My Driving History Sucks!

My Car insurance is up for renewal again and this time its hurting my pocket, very deep!. They have increased my premium by 50%. I am talking about the basic liability insurance I need to drive in this state. Some of my friends (read Ravi) have more speeding and traffic tickets than all of my movie tickets for last 5 years put together and they seem to pay much much less for the insurance than a safe and sound driver like me!

I am not kidding. The first speeding ticket I got was speeding at 65 in a 45 miles zone. I had gotten my Driver's license that Monday morning and Thursday afternoon, I was pulled over by the Cop. So, he gives me the ticket and I tell him I had had my license for only 3 days and pleaded him to be generous. He reduced the ticket to 50 on a 45 miles zone. The worst thing is I shouldn't have been on the road at the time. One of my co-worker had called me over as he had run out of gas after his lunch. I got the ticket while "speeding" back to work!

Almost 7 months to the day, I was pulled over right in front of my office. Again for speeding. This time I was genuinely speeding to make it to a 9:00 AM meeting. I could have started with apologizing to the Cop, instead like a brain-dead idiot I am before 9:00 AM, I said I wasn't speeding! This time I had to go to the court as I was doing 70 on a 45 mile zone. On the court day, the court clerk asked me if agree for the reduced charge of 50 on 45 mile zone. I said yes as I didn't have many other options.

In next 5 months I never went 5 miles more than the speed limit. Meantime I was lucky enough to have been pulled over for making a Right turn on Red in a traffic light in a God-Forsaken small rural town here in North Carolina. This time I was wise enough to apologize to the Lady Cop and she let me go with a warning.

Then came the long road trip to Chicago in Sep. of 2006. I made it safely all way across 2300 miles in 3 days through Hurricane Ernesto and a severe hangover. I was in Virginia only 100 miles away from getting back to the place I live when I skidded off an entry ramp to the Highway and ended up in a ditch with air-bags blown on my face. I barely survived the accident intact as there was a truck skidding off the road right behind me when I was getting out of the car. I had to call 911 and after investigating the scene the state trooper gave me a "reckless driving" ticket. Take a look at the tyre tracks in this picture I took while waiting for the towing company to show up.



I had option of either pleading guilty or hiring lawyer to argue my case as I had a good chance of getting the ticket dismissed as I could make the case that Hurricane Ernesto was receding from the area and blame the difficult weather conditions. So I hired a local lawyer and drove to the town of County court which is about 100 miles. Guess what, the Lwyer doesn't show up!

The court clerk called my name out loud and I had to go in front of the judge.

Judge : Mr. De-var-juu. Do I say your name Right?
Me : Yes, Sir (Although I could barely make it out myself)
Judge : How do you say your first name?
Me : Ranganath
Judge : Oh, OK (laughs), I wouldn't try that! (laughs). The officer here tells me you were driving in adverse wheather conditions and I am ready to reduce the charge to a much lesser charge of moving violation. Do you agree for that?

I would have agreed to sell the Taz Mahal to get out of more trouble. So I ended up paying a fine for much lesser charge. Then I had go in search of the lawyer whom I already had paid the fees before the court appearance. I found him and he gave my money back. All this time I thought the accident wouldn't go on my record as I was told that minor charges in Virginia don't count. Some how my insurance company found that out through State DMV records and increased my Premium.