Alright. So I'm not perfect. No one is. And within the past year I unknowingly did something pretty bad. How can I do something without knowing it? Pretty easily according to some.
Anyway, I didn't have a babysitter for James set up and had to work at 8 that morning. So I drove James about thirty minutes away to my grandmother's house so my aunt could watch him there. On my way to work, it was roughly seven, seven thirty in the morning and I was driving through a town where it's speed limit was ten miles an hour. At this hour of day, the sun is pretty blinding. I was driving towards the sun, didn't have my sunglasses (that's my luck) and instead continued to drive ten miles an hour through this town while squinting like crazy so I didn't go blind. While driving, I could tell there was a large vehicle driving by me on the other side of the road. I didn't really think much of it seeing as plows, dump trucks, and busses drive past fairly often. I got to work just fine, no harm done! It doesn't seem to bad yet right?
Well, a few days after this incident my mom called me telling me that the cops were looking for me. WHAT?!?!?! WHY!?!?!?! She told me that they were telling her that I passed a stopped school bus. I almost laughed. What do you mean? I didn't even SEE a school bus, nor did I drive around one. Apparently that vehicle on the other side of the road driving towards me was a stopped school bus. She asked me if I saw any flashing lights. NO I DIDNT SEE ANY FLASHING LIGHTS THE SUN WAS BLINDING ME! All I COULD see was the side of the road, beneath the trees where there was shade. I'm assuming this is where the children would stand to get on the bus and I KNEW there hadn't been any children standing there.
Seeing as there's no such thing as winning a case against the oh-so-powerful town of Burg, I didn't fight it. I plead guilty, simply to avoid having to go to court again and miss work, on top of having to find another babysitter for James. So I just said 'okay, I'll pay the ticket. How much?'
FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS?!?!?! SERIOUSLY??? Seeing as the judge originally told me sixty dollars, I would've been fine with that one. But illegally passing a school bus has become a serious offense, and for good reason. Had I seen the school bus was stopped, had I seen a sign, anything, I would have stopped, I don't know what I would do if anything ever happened to James and I'm truly sorry to any of the parents that have lost their loved once due to the negligence of drivers that are in too much of a hurry to stop for no more than a minute to allow children to get on and off of busses. I'm not upset at the law. I'm upset at the system. I'm outraged that me, who maintained a 3.6 average in high school an a 3.2 average in college, who always tries to do the right thing even when it's dumb, who is TRULY not a criminal, is being charged 500 dollars, getting my license taken away, has to be on probation for a year, and has to have special insurance for 2 years, because of my very first ever traffic violation EVER.
On top of that, the courthouse where this all occurred lost all of the documents they needed to give me the stinking ticket! They lost their copy, lost the judge's order, EVERYTHING. And what did I do? I was the good samaritan owning up to what happened and saying "hey, here are my copies, I'll pay the ticket even though you guys don't have the documents to even keep me here." HOW STUPID WAS THAT?!?!?! I can't BELIEVE I even did that now!
Anyway, for those of you that don't know. When you get a ticket or a serious violation like an OWI, DUI, or any of that fun stuff, (as well as serious traffic violations) Not only is your license taken away for a good chunk of time, you also have to have sr-22, high risk insurance. This is EXPENSIVE. And on top of car payments, my current insurance payments, health care, AND a baby? I can't afford it.
The kicker is, I wasn't even told at my hearing that I'd have this crazy insurance, or have to be on probation. Why wasn't I told? Because the DOT is in charge of it and that isn't related to the court system. If THAT'S the case? The DOT should be required to sit in on ALL traffic hearings and tell the person who received the ticket what kinds of repercussions come along OTHER than the criminal punishments. I'm sorry, but it's absolutely bogus that I didn't even know about this until Yesterday, and only had until TODAY to appeal the decision. AGAIN, The government needs to get their shit together! Excuse my language, but seriously. It's stressful enough to know that your license may be taken away, but to be told that you'll have to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars for the next two years on top of everything else? Well that's just crap. Oh, and just to punch you a liiiiittle bit harder, there's a 50 dollar fee to get your license reinstated. Whatever court system, just whatever.
My point of this blog was not just to rant, but to inform people that the court system is really cracking down on some of these traffic laws. A few years ago, passing a stopped school bus wasn't a big deal. But because of how many children that have been killed, the punishment has been increased dramatically. Even since MY ticket, a few months ago, the minimum ticket costs has risen to 700 dollars. And that's just been in the past few months! Drive safe, and if you question what's going on, just stop, even if you feel dumb about it. I really wish I'd just stopped when I couldn't see the vehicle, that way I wouldn't be going through what I am now. I get it's a pain to deal with for me, but I do know that there is reason. I can earn back the money I spend on all of these expenses. Had I hit a child, thank god I didn't, there's nothing I could do, no amount of money I could spend, to get that life back for that family.
So yeah, my rant is over for today. Sorry I haven't posted pictures in a while! I'll try to get on it in the next few days.
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