Syracuse, New York (WSYR-TV) - With the holidays coming up, a lot of us will be hitting the road to visit family and friends, which means the state troopers will be out in full force, making sure we're all playing by the rules.
We all know not to speed, to wear our seat belts, and stay off the phone while driving -- but did you know a plastic license plate bracket – a fairly common accessory on cars these days -- could get you in trouble?
Jean Hilton was pulled over by a state trooper the other day. She was written a ticket -- but not for speeding or running a stop sign.
“He told me that it was because of an obscured license plate -- he told me the plastic that's around my plate is illegal in New York State,” Hilton says.
The dealership Jean bought her truck from put it on seven years ago.
“I said, ‘You better start writing, pal, because you got lots of tickets to write,’ “ says Hilton.
And it's not just plate frames, either. State police say they could write you a ticket for having a sticker on your back or side window, an air freshener hanging from your rear view mirror, or even a satellite radio attached the windshield inside your car -- they can all be considered an obstruction of your view.
And by the way, Jean’s ticket isn’t cheap. Her $25 ticket also comes with an $85 state surcharge.
A spokesman for State Police pulled a copy of Jean's ticket and the trooper's notes today. He says she was intially pulled over for going 70mph in a 55mph zone and the trooper cut her a break, writing her a ticket for a lesser charge. He says most of the time that's when tickets of this nature are written.
So what's The Real Deal? Just how many tickets have troopers in central New York written so far this year?
Let's start with the not-so-serious ones like Jean's. More than 2,400 people have been ticketed for something pertaining to their license plate. They've either got a cover or frame on it, dirt or snow covering it or they don't have plates on their car/truck at all. That's up a few hundred from the same time last year, when 2,195 were ticketed.
Equipment violations are also up -- this includes obstructed view, window tint, broken tail or headlights -- 12,560 of those tickets have been written so far this year, up about 2,000 from last year.
And the total number of tickets, including speeding, seatbelts, and cell phone violations is also up more than 6,500 from last year.
State police claim they've stepped up their enforcement of highway safety issues and their ticket numbers typically go up every year.
Troopers say if you get a ticket for an equipment violation, you have 24 hours to correct it. If you bring it back to an officer or judge within that time frame, it will be dismissed.
