Speeding Ticket in Utah

Hi all,... I am on holiday at the moment (currently in Vegas) and this morning we got up really early to drive to Bryce Canyon in Utah. Was a great trip apart from the fact that on the way back I got a speeding ticket! :-( It was the last little town before I got on to the I-15 to get back to Vegas which had the rediculous speed limit of 35 mph on a 6-Lane road ... so I was doing 47 (not purposefully, just wasn't paying attention and it still felt darn slow on the huge empty road) ... ;-(

Anyway .. I quickly noticed the flashing lights in the rear-view mirror as I left the town. The sherrif was lenient with me and dropped the measured speed to 44 to put me in "the lowest ticket category".. means I now owe 90 USD (!) instead of 115 USD (!!).

It says I should pay by cheque (who has them these days?!) or money order, but not for the next 5 days or the paperwork won't have been filed at court and they won't know what to do with the payment (doh!). Where can I get a money order here? Am only around for another day. Do I even need to pay for it? I have read other forums where people haven't paid and never heard another thing about it??

For the record: I am not a US citizen (GB/DE) and my driving license is a German one. I wasn't asked to provide an address.

Any info on how to deal with this would be greatly appriciated!
Thanks!
RTG

Any post office will sell you a money order. Failure to pay the ticket may come back to bite ya in the ass
should you take another trip to the US in the Future.

A lot of small towns set up speed traps like that.You should follow Darkknights advice.

What you you do when you have 'bought' a money order from the post office? Does that mean that the transaction has occurred or you have to do something with it like post it? Posting it would be ideal as the 5 days would have passed.

That's a good question, ian .. can I post the money order to the court after the "wait period" has expired? And if so - can I send it by registered mail from Germany? I would kinda like to have some sort of proof that I actually sent the payment as I do travel to the States pretty regularly (five times in the past three years) and want to be prepared if I run into some awkward questions at immigration!

The only reason I ask about having to pay it at all or not is that I recall someone telling me that while he was living in New York State he never got a follow-up on a ticket he caught in Colorado even though he simply ignored it (e.g. didn't contest it etc..) - so that plus what various german tourists have written in other forums about not paying speeding/parking tickets and never hearing about them again just made me wonder if they even bother persuing unpaid tickets when they realise that all they have is your name and driving liscence no.

Anyway... a bit of extra info on the money order thing would be fantastic as I only have today to sort it (well, tomorrow actually.. its still the 6th here) and don't want to have to try and sort it from Germany!

Thanks for the input so far!
RTG

When you go to the post office, you give them money and they give you a cheque paid to the order of whoever you tell them. They will charge you a small fee for this service. You then need to mail the cheque in the post to the address provided on the speeding ticket. You can enclose a note asking for a receipt to be sent to you at your German address, but I don't know if they will honor that request.

You could also post the cheque with U.S. registered mail, which requires a signature on the receiving end, and would count as a receipt. But I don't know if this works with your 5-day waiting period.

I don't know if it would adversely affect you returning to the States or not. It surely would if you were ever stopped again in Utah, and possibly neighboring states like Nevada and California. I personally wouldn't want it hanging over me.

ok - will go to the post office first thing tomorrow and get a money order - I am pretty sure I can send an "Einschreiben mit Rückschein International" from Germany which should enable me to bridge the 5-day wait! Will send it out next monday and have done with it.

Thanks for all the advice!
RTG

Personally, I wouldn't pay it. There really is very little that is likely to happen, and they certainly aren't going to be able to put any endorsements on your German license. Worst case scenario (my guess anyway) is that you get banned from driving in the great state of Utah (snigger), and possibly have a bench warrant issued, which does eventually expire for such a heinous crime. Moving violations are not federal offenses, so even if you return to the US next year, as long as you don't drive in Utah, you're perfectly safe.

Your making things more complicated than they need to be...

1. Goto Post office and buy a Money order. It will cost the amount of the MO + $1-2
2. Look on the ticket or whatever info they gave you. Fill in the MO's "Pay to the order of" field with whatever they tell you to.
You must write this in as it is not done for you by the Post office Printing machine.
3. Make 2 photocopies of the ticket and the MO. Keep 1 copy for yourself, mail the 2nd copy in with the MO as directed.
4. If you can wait 1-2 days to send it in, then do so. Otherwise don't worry about waiting as the mail system will easily add a few days
to the delivery. If for some reason the MO makes it to the ticket office before the ticket, well thats why you enclosed a copy of the ticket.
You can get an international return receipt (And envelopes/stamps) at the Post office when you buy the MO, but its not needed as you already
have a copy of the ticket, MO, and the Post office receipt as proof payment was sent.
5. Relax...

Yes. Or jump bail, head out of town and lay low for a while until the heat is off. Then hijack a car and flee the state of Utah. Living life on the run is not so bad if you hold up a bank from time to time to get cash to feed your speeding frenzy habit.

No remorse!

Edit: And if anyone -reds me, they havn't got a sense of humour! (added after I got redded)

Most places you can pay online with a credit card as well, but Utah is kind of a third world hellhole, so maybe not there.

If you don't intend on visiting the state again in the near future, don't bother. Speeding tickets don't cross state lines. I think i've had one in New Mexico outstanding for 9 or 10 years now.

JUST GO THE 7-11 BUY A M.O. AND AFTER YOU MAIL IT TO THE COPS

Hard to imagine that a law enforcement office that asked you to wait five days to pay or it would confuse them would be able to operate a computer to enter your name into any national database. But the wise thing is to pay. Got a nasty fine on I-95 in Georgia 20 years ago... still runnin'. You can't catch me coppers!

The above all sounds like good advice.
Thanks for posting this! I nearly forgot about a parking ticket I received the other day. Stupid Yanks and their tickets. I'm visiting the BC Specialty (in Wisconsin) and have learned that there is more to this state than Beer and Cheese.