Ridin’ with the wheeldude: Extra fees launch tickets into stratosphere

Lately, there’s been a troubling chain email describing unrealistically high fees and charges attached to traffic tickets. It says something like: Your $20 ticket becomes $700 once the state adds it all up, and the California Highway Patrol is out to get us all, thus solving the state’s budget deficit.
It sounds real, with quotes and references to vehicle code. But checking the relevant pages shows it’s all exaggerated — like the warnings of financial Armageddon or pastor Harold Camping’s end-of-the-world predictions.
But unless you carry a diplomatic passport, there’s no such thing as paying a $20 fine for any moving violation ticket in California. To fund a plethora of programs, the Legislature has added charges, assessments and fees to traffic tickets since the first one was set in 1953.
Straight from our county’s law library, here are the Judicial Council of California’s Uniform Bail and Penalty Schedules for several popular items. And, sorry, striving for simplicity is futile.
Let’s say you violated Vehicle Code section 22349.2 (a) — going 81 mph in a 65-mph zone. The $100 base fine goes to the county or city where the officer works. If a California Highway Patrol officer issues the citation, the location of the violation determines where the fine goes.
Then there’s a 20 percent state surcharge, adding $20 to our ticket.
Add to that a 280 percent penalty assessment, consisting of a 100 percent state penalty, a 50 percent fee for state court facilities construction, a 40 percent fee for a DNA identification fund, a 70 percent share for the county and 20 percent for the Emergency Medical Services fund. That’s $280, and our ticket totals $400 now.
Add a new $35 thing called the conviction assessment, plus a $10 Department of Motor Vehicles fee, another EMS penalty of $4 and a $40 court security fee, and our ticket rounds out at $489.
Here’s another example: Vehicle Code 5201.1(a) — the sale of prohibited products or devices to obscure a license plate. A base fine of $250 ends up as $1,080.
And another: failure to give notice of vehicle repossession. A $300 ticket ends up close to $1,200 after all the assessments and fees are added.
One more: 21806 (a, b), the failure to yield to an emergency vehicle. The original $100 ticket grows to more than $450.
The cost of all these tickets goes up when factoring in late penalties, repeat offenses and misdemeanors.
The numbers above are just ballpark figures, based on published costs. I don’t know the intricacies of the system, and judges or traffic commissioners have the final word. Plus, there are other additions, such as $1 night court fees and extra fees tacked on by counties.
Radar-busting potential
The other day, while driving a cab, I picked up a fare from a downtown bar. Apparently, he is an interstate 18-wheeler driver, and that night he drank so much liquid truth serum that he revealed to me a professional truck driver’s secret to beating police radar.
All it takes, he said, is connecting the terminals of a fluorescent tube with copper wire and putting it under the hood in front of the car’s engine.
Radar busting is nothing new. During World War II, there were balloons with silver foil streamers, and to this day, the U.S. Air Force uses silver foil chaff to confuse enemy radar.
But between working two jobs and running a small business on a side, I have no time for scientific experiments and verifications.
So I’m calling anybody with too much time on their hands. Let us know if any of that stuff works.
Just be aware of Vehicle Code 21464 (e): willful interference with traffic devices or the willful use, possession or distribution of a traffic interference device that does not result in injury. It is a base fine of $500, resulting in an adjusted total of almost $2,000.
So employ such a device at your own risk.
Lucjan Szewczyk, the Press-Banner’s photographer, is a part-time cab driver who commutes to Scotts Valley from San Jose.