Damned if you don’t.
A lady in New Mexico found out you really can’t win when it comes to laws. She was ticketed for driving 6mph under the speed limit. Whether you’re speeding or not it seems the police will give you a ticket.
With that said one of the things that pisses me off like no other are slow drivers. Realize I don’t have a lead foot… I have a mercury filled foot. I want to get from point A to point B as fast as possible regardless of my mode of transportation and when somebody interferes with my goal of approaching the speed of light I get angry. So this is one time when I’m going to say a good on that police officer. Although I’m against tickets for victimless crimes driving to slow does have victims, my heart due to sharp rising in blood pressure and rage.
The question is, was there a posted minimum or a state law that states a minimum speed on all roads? I generally drive 20 mph over the limit on the freeway here in Dallas, so I am in the lead foot camp, but the Speed Limit is a maximum not a minimum speed, and unless there is some standard minimum for the state of New Mexico or it was posted I think it is bullshit. I am annoyed by slow drivers, but if someone doesn’t feel they can safely operate a vehicle at the limit (maybe they are a new driver, or maybe it is a new road, or weather conditions, etc) and there is no posted minimum then I don’t feel it is a crime for a person to drive at their abilities.
Yeah I don’t honestly believe getting a tick for going too fast or too slow is a good thing. But alas I did think it was kind of funny.
And as far as I’m concerned the posted speed limit sign should be a dead minimum.
I’m with you on the freeway. If you’re not prepared to keep up with the prevailing speed of traffic (and stay to the right except when actually passing), you shouldn’t be on the road.
But this was a 40mph limit zone. Which, to me, implies the sort of road where a substantial fraction of the drivers on it at any given time are going to be uncertain where they’re supposed to turn, or some such, and have perfectly valid reasons for driving at less than the maximum safe speed.
My guess? The cop thought she might possibly have been intoxicated. Upon discovering that she was merely a natural slowpoke (with a last name that implies the prospect of an ethnic-profiling grievance), he had to come up with a valid retroactive pretext for pulling her over. And this was it.