State Trooper in California pulled me over.......

[DavidS]

Ok, I'm out for a leisurely ride on my Tracer and I am riding some fun two lane roads leading up the mountain. I come to the intersection where I need to turn left to continue up the mountain, or turn right and head down back towards town. I chose to turn left, and I turned my left turn signal on as I stopped at the stop sign. Full stop, as I was pointed up hill, and traffic speed was 60 mph with most cars going faster than that. Once I saw a break in the traffic, I gave the bike some gas and proceeded to cross over the lanes closest to me, and into the far lanes going up the hill. I had to give the bike a bit more gas than I normally would, due to the steep hill and stop sign, but at no point was I going more than the 55 mph speed limit.

After a few minutes, I hear a siren behind me and to my surprise it is a State Trooper waving me to pull over. I pull over to the side of the road wondering what the heck he wants from me. State Trooper comes up and says I didn't stop before turning onto the roadway. That would be impossible due to the fact that the hill was so steep, I would have been going onto the highway blind, with no idea if traffic was coming in either direction. I was very careful when I took off from the stop sign to make sure I didn't stall, and gave the bike a bit more gas than usual, which led me to quickly get across the lanes into the right hand lane. As I explained what I did, and politely said that I was not exceeding the speed limit at any time during my turn, he said he wasn't going to give me a ticket, but a warning instead.

No impact to my license, or points on my driving record, or anything else. At this point I just decided to take the ticket, as he wasn't going to change his mind, even though he was 100% wrong. After about 30 minutes waiting in the hot sun for him to write the warning, he gave it to me, and I continued up the hill.

This happened a few months ago, and it has been bugging me ever since. I know I didn't run the stop sign, but for the life of me, I can't figure out why he would pull me over, much less give me a warning ticket. He had to have seen my record on his computer before he wrote me the warning, and I don't have any moving violations at all. I'm a middle age man, actually closer to senior than middle age, riding a Tracer 900 GT, not a crotch rocket or some other crazy fast motorcycle. Only thing I can think of is that he saw me shoot across the lanes due to the steep hill, and assumed that I must have been speeding.

If any of you folks have any insights into my encounter, or advise on handling it differently, I'd love to hear......

[dazzler24]

This is where dash/crash camera footage on your bike provides irrefutable evidence.  No-one can deny video proof that is date and time stamped.

Maybe consider getting one?

[Cogswell]

It's not worth the effort to worry about.

He probably thought you were just some young hot shot that would try to run from him.  Go for a ride, stop to have some pie and coffee.

[TomTracer]

Let it go!

[bwringer]

It was a pretext stop.

You'll never know what the real reason was he wanted to get a look at you. Since you can't just pull over someone for interrogation, the cop had to invent a reason. 

You didn't do anything wrong. You know that, the cop knows that, and we know that.

If the cop had the slightest belief that you had actually run the stop sign, you would have received an actual ticket, no question. To put this another way, speeding is not dangerous, so there is room for leniency. But running stop signs, especially in situations like you describe, is extremely dangerous and leads to massive amounts of paperwork and standing around in the sun, so there is zero leniency. There's just no such thing as a warning if you're genuinely pulled over for running a stop sign or red light. (Plus, a lot of cop cars have video cameras.)

I would suspect that someone on a motorcycle tried to run, or got away with something earlier, or they're looking for someone, etc. There may have been a vague description on the radio that amounted to "red motorcycle" or something. Once he got a look at you, it was obvious you weren't the droid he was looking for.

Be happy with the warning, and put it out of your head. You'll never know what the real reason was; it certainly wasn't anything you did.

 

Story #1:

My wife and I were in the car heading to dinner, and I got pulled over. I was pretty mystified, honestly, but the cop walked up, took one look at my completely sober face, and told me openly "Oh hey, we're just looking for drunks leaving the bars after the Colts game. You went through that roundabout a little quick (true; roundabouts are fun...) and so I pulled you over to take a look. Sorry about that. Have a nice evening, and drive safely." No warning, just a little disappointed that I wasn't drunk, and eager to get back to the hunt. Fine by me, and I kind of appreciated the honesty...

