Question about Speeding Tickets and Insurance

[stardust]

Hi there,

Over the past 4 yrs, I've had 3 speeding tickets......one of them being a Photo Radar ticket which I'm told doesn't really count in terms of demerits (you don't get demerits for these)......but can a Photo Radar ticket still be counted as a ticket by your Insurance company?

So I got my driver's abstract today. It shows NO demerits I guess because my other 2 tickets were as follows:

#1 in Sept 2001
#2 in July 2002

It's my understanding that a person's demerits are removed after 2 yrs has passed since your conviction date (conviction date is the date you pay your fine/contest it in court, etc).

So I guess because over 2 yrs has passed since I received (and paid) these above 2 tickets, that's why I have no demerits....and then of course there's the Photo Radar ticket (got that in June 2004) but no demerits there.

The reason I care about any of this is.........I have to get some increased coverage on my auto insurance (as I travel some for work and figured I better let them know that, so I'm covered properly)..........so I called up my insurance company this afternoon and mentioned the above. I then asked how the new changes for Oct 1st, 2004 might impact my insurance. She told me they're still in the process of going back over everyone's insurance to see if they're due for a credit.....BUT that they're going to look at each person's driving record for the past 3-4 yrs, to check for speeding tickets, etc.

So this is when I sorta got nervous. Although I have no demerits, if they check back over the past 4 yrs, they'll see these 2 tickets above................How much do you think these 2 tickets will impact my insurance? (I'm 37 yrs old by the way, have never been in an accident, never had a claim).

Will they also find, on whatever data base they might use, a record of my Photo Radar ticket or is it definite that Photo Radar tickets don't ever count and are not acknowledged by insurance companies (mostly because there's no way to prove the insured individual is the one who got the photo radar ticket, it could have been someone else driving - which I believe is why they don't give demerits, for that same reason).

ALSO.....do you think an insurance company looks at the REASON for the ticket?

My one ticket was for speeding slightly in a playground zone.

My other one was for driving 48 km/h here in Airdrie where much to my surprise, the speeding limit in all residential areas is 30km/h (I truly didn't know this but found out the hard way)....HOWEVER, on my Driver's Abstract, THIS ticket is down as "exceeding posted speed limit on highway".....which is BS....the little Municipal Enforcement dude who wrote me the ticket must have coded it incorrectly.............I didn't know this until I got this abstract.

I don't know what I can do about this now, or whether it even matters. Which do you think looks worse to an insurance company.....a ticket for speeding in a residential area or speeding on the highway?

I will be doing a lot of highway driving in my job so maybe a ticket (even though the reason is wrong) citing I was speeding on the highway is something I want to dispute because that's not what it was for....though not sure how I'd go about disputing it now..I didn't make a photocopy of the ticket and I paid by cash so I don't have any documents..all I could do was go down to the Provincial Court building in Airdrie (where I paid it) and see if they had some kind of record.

Thanks in advance
Lisa

[BlackArcher101]

Any street is considered a highway under the traffic act or whatever it's called. I'm pretty sure driveways are conisdered a "highway" also. I'll look it up and make sure.

edit: Taken from the Highway Traffic Act
http://www.canlii.org/ab/laws/sta/h-8/20030217/whole.html

"highway" means any thoroughfare, street, road, trail,
avenue, parkway, driveway, viaduct, lane, alley, square,
bridge, causeway, trestleway or other place, whether
publicly or privately owned, any part of which the public
is ordinarily entitled or permitted to use for the passage or
parking of vehicles, and
(i) includes
(A) a sidewalk (including the boulevard portion of
the sidewalk),


So in a nutshell, the ticket you received was correct. You were on a highway.
And I don't think the detail of the ticket matters to insurance. A speeding ticket is a speeding ticket, nothing more.

[Zero102]

^^^ that's probably why it's written up as on a highway.

The playground one will look really bad, and honestly, I don't respect people who speed in playground/school zones. That's kid's lifes you're playing with.

Anyways, I believe they can consider tickets from up to 5 years ago. Whether the demerits stay or not (although I do think they stay longer than 2 years).

Insurance companies don't care about the reason for the tickets.

Although, they're not going to pull driver's abstracts on every driver they insure, but they probably will on ones that were in the higher rate categories, trying to keep their rates up.

Since you're 37, it won't affect your premiums that much anyways.

[FiveFreshFish]

You should PM Dave P because he works in the insurance business.

FYI, here is a list of infractions and demerit points.
http://www.gov.ab.ca/acn/images/2002/1202/Dermitschedule.pdf

[stardust]

Thanks for your responses..okay, and now I undrestand about the use of "highway"...thanks.

So do Photo Radar tickets count? Can they impact your insurance like a non-photo radar ticket can?

I wouldn't think they do (or should) because the person driving the vehicle at the time it was clocked speeding may or may not be the registered owner of the vehicle.

Does anyone know for sure?

Thanks

[FiveFreshFish]

Originally posted by stardust
So do Photo Radar tickets count? Can they impact your insurance like a non-photo radar ticket can?

They don't count. They are the same as a parking ticket (and the same as a photo red light ticket) because it's made out to the registered owner.

[eb0i]

Not to jack your thread but when I got a ticket this past summer in August (I was pulled over) I went to the CP to get the demerits completely removed and only had to pay the complete fine. Now will this ticket show up on my drivers abstract? Or do only tickets with demerits only show up on your abstract?