"What the … ?" you ask yourself. There you are minding your own business at a stoplight when all of a sudden your car starts shaking. The pounding gets so loud you think it’s your telltale heart about ready to burst. Within a couple of seconds the culprit usually pulls up alongside you or behind you. Half relieved to learn it isn’t your heart pounding, half miffed to be subjected to noise pollution, you get a good look at the offender and then decide it’s probably best not to glare at someone who hides behind tinted windows and chooses to play their car stereo that loudly.
If you live in a city like Lynnwood or Everett, it’s going to be really tempting to pick up your cell phone and make a quick little call to the police, especially if you know the price of the ticket that driver is likely to get stuck with.
Ryan Meyer of Lynnwood got a lesson in his city’s noise ordinance recently when he was hit with a $490 ticket for playing his music too loudly. While those of us who don’t play our car stereos that loudly find the thumping obnoxious and even alarming, $490 sounds like a steep price.
Meyer made sense when he told Herald reporter Janice Podsada, "It’s ridiculous that you can get a negligent (driving) or speeding ticket and it’s less of a fine than a noise ticket." But he lost us when he added, "Why wouldn’t they give a guy a warning? I didn’t know about this law."
You don’t have to know about a law to break it. And as a driver, it’s your responsibility to know what the laws are.
But all of us gently push, bend and twist the rules of life and law every once in awhile. Who hasn’t been guilty of speeding or running a "pink" light now and again? You know how the saying goes, "He just caught."
Municipal Court Judge Stephen Moore made a wise decision to reduce the outrageous sum to $125. That’s enough to teach a lesson without inflicting serious financial harm.
And it just might be enough to cut down on the number of booming, shaking cars pulling up alongside or behind you at stoplights.
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