FL Dive Flag Violations Question

[Chugwhump]

You can fight this, but you will probably lose in court.
But you might not.
You might miss a 1/2 day of work.
You may not care, or even work.
The stress and attention of preparing for the trial as it were will be annoying...(I think).
The sooner you just put it in your rear view window the better.
BUT....
If ower to ya'!!!
Please report back whatever you decide.

Chug
Thinks this is a lousy situation.

 

[rha600]

Dumb question, I've never had anything like this happen, but do they even know who you are? I mean you're not driving, so they don't have a drivers license to go by. If you didn't pay it (unless you gave them your real name) how would they even know for sure who you were? I don't carry any sort of ID when I'm diving so if I were ever stopped I'm giving them a fake name.

 

[graham_s]

Pay the fine.
You may have had a flag, but clearly when they came upon your float you didn't have one.
Like it or not, you're guilty of the infraction.
Learn the lesson and get a better flag, attached properly.

 

[Tom Winters]

If you don't have to travel too far, go to the hearing. 'Splain your side of events to the magistrate - you won't get a dismissal, but you might get $45 or so knocked off the fine.

 

[tddfleming]

Thanks for everyones input. More than likely we will pay the fine, would be cheaper than to take time off work, but we will see. As for attaching the flag, it was attached though both upper metal gromets and zips tied on both lower metal gromets. The whole things went missing, poles, flag and all. I am not upset with the FL Fish and Game folks, not one bit, as I understand where they are coming from. But when she wrote the ticket, she did metion we could fight it. They had also mentioned that not too long ago there were two divers hit by a jet ski in the same place. I usually put a 5 lb weight inside the float but this one time I did not. More upset at ourselves for this. Oh well, lesson learned. Will report back if I decide to fight it and let other know how this goes. As for giving fake name, that would not work, as they look you up using name and DOB and call it in that the time.

 

[moosicman]

And lying to an officer with authority can lead to MUCH larger problems. I've never come remotely close to being in that type of situation, but I've shook my head at fools who have and had to learn the hard way.

 

[rha600]

Ah. So if you want to give a "fake" name you'd have to say, know your boss' date of birth? HAHA. joking of course. unless your boss is a real PITA.

 

[HowardE]

Dumb question, I've never had anything like this happen, but do they even know who you are? I mean you're not driving, so they don't have a drivers license to go by. If you didn't pay it (unless you gave them your real name) how would they even know for sure who you were? I don't carry any sort of ID when I'm diving so if I were ever stopped I'm giving them a fake name.

You probably go and lobster too... right?

 

[NAM001]

one thing for sure... you will pay the fine and fix the problem with your flag set up. ultimately a working flag is what is required.

could have been worse you could have lobster and no scale

 

[rha600]

You probably go and lobster too... right?

huh? Can you translate that?