Reckless Driving (VA)

[VirginiaPrisone]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Virginia


What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Virginia

Hello.
About two weeks ago I was pulled over for reckless driving in the city of Portsmouth.
I was doing 86/55. It is my first offence though I have had my license for under a year. I go to court and friday and am worried about the outcome. Since being pulled over, I've had my spedometer calibrated (it shows at 85mph my spedometer reads 80) and I have completed and online traffic school and a AAA driver improvement course. I am 22years old and in the navy and am worried about problems this could cause with my security clearance.

So the story is...
I was following about 6-8 car lengths behind another vehicle at about 60-63mph. Comming up onto an onramp I noticed a car driving along slowly with no blinker on. my assumption was that he was waiting for traffic to clear, but instead he decided to jump between me and the car ahead of me. I had to brake and swerve into the next lane to avoid hitting him. he was clearly entering way to slow and had plenty of room and time to get up to highway speeds, couldnt have been going more than 40mph. it kinda freaked me out and all that came to mind was get ahead and take my exit which was about 1/2-3/4 mile ahead. well before i knew it i was at the top of a hill looking at a police car sitting on the shoulder.

I didnt argue with the cop or anything and when he asked if i had a reason for speeding i said no.. kinda in shock at that point i guess.

So what i am wanting to know is how should i plea to this? a reckless driving charge would pretty much garauntee that i would not be able to renew my security clearance.

I havent been to court before any advice will be greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading

 

[VirginiaPrisone]

Oh and also in terms of road conditions, It was about 4pm, a clear sunny day and at the time there were only 3 or 4 other vehicles within a mile of me.

 

[FlyingRon]

Doing more than 80 miles an hour is reckless driving regardless of what else happened. I suspect that based on the cops question (that's always what the VSP guys seem to ask when they pull you over) that's why you were written up.

I'm not sure why you think all that braking and swerving is some defense to you doing 86 MPH? Seems like you're just making it worse bringing it up, indicating that you'd actually were going substantially faster.

Anyway, Reckless is a serious charge in Virginia. It's possible that the commonwealth's attorney will allow you to plead down to regular speeding in light of the driver school. If this is THAT important to you, there are tons of lawyers (get one in the vicinity of the court you are going to appear in) that can help you.

I've found security clearance investigators don't seem too concerned with traffic stops. I had an employee spend 4 days in jail due to Reckless (he was driving over 100 on the way home from work) suspended from 60 I believe. We disclosed that on his investigation and he got it promptly anyhow.

 

[VirginiaPrisone]

I'm not sure why you think all that braking and swerving is some defense to you doing 86 MPH? Seems like you're just making it worse bringing it up, indicating that you'd actually were going substantially faster.

As I said I was following behind another car about 60mph when I got cut off. The guy didnt speed up to enter at highway speeds and had to have been doing about 40mph. I just wanted to get off the highway after that and went the wrong way about doing so.

I've found security clearance investigators don't seem too concerned with traffic stops. I had an employee spend 4 days in jail due to Reckless (he was driving over 100 on the way home from work) suspended from 60 I believe. We disclosed that on his investigation and he got it promptly anyhow.

Did he have a TS/SCI clearance?

 

[FlyingRon]

Yes to the last question.