Please print my anonymous letter, as I speak for so many responsible citizens who share my frustration in this matter, I believe my name is unimportant. I think freedom of speech includes freedom of anonymity.
Central Oregon law enforcement, what are you trying to do? Destroy the already shaky financial stability of our working-class families?
The [Redmond] bypass project that we are all excited about and looking forward to is moving along.
No doubt it is costing more than expected, because the citizens are being robbed to pay for it. There has been a predatory and pervasive practice going on since its inception – traffic officers hiding, “laying in wait” for anyone who didn’t notice the sudden speed limit changes along Highway 97.
People are trying to work all hours, some go to college to better themselves, others just exist. We are all prey and the meal ticket for this campaign. Don’t our outrageous taxes bring in enough? Maybe we should put some of the many local citizens that have been laid off their jobs to work, creating a better way to route traffic instead of a sudden reduction in speed and ridiculous winding traffic cones on a major highway!
The tickets are extremely expensive and serve more than a lesson in speeding; they may help serve foreclosures and bankruptcy. More than a few of these tickets I have heard of CLAIM a speed just over the limit for traffic school, thus negating the hope of decent insurance rates for young people.
I do not condone speeding and have not received a ticket myself, but could not keep quiet any longer as the tactics do not seem fitting for a “warm, welcoming” community as we claim to be. Wake up, people, don’t stand for it, make them earn money in fundraisers like our schools have to.
Appalled & Insulted
This article appears in Mar 13-19, 2008.
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If everyone would put down their cigarettes and cell phones and pay attention we would not need traffic officers. You break the law, you get a ticket. Simple answer, “Do Not Break the Law”.
I got a ticket last summer, and went to court, it was dog off leash ticket, for letting my dog swim in the river near first street rapids.
The day of the trial I was last, I had to sit through an hour of people denying they were speeding, and the cops showing their ‘laser gun’ photos, and it was all 80mph, in a 45mph on the Bend bypass. Every single ticket 80mph, and every single person said they weren’t going 80mph, but every single time the cop showed a picture/video report from the gun, and the laser is 99.99% accurate and on the vehicle, not like a radar where you can have radio reflections.
It seems like nobody in Central Oregon knows that the speed limit between Redmond & Bend is not 80mph, and the bypass speed limit is not 80mph.
One only has to read the bend-weekly news and know that people are dying every week on hwy-97,20,26,… Especially between Redmond & Bend, where there is only one bypass, and drunks try to cross, and some don’t make it.
My turn, I explained that my dog was swimming, the judge asked if the dog had its leash on, I explained that swimming in the rapids with a leash was dangerous for a dog. The judge again asked, did the dog have a leash on? I said no, the judge said ‘GUILTY’.
The stretch of hwy between Bend & Redmond is now one of the most dangerous in the State quite similar to the HWY of death HWY-18.
Yes all people losing their homes have too much to think about while commuting from Bend to the Super-Walmart at 80mph.
It is a police officer’s job (actually, one of many jobs) to ticket people who break traffic laws. If you don’t want to pay for an expensive ticket, pay attention and don’t break the law.
Police officers patrol areas of concern and ticket offenders. If the new bypass in Redmond is an area where people are speeding, the police should patrol that area more often and watch for people who are breaking the law.
I recently received a ticket for speeding between Bend and Redmond. Honestly, I drove the highway 5 days a week to go to work and I was so used to driving it, I wouldn’t pay attention to my speed. The ticket was very expensive and served as a lesson to me: my FULL attention needs to be on the road and the way I am driving. I don’t recall exactly how much the ticket was but I know it was enough that I dreaded having to tell my husband. I also know that this very expensive ticket was a better lesson for me than being in an accident and hurting someone.
Please take your ticket as a lesson to be more careful and not as an excuse to be angry and bitter at the police officers who are protecting our community.
I certainly cannot argue with the above two comments as I am in complete agreement. The speeders are a threat to everyone else on the highway. And cellphone users can’t even WALK and talk simultaneously let alone drive diligently and safely. MY ONLY CONCERN is the new 9-1-1 levy. Les Stiles promised the voters after we passed his last levy NOT to return to ask for more money. Two of the Commissioners (Luke and Daly as usual) disagreed but it is a matter of record that HONEST LES, the one truely honest Deschutes County Public Official, told them that he would NOT go back on his word to the voters. Oddly, he resigned shortly thereafter, I suspect out of complete personal and public integrity. Its too bad that that personal integrity did not rub off on more of our Deschutes County public officials. We all really miss Les but wish him the happiest of (a well earned and deserved) retirement.
Are you kidding? You are whining about the police citing people for speeding because the speeders did not notice the speed limit change? That is absolutely idiotic. Pay attention to your driving. Pay attention to your environment. The police are there to protect others from your ignorance and excessive speed as well as YOU from the construction environment.
Driving the posted speed allows you reaction time to heavy equipment in the roadway, or workers.
Blaming the police for your stupidity is an example of what is wrong with our society…oh, I was driving too fast, must be the policeman’s fault. Please do not cite me, I am burdened by so much credit card debt because the bank gave me a high limit. Oh, I failed to read the language of my lending contract, must be the bank’s fault. It is not fair…how terrible.
Grow up and take responsibility for your actions; take responsibility for your life.
“Are you kidding? You are whining about the police citing people for speeding because the speeders did not notice the speed limit change? That is absolutely idiotic. Pay attention to your driving. Pay attention to your environment. The police are there to protect others from your ignorance and excessive speed as well as YOU from the construction environment.
Driving the posted speed allows you reaction time to heavy equipment in the roadway, or workers.
Blaming the police for your stupidity is an example of what is wrong with our society…oh, I was driving too fast, must be the policeman’s fault. Please do not cite me, I am burdened by so much credit card debt because the bank gave me a high limit. Oh, I failed to read the language of my lending contract, must be the bank’s fault. It is not fair…how terrible.
Grow up and take responsibility for your actions; take responsibility for your life. ”
Truer words never written!