Maryland Woman Ticketed For Driving 63 MPH In 65-MPH Zone

A Maryland woman ticketed for driving 63 mph in a 65-mph zone isn’t taking the infraction sitting down.

After a police officer pulled her over on Interstate 95 for driving 2 mph under the speed limit in the left lane, the woman refused to remain silent about it. Speaking to a local NBC affiliate, the unnamed woman said she couldn’t believe that an officer would pull her over for obeying the speed limit.

“[I was] really shocked,” she told the station. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, you’ve got to be kidding me.’ ”

The woman said she was driving 63 mph in the 65-mph zone because weather conditions were difficult for driving — there were heavy winds at the time and the woman said the lower speed was necessary as a precaution.

“Sometimes when it’s dangerous, you have to do what you can to stay safe,” she said.

Police claimed a different story. They said the woman didn’t belong in the left lane, which is for speedier drivers passing those in other lanes.

Many on the internet agreed with police. When a news article about the ticket for driving 63 mph in a 65-mph zone was posted to Reddit, most commenters took the side of the police officers. Many of them argued that it is unsafe to obstruct the flow of traffic by driving slowly in the passing lane, while a few sided with the woman and pointed out that those in the passing lane shouldn’t legally be driving over 65 mph anyway.

That’s an argument that her local branch of AAA seems to agree with.

“The reason [the ticket] is silly is because it’s sending the wrong message,” said John Townsend of AAA Mid-Atlantic. “And that is, ‘We will tolerate you driving at more than the speed limit, but it you drive below the speed limit, then you’re penalized for that.'”

Do you think police were right to ticket the woman driving 63 mph in a 65-mph zone?