First Time Speeding Ticket

Location: Arkansas

I got my first speeding ticket and have to go into court tomorrow morning. This is the first time anything like this has happened for me, and I’m scared because I don’t know what any of this is going to look like.

I’m a safe driver, never gotten pulled over before, and always make a point to drive with a safe following distance despite how many people tailgate and road rage in my town.

I was late for work one night, and got stuck on a one lane road behind someone going 10 under. I’m under a lot of pressure due to my circumstances, and I did start speeding 25+mph over the speed limit the second I was able to get around them. It was 10o’clock at night, the roads were completely empty, my job has a point system every time you’re late regardless of what happened and I didn’t have any points built up and didn’t want to start because you get fired if you amass 5 points.

Just my luck, this was when an officer was stationary patrolling the area, and I got a speeding ticket for the first time.

I’m frustrated because police are never there for all the times I’ve been tailgated and road raged at, but they were there the one time I was in an emergency and broke my own rule of being a safe driver. I understand why speeding is not safe, and I’m not trying to justify my actions by saying it’s okay to put other drivers in danger if you’re running late for work. It was a one time thing and of course that’s when police were around.

I’m extremely stressed out because if this goes on my record, my car insurance is going to increase and I already am barely living paycheck to paycheck. I have no problem paying the fine for the ticket, but what do I say to the judge tomorrow morning to ask what my options are? Will they even be willing to find alternative methods considering how much I was speeding?