Radar detectors aren't perfect.
Feb 14 '02
The Bottom Line Get a radar detector if you speed 0-20 above, but if you speed much more than that, you are lucky you haven't been to driving school yet.
Let's start off here: I am 15, and I've had 3 tickets under a school license, which is in Iowa: you can drive to and from school from 5 AM to 12 AM. You can also go to a gas station on your way to or from school. I live in a family of radar detectors, my mom has a cobra, I have a Whistler, and my brother has one from Radio Shack, which in my experience is a really good detector, except for one specific time.Me and 3 other friends had gone to get pizza. I was driving my brother's car which is a Camaro, nice one at that. He has a radar detector so I was going a good 25 over the "limit". First mistake: driving. My friend has a license, so I should have let him drive, but no, I did. We were a mile from my house, and I was doing about 75 in a 55. All of the sudden the detector is alerting me every which way it can and I see a car up ahead a ways. So a natural reaction is to stomp on the brake, but I wasn't quick enough. I pass the lone car, see in my rear view mirror that it tuned around. I was doing 55 at that point. I am craping myself thinking of whats going to happen. I see the blue and red lights turn on, and I pull to the side of the road. Unfortunately, he pulls up right beside me, the radar detector is silent. So I get a ticket for doing 74 in a 55, and a ticket for "violation of school license." That diminished a lot of faith I have in radar detectors. So lesson #1 is to go reasonably within the limit, unless there are plenty of other cars around. When cops use "instant-on", in which they did here, their radar guns get the fastest reading they can, which gives you about a good half-second to do something about your speed. What is wierd about the ticket is that he put a note on it that I had a radar detector, but they are perfectly legal in Iowa. Well, I was a mile from freedom, but things happen that aren't always good. My other ticket was 4 days later for "failure to maintain control" when I hit a fence after it had snowed 1-2 inches on the road, with some ice under it, not sanded or salted or plowed at all. That really made me mad. So what have I learned from all this? get a radar detector, and learn how to use them. If you aren't around any other cars, you are in extreme danger of gettting an instant-on or pulse warning, and if speeding too much, caught. The normal radar guns won't do this, and it takes about 3 seconds for them to get a reading, meanwhile you can slow down. I have a radar gun, and I have plenty of fun with it, but I'm not a cop, look in the Heartland America catalog, they have some neat stuff in there, and thats where I got my radar detector. If you have anymore questions about radar detectors, e-mail me at bkreager@yahoo.com and have the subject as "radar detector".
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Epinions.com ID:
bkreager
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Location: Rural Iowa
Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 0 members
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