Opinions on a Ticket I got

[sicivic2002]

Ok, so last night I am cruisin around with one of my friends. Were going down a street and it's pretty busy people everywhere and such. Well the light starts to change and I have to slow down pretty quick and downshift in order to stop. Which obviously raises my RPM's and my intake gets a little loud. Well next thing I know a cop is yellin at me to take the keys out of the ignition and such. And askin me what kind of race car I was driving. They were threatening to tow me and saying that they could give me an exhibition of speed ticket. They ended up giving me a ticket for "Unreasonable Engine Noise" the cop said I should be happy cause it's a not violation that will effect insurance. So my question is did I deserve a ticket or was the cop just bein unreasonable.

[norcalSI]

man that is a buch of crap. I could understand if it was your exhaut but your engine? That is full of s#it. I read once in SCC that there is no law for engine noise. The guy in scc fought it and won. I think you should fight it. Is the intake really that loud?

[sicivic2002]

The intake gets pretty loud at full throttle but I was just downshifting to stop for the light. There is somewhat of a law here cause I looked up the code the officer sited. But the law is real vague pertaining to engine noise. But talks about loud stereo's and such. I didn't even have my stereo on either. If anyone wants to look up the code and maybe help me interpret it. It is ORS 815.025

[IceD out N CALI]

jus an example of the cop being a pig

[myeverlovinsir]

Here is a description I found: (seems like a catch all charge)

815.025. (1) A person commits the offense of causing
unreasonable noise with a vehicle if the person operates upon any
highway any motor vehicle so as to cause any greater noise or
sound than is reasonably necessary for the proper operation of
the vehicle.
(2) The offense described in this section, causing unreasonable
noise with a vehicle, is a Class { - B - } { + D + } traffic
infraction.

[DjMacAtack]

yea... no law was broken... downshifting is common practice and is within use of the vehicle... too bad it cant be dropped by getting the car tested for being under 90dB like here in cali.

[BarracksSi]

My goodness, that's vague. No dB requirements? "Reasonable" is not a quantifiable measurement.

Talk to your lawyer. I don't like the looks of any law that leaves so much room for interpretation.

[sicivic2002]

That's what I was thinking. What one person calls resonable could be unreasonable to someone else.

[TrippZ]

wth? fight that sucker

[chakra71]

That ticket is such BS. Get a lawyer and fight it. Don't do like i did and just think that because you are innocent the court would find you innocent. It's a pain in the ass to go thru, but worth it to fight. That law is so open it shouldn't take 5 minutes to get the ticket thrown out then turn around and sue the cop for being a dirty pig.

eh... sorry i'm a bit jaded on cops right now. I go in the morning to appeal my ticket. mine was for reckless driving and the cop who gave it to me said that he saw a silver car squeeling his tires and speeding. my car is black. the judge found me guilty and i had no clue what to do. wish i had gotten a lawyer in the first place.

[atl-si]

I hate cops. I just can't stand them. Go fight it out in court.

chakra71,

Man, that sucks. D@mn cops!

[OriginalName52]

Originally posted by sicivic2002
Ok, so last night I am cruisin around with one of my friends. Were going down a street and it's pretty busy people everywhere and such. Well the light starts to change and I have to slow down pretty quick and downshift in order to stop. Which obviously raises my RPM's and my intake gets a little loud. Well next thing I know a cop is yellin at me to take the keys out of the ignition and such. And askin me what kind of race car I was driving. They were threatening to tow me and saying that they could give me an exhibition of speed ticket. They ended up giving me a ticket for "Unreasonable Engine Noise" the cop said I should be happy cause it's a not violation that will effect insurance. So my question is did I deserve a ticket or was the cop just bein unreasonable.

Cops are by definition unreasonable. Law is peer pressure backed up by the threat of physical, financial and mental violence. But aside from my pet peeves with our government... GO FIGHT IT! The very fact that it's extremely vague will work to your advantage. The cop can't say that you were at a certain Db level, so you can just argue the fact that you were using your car in a normal fashion. I've had a lot more luck with judges than with cops, definetly don't take this sitting down.

-O

[sicivic2002]

Thanks everyone for your opinions. I am definately gonna fight it.

[sicivic2002]

Well just in case anyone wants to know how this turned out. I went to court on the 31st and had to talk to the job and what not. Well turns out the cop wrote on the ticket that I was accelerating aggressively and driving fast and a bunch of other crap. I told the judge that my car wasn't loud and explained the whole situation. But he said that based on the fact that they go back 10 years of your driving history which for me isn't good cause I have 5 speeding tickets their. Well he wouldn't drop the fine or even suspend it. But I only had to pay like 39 dollars. It really does suck cause I didn't even do anything wrong yet I still have to pay.

[napapacoda]

The word reasonable is used everywhere in the law, nothings wrong with the word. I'd just send it in not guilty. As long as they don't have a grudge against you, it'll most likely be dropped.

[BarracksSi]

You'd have to admit that, from their point of view, it's difficult to understand why you'd have an intake installed if your purpose wasn't to go fast. To them, more noise = go-fast modifications = speeding driver. I'm not surprised to hear that the previous speeding tickets made a difference, too.

I really didn't know that the intake made that much noise, though. I'm starting to lean away from doing any engine mods, since I do like to drive a bit harder, and I'd rather stay stealthy. ;)