Speeding

November 5, 2009 1:40 PM

How can I find out if I have a speeding ticket in California?

I once may have been cough at night speeding in Silicon Valley (automated system, flashed).

* The car was not rented by me but by a company that interviewed me (yeah, I know, bad idea to speed in this car).

* I got the car with my EU drivers license that does not have an address on it.

I never heard anything. How could I find out if I got a ticket and am obligated to pay it? It has been a couple of years already.

posted by yoyo_nyc to travel & transportation (4 comments total)

Well, for one, it's likely not a ticket anymore, it'd be a warrant by now. That is if it even exists. If you want to find out, call the courthouse in the specific city. You'll probably need the license plate number of that car though, so that may take some tracking down through the rental car agency.
posted by VC Drake at 2:09 PM on November 5

A couple of years? From an automated speed camera? And you were in a rental?

Forget about it. It's history. The only place in the Silicon Valley that had the automated speed cameras was San Jose, and that program was dismantled a while back.

The tickets don't actually put points against your license anyway. It's not something that would turn into a warrant.
posted by drstein at 2:32 PM on November 5

If it's anything like parking tickets, and automated tickets usually are, it would have been sent to the rental car company. The rental car agreement says that the renter agrees to pay any tickets. So it would have been sent to the company that rented the car. And they would have paid it. Or if they didn't, it's not your problem.
posted by smackfu at 3:12 PM on November 5

Tickets given by automated cameras are civil citations, unlike those given by a peace officer which are criminal violations.
posted by Rhomboid at 3:25 PM on November 5