 

Story #2:

One fairly common issue is that unless they're avid riders themselves, cops are just like regular citizens in that they can't tell the difference at all between one motorcycle and another.

Story time:
A friend of mine was on an epic months-long adventure across the USA, riding a heavily loaded red KLR650. In a small town in northern California, he emerged from lunch in a charming little bistro to find an extremely aggressive and angry young Deputy ready to haul him off to prison that instant. 

He barely avoided being cuffed, but was ordered to sit on the curb and wait. The Deputy radioed his boss, prouder than a puppy with a tennis ball, to announce he had caught one of the devil bikers who had been terrorizing the local populace. 

The Sheriff soon arrived, lights blazing. He took one look at my friend's 35hp KLR650 and silver hair, rubbed his forehead, and began a brutal verbal beatdown of his abysmally stupid subordinate. Apparently, several old folks had called to complain about a couple of sportbikes hooning around at high speed, one of which was red.

So Deputy Dawg had simply latched onto the very first red motorcycle he saw, never noticing that, although it did have two wheels, it was the furthest possible thing from a sportbike. And of course the icing on the cake was that the rider was a middle-aged Hoosier tourist wearing bright yellow gear, the furthest possible thing from a hooligan who terrorizes old ladies for fun.

The Sheriff, of course, told my buddy he could go, but he was really enjoying the show... apparently, this wasn't the first time that Deputy Dawg had completely overreacted in the dumbest possible way, and the Sheriff was getting pretty tired of the way his antics were repeatedly disrupting their pleasant, sleepy little town.

Edited July 27, 2022 by bwringer

[kilo3]

 

[1moreroad]

4 hours ago, dazzler24 said:

This is where dash/crash camera footage on your bike provides irrefutable evidence.  No-one can deny video proof that is date and time stamped.

Maybe consider getting one?

Sadly, no. There is camera footage of a Jeep repeatedly swerving at a bicyclist (even crossing the double yellow to do it) and the local prosecutor says, we don't really know what happened because the Jeep driver denies it. 

Plenty of stories on the internet by bicyclists where their video footage is ignored. 

[maximo]

I agree with the pretext stop/fishing expedition. He may have seen you quickly accelerating, and thought you may do something that is actually stupid, so he stopped you on a pretext to better asses the situation. Seeing that it was a nothingburger, he "graciously" lets you off with a warning. 

[bwringer]

I, and some of my friends, have been stopped (deservedly so, sometimes) and taken advantage of the "gray beard discount". Once the helmet comes off, cops are often visibly startled to see what looks like an older, presumably responsible, rider. Getting older only brings few privileges, so I'll take this one.

 

Here in Indiana, there's no helmet law and we're pretty close to Milwaukee if you catch my drift. Helmets and quiet bikes are a true rarity around here.

If I'm pulled over, I am most likely the first rider they've seen in a very long time with valid insurance and registration, properly inflated tires, stock exhaust, bike in good shape, good attitude, a motorcycle license, valid insurance, wearing a real helmet, wearing protective gear, sober, alert, and minty-fresh.

So in all cases but one I've been selected to participate in the local law enforcement's catch-and-release program, maybe in hopes I'll breed.

Edited July 27, 2022 by bwringer

[PhotoAl]

Yea, probably better to just let it go.  I thought California was a state without laws 🙂   I think after a period of time a warning ticket goes away.  I got pulled over a year and a half ago - I might have deserved it.  First comment from the officer was I didn't expect you!   Got off with a warning and had a great conversation with him.  Ticket said something like did operate a motorcycle in an illegal manner.

