I think you should go dutch on the ticket with your friends seeing how you were speeding just as fast and had the ggod fortune not to be caught. I also think you should change your name to "Clarkcan'tdrive55". What would have happened if the shoe was on the other foot and you had received the ticket in their country?

Just like any other business, the police are gradually getting more and more sophisticated with their computer programs and tracking people.

What would happen if your friends came back into the US for a visit and got stopped AGAIN?

I assume, Clark, that you were following that age-old practice of "allowing" someone else to do the speeding for you or, as some of us who drive fast call them, the "point speeder."

I'm always amused at how people try to rationalize their speeding and their tickets: "it is only a revenue generator" is one of the most amusing. If you want to stop that particular revenue flow then stop speeding.

Of course, these same speed hounds who are telling you not to pay the ticket and "throw sand" into the govrenment machinery will be yelling and whining the loudest when "the cops don;t do their job."

I speed in my sports car all the time; and when I've been stopped for doing what I KNEW I was doing I paid.

Neither you nor your friends need any "advice" on this matter because you already know what should be done; just be glad the only "notice" involved in this incident didn't have the word "death' included.

If you choose to pay it, make sure you keep some sort of proof/receipt forever - sometimes paid tickets have a way of reappearing years later when any reasonable person would have long discarded the paperwork.

Voyager, I always call them a decoy! LOL!

I won't get into the debate about the justice of paying or not paying. (It's their conscience, not mine.)

But I agree with the poster who said they ticket is issued to the driver, not the vehicle. So I don't think the rental car co. is involved at all.

Also, I believe this is pretty much an in-state issue. If you have an unpaid ticket in, say, California, you'll have a problem only if stopped in California again. That's why the cops make you wait before they write the ticket. They're checking the state computer to see if you have any other violations.

Bottom line: If you're not going to drive in that state again, it's unlikely an unpaid ticket will come back to haunt you.

I know that NC/SC/VA/GA are reciprocal states so if you get a ticket in one, it shows up in all databases.

The ticket thing does go to your rental car company by the license plate. Don't know about Nevada but it happens in Florida all the time.

Clark-Your friends should just pay the ticket. $300 isn't that much for peace of mind, especially if they're ever planning on coming back to the States.

We were actually 3 cars & we were all following each other, we weren't overtaking everybody & we were only following the flow. I don't think he realised he was over the limit maybe bcoz we're used to driving faster here in Europe, in fact we didn't think we were over the limit either but we must have been bcoz we were following him & our other frinds were following us. After the fine everbody was obviously keeping to the limit & everybody was passing us.

Moving violation shows up in every state DMV computers.

About 10 years ago I got a $10 parking ticket in Charleston, SC. I tossed the ticket, but a few months later, the rental car company came after me because they had to pay the ticket plus late fees. Ended up costing me $20 when it was all said and done.

I'm thinking they can go after your credit card to pay the fine. I'm sure it's there somewhere in the fine print on your rental agreement. ((b))

"We were only following the flow" is an excuse that simply doesn't hold water--try it in court sometime, I dare you!. The ones who didn't get pulled over were lucky; the cops can't pull over an entire pack of cars; and pulling over just one driver had the desired effect on the rest, at least for a while.

I can't imagine the situation is any different in Europe, although when I lived there, I never got a ticket and so remain unfamiliar with the procedures.

The fact that most drivers speed doesn't mean we're all entitled to do so; it means those who do assume the risks of speeding, one of which is a ticket. (I won't go into the dangers of doing 86mph in an unfamiliar car on an unfamiliar road in a foreign country.)

Do what you like, but be an adult about it and accept responsibility, both for the speeding and the consequences of not paying the ticket, if that's what your friends decide to do.

The rental car company will get the fine notification and they will charge your friend's credit card for it, plus any penalties/late charges. (Do you honestly think that rental car companies don't have policies to handle these things?)

This happened to a houseguest of ours. Since he listed our address as a local contact on his rental contract, the mail came to us. That's how we found out that they were planning to charge his credit card.

lvk - We're talking about a moving violation, and not a camera job either. The rental company has nothing to do with this thing, unlike a parking ticket. Huge difference between the two situation.

rkkwan, the police officer wrote the license plate number of the car on the speeding ticket. The plate number of course is tied to the rental agency who can easily find out who rented that car during that time, charge the cc on file.

Doesn't the cop ALWAYS ask for "License and Registration, please"? (I've only heard....of course I don't have first hand experience in these things.) :)

The registration would show that the car was registered to the Rental Agency.

I find it hard to believe that either the governmental agencies and/or the rental car agencies would just "give up" on all this revenue/reimbursement from international tourists.

The ticket is a violation by the driver, not the automobile. There's no way a speeding ticket can be enforced against the owner of the car. Parking ticket yes, speeding ticket no.

I seem to remember a thread a while back about Rental agencies refusing cars to people who had any record of violations. Some folks showed up at the counter and the agent informed them that since they had a violation (even in a different state) that they would not be able to have a car.

Like others have said, if you do the crime, pay the fine. If not, be prepared for other consequences and significantly higher costs to clear it later.

I guess we could debate this all day -- and probably will -- but I don't understand why the rental agency is on the hook for the ticket.

If I let you borrow my car and you get a ticket for a moving violation, it's on you, not me. There is no law, at least not in this state, that requires to owner to pay for another's moving violation, except if the violation is only recorded via camera.

As for the cops asking for license and registration, that's just to verify that the vehicle hasn't been reported stolen and that there's a valid registration.

And I have never heard of a rental agency rejecting someone because the person had an unpaid moving violation.

However, I do have a friend who manages a rental agency, and I will ask him about it.

That is ridiculious $300 bucks for 10 miles an hour over the speed limit! Got nailed in Idaho when I was out there and it was only 50 bucks. That is what the fine should have been, not 300.