If you’ve read the EcoModder blog for a while, you’ve definitely seen Ben Nelson’s Electro-Metro as well as some of his other projects. If you’ve been on the forum, you’ve definitely been a party to some of his zany antics, but this is just about as good as it gets.
A few months ago Ben was pulled over for doing 25 mph in a 15 mph zone, and received a ticket for $83.80. But Ben wasn’t about to go down without a fight. He scheduled a court date and even though he had lost his ticket, went in defiantly at 8am hoping that a treehugging judge might nullify the ticket, or at least reduce the points on his license.
You can read the full court story, but I will summarize for the sake of those without such a sizeable chunk of time to spare. Like many of us who have been to court to fight a traffic ticket, Ben waited nervously as the judge ran through the list of names on the docket and one by one handed out his judgments. Because Ben had lost his ticket he ended up last, but he still got what he wanted:
The judge and clerk both comment to each other that they have never heard of anyone speeding in an electric car before. He changes the charge from speeding to “Defective Equipment: Speedometer”. The fine is still the same, but there are no demerit points involved.
I guess they’ve not heard about the Tesla Roadster yet! But it gets better…
Not only did the judge reduce the ticket (but not the cost, hence the Electro-Metro Legal Defense Fund), but he took our hero Ben across the street to talk to the editor of the local paper about Ben’s story, which squarely landed him on the front page.
Here’s Ben telling the story himself:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBWeayMOIIU&eurl=&feature=player_embedded
Feel free to check out the thread and donate yourself! Who’s ever heard of a 15 mph speed limit anyway?
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When I lived in Arizona, there was a 15 mph limit down where the creek often ran OVER the road when it rained hard. Extra low zones are usually to get drivers wary to unusual things like that.
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