A few years ago I was riding to work on my new Kawasaki ZX6R 636.  It had traction control and the road was wet but not raining.  Was stopped at a traffic light and when it turned green I decided that since I was in the middle lane in front it was a good time to check out traction control.  Launched pretty hard and with lots of throttle, shifted to second and lots of throttle again.  Bike was stuttering massively as the traction control was cutting everything to keep it from spinning the rear wheel.  Ran it it the speed limit of 55 then let off and sifted up to 6th and proceeded on my way.  LOL attracted the attention of an officer from the town next door who followed me all the way to where I turned off to go downtown.  I didn't get even 1 MPH over the speed limit.  I even waved to him as I took the ramp.  Once on the ramp there was a Mini who was trying to sneak by - LOL he found out very quickly he needed a lot more HP.  

And then there was the Sheriffs deputy I passed in Montana last year - he wasn't doing the speed limit and the road was clear.  All in all I've had good encounters and they are mostly like us.  There are a few bad ones who ruin it for the others - like the one who rolled the stop sign yesterday when I was headed to the track in my car.

[roadrash83]

 There was a time in my life that I got pulled over almost weekly and got off almost every time or just a warning ticket or some other kind of non points ticket. Only reason I can think of is I pulled right over and had short hair. That worked well till I went by a NY state trooper at 126mph the reading on his radar gun, the speed limit on the Taconic State parkway was 50mph. The rest is history😁

[DavidS]

Thanks for all the feedback, I suspect the combination of 1) Motorcycle Rider, 2) On a Red Motorcycle, 3) Driving Quick (but not fast) out of the stop sign, and 4) Boredom for the Trooper were the critical factors to getting the attention, but I'll never get that 30 minutes back again!

[Larry1096]

7 hours ago, bwringer said:

.....

If the cop had the slightest belief that you had actually run the stop sign, you would have received an actual ticket, no question. To put this another way, speeding is not dangerous, so there is room for leniency. But running stop signs, especially in situations like you describe, is extremely dangerous and leads to massive amounts of paperwork and standing around in the sun, so there is zero leniency. There's just no such thing as a warning if you're genuinely pulled over for running a stop sign or red light. (Plus, a lot of cop cars have video cameras.)

.....

I would have to contend this is inaccurate. There are myriad studies proving excessive speed contributes to a higher rate of accidents. 

 

Additionally, having been a police officer in the past,  your analysis of when and why citations are issued is, in my experience, not accurate. People have, and continue, to get warnings for stop or red light violations; most warnings are based on driving history, context and circumstances surrounding the incident. 

 

Larry

[TomTracer]

2 hours ago, DavidS said:

Thanks for all the feedback, I suspect the combination of 1) Motorcycle Rider, 2) On a Red Motorcycle, 3) Driving Quick (but not fast) out of the stop sign, and 4) Boredom for the Trooper were the critical factors to getting the attention, but I'll never get that 30 minutes back again!

Or the hours spent stewing about something you can't change.

[1moreroad]

5 hours ago, Larry1096 said:

I would have to contend this is inaccurate. There are myriad studies proving excessive speed contributes to a higher rate of accidents. 

 

Additionally, having been a police officer in the past,  your analysis of when and why citations are issued is, in my experience, not accurate. People have, and continue, to get warnings for stop or red light violations; most warnings are based on driving history, context and circumstances surrounding the incident. 

 

Larry

I don't think I've seen those studies.  Every study I've seen referenced shows that excessive speed causes higher rates of injuries which I understand.  But never that speed causes the accident.**  I know that MD state troopers used to say they focused on speed differentials - they were more interested in someone doing 80 when everyone else was doing 60 than everyone doing 65 or 70 in a 55.  There were PSAs when I was growing up that said that driving slow was almost as dangerous as driving fast.

 

** Within reason.  Years ago there was a bad wreck maybe 5 miles from my house where a moto was doing almost 100 mph in a 30 on a public road with a lot of pedestrian traffic.  Car pulled in front of the moto never expecting it to be doing 3x the limit.