Speeding Tickets

Getting traffic tickets in Norway is nothing like getting them in America.  There is no chit-chat about where someone is going to and did they know how fast they were driving.  There are no extenuating circumstances or good lawyers to help get out of them.  If a driver is speeding, they’re speeding.  A hefty fine will surely follow.

Kory got a speeding ticket in Norway once.  The policeman was crouched down in the tall wild flowers along the roadside with a laser gun.  The police car was not visible from a distance.  The policeman stepped out into the street and motioned us over, then told Kory to sit in the police car.  That was different.  Kory gave him his license and waited for the ticket to be written up.  There was no need to ask for proof of insurance or registration because that’s all automated and the policeman knew it just from our license plate number. 

Kory was given a ticket that looked like all other bills we get in Norway.  It has the account number on where to transfer the money, and how much is due by what date.  There is no court appearance, no second chance. 

The penalty for speeding is on a sliding scale based on which speed zone it occurred in, so if Kory’s speed had been one kilometer less (about half a mile an hour), it would have cost two-thirds the price.  If he’d been going two miles an hour more, it would have cost a third more.  As it was, a ticket going the equivalent of 56mph in a 50 zone cost him 2,600 kroner - over 500 dollars.  We were in shock.

I was complaining about the ticket to a cousin and he said he got a ticket once for going 20mph over the limit and it cost him over 1,500 dollars.   He thought we got off lucky. 

Kory had an option to spend three days in jail rather than pay the fine.  I was in favor of the jail time since I’m the family accountant and knew we had better things to do with the money.  He thought maybe I should spend the time there instead. 

Another cousin got caught once by a speeding camera in a tunnel.  He was going so fast that he was given three weeks mandatory jail time, plus a huge fine and he lost his license for nine months.  He received the ticket in the mail along with the date he was to admit himself to prison. 

As a friend of ours said after Kory got the ticket, “Only drive as fast as you can afford.”  In Norway, that’s certainly the truth.