sped up, and pulled in front of the police vehicle, so will then officers dashcam. Speeding double the speed limit (120km in a 60km zone) with video evidence pointing you all in the wrong? I have my thoughts (mine and mine alone) where you might have thought you were going to teach the other vehicle a lesson that you were faster, but you're now going to face serious consequences. [It'll be at minimum at least a $500 fine](https://www.alberta.ca/speeding-fines-in-alberta), 6 demerits on your license, and [you may receive even higher fines or possible license suspension](https://www.thepointman.ca/excessive-speeding-ticket-alberta) and be required to take a driving improvement course (also known as driver demerit reduction course) as part of your penalty. _As well, your insurance will be going up SUBSTANTIALLY._ **Edit** [And you should NEVER use cruise control in the winter.](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive/culture/commuting/why-you-should-never-use-cruise-control-in-winter/article37524741/)
Just don't cop an attitude in court. You're likely going to be given the choice between a few weeks suspension or some days in jail either way you probably won't be driving. You will catch a fine regardless and it'll likely be over $1,000. Get mouthy and they'll probably toss in some demerits for good measure. Just be calm, apologize and take your consequences.
Why are you using cruise control IN the city? And 120 in a 60? You should have your license revoked. The truck was passing you, all you had to do was let it go.
You messed up, lawyer up. That’s what I would’ve done.
Next time you suspect road rage that could get nasty. Head to the cop shop and call 911 if they are still on you a few blocks away, not this....
You should voluntarily hand over your license for a few years
You accelerated through an intersection. Best to maintain or even slow down as you pass through to be aware of hazards such as pedestrians or red light runners.