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Originally Posted by wootpr0n
What you don't know is that the police randomly run the license plates of vehicles that they see on the road. So if you go back to the USA, they will probably type in your plate. They won't see any information (because they don't have access to Canadian motor vehicle records), but they probably will see an outstanding warrant for failure to appear. Then you will get pulled over and arrested. And they will search your car to see if they can cause you more problems. So you will be hauled off to New Jersey to wait in a jail for a few days. Then you have to answer for this ticket and also for not appearing, which could result in a jail term.
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There was a time when a Canadian could get a ticket in the US, pay it on the spot of course, and then it would be forgotten because it would never show up on your driving record, and no demerits. But that all changed some time in the early 90's. Now, if we get a ticket in any of those information-sharing states you mentioned it actually does later show up on the person's driving record just as if it was a local ticket. 2 demerits!
Quote:
Originally Posted by wootpr0n
Really, you are better off showing up.
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Excellent advice, but I'm still kind of blown away they let him go off without paying in the first place. Admittedly though I haven't had a speeding ticket of any kind anywhere in many years. I have 4 MERITS on my license which means: A. it takes 2 years of clean driving for each merit to be accrued,
B. You get $5 off per merit on your driver's license fee every year :D
So it's been a little over 14 years for me, since the demerits I used to have needed to clear (at 2 years per 2 demerits). I'm saying some things may have changed in that time. Maybe now in some states their police force will let a Canadian go with just the ticket, trusting that he'll pay it later? I don't know.
What I do know is that whenever I go driving in the states I take a few hun in CASH (USD!) with me just in case.