I live in Illinois. I was pulled over for driving with unsafe equipment. My exhaust system is hanging low in the middle of it, but is still bolted onto the car in the front and back. It wouldn‘t have fallen off, yet I got pulled over for driving with unsafe equipment. I didn‘t get a warning and hardly had time to fix it, as it had happened just a little bit before getting pulled over. Do I deserve this ticket? Any way I can get out of paying the fee? I cannot afford it at the moment, and quite frankly do not think that I deserved the ticket, as I don‘t think I was driving unsafe. I don‘t know how to prove it though, so it‘s just his word against mine. Any way to fight this ticket?
If your exhaust system is hanging low it would not take much for the pipes to get caught on something. If that happened the pipe would probably break . and your car might just pole vault on the back of the exhaust system. You will not be in control if that happens! Another problem . since the pipes are hanging they may not be creating the seal necessary to keep exhaust gases from entering the passenger compartment. Carbon Monoxide might cause the driver to get a little sleepy, and sleeping at the wheel is pretty dangerous. You got the ticket, read the ticket carefully. In my state there is a space for a police officer or mechanic to sign the ticket indicating that the vehicle is repaired and the violation is no longer present. If your ticket has space for something like this it's easy to take care of! Appear in the court clerk's office before the court date with the signed ticket and hand it over! No fine, no points, no problem!
It's OK for an exhaust system to be hanging low in the middle as long as it's bolted at either end? I'm no expert, but that sounds wrong. You don't get warnings for fix it tickets, you get the ticket. See if it says correctable on the ticket; if so, you fix the exhaust and don't have to pay the fine. And you weren't cited for driving unsafe, you were cited for driving with unsafe equipment.
