Do Nurses Get Traffic Tickets?

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in ER, Oncology, Preop, Recovery.

We were having a discussion at work where one nurse stated she always hung her RN work ID from her rear view mirror in case she got pulled over. She said once the law enforcement officer saw that she was an RN, he/she would not ticket her. Another nurse said she got out of tickets by saying she had been called into work. Lol... she said this even worked when she was driving in the opposite direction of the hospital. A male coworker questioned whether this applied to males as well. I have not gotten pulled over (knock on wood) in the 4 years I have a nurse, so this was news to me. :redpinkheJust curious...what are your experiences with being pulled over as a nurse?

i know a nurse who got pulled over on a 4 way stop sign because she didn't fully stop. instead she did a rolling stop, even though there was no cars in any direction whatsoever.

the cop who pulled her over was a female cop.

Specializes in LDRP, Wound Care, SANE, CLNC.

:yeah:I am sure the only reason I did not get a ticket for going 63 in a 50, I know, I know, I have learned my lesson, anyway, was because me and my car pool buddy were in our nursing school uniform ( scrubs). I fessed up to knowing how fast I was going and told the state cop I was fully aware of going to fast, but we were late and were in hot water. I have never had a ticket before and was really glad not to get one then. I have been a driver for over 20 years and did not want to start then as a ticketed driver. I have learned to set cruise control on that stretch of road and NEVER speed again.

I stopped for gas after that and we decided to ditch clinical that day due to the fact that we were late anyway and would be told to go home if we showed up.

It is a debate whether it was our uniforms or being honest from the start. :yeah:

Sure -- not all of us attempt to use our occupation as a way to weasel out of things with law enforcement. The two times in my life that the cop has figured out that I was a nurse, I've been let go with a warning rather than a ticket -- but I don't make a point of telling cops that I'm a nurse if I get stopped. I would certainly never lie about being on my way to work when I wasn't!!

I got pulled over not long ago for my windown tint. It was about 8am and I had worked all night (IOW, NOT a good time to mess with me, lol).

Anyway, he came up to the window all puffed up, I rolled it down, he checked the tint, said it was too dark. Then he said, "where do you work?" I told him, and he said, "Oh. Well, we really don't like to see windows this dark.. but I'm just gonna give you a verbal warning. You have a nice day."

:whew: still haven't fixed them, lol.

I'm with elkpark, though.. I wouldn't have made it a point to tell anyone I'm a nurse. In fact, it took me a second to figure out why he was asking when he did, I had to look down and realize I still had my badge and my steth on, lol.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

the last traffic ticket i got was for a broken headlight (rock on the way to work) as i was pulling out of the employee parking garage on christmas night. i told the cop that i knew the headlight was broken, than i got hit by a rock on the way to work, and that i was planning to get it fixed the next day. i was wearing scrubs, my rn id and my stethescope still around my neck. still got the ticket.

Specializes in Peri-op/Sub-Acute ANP.

I got hit head-on by another nurse outside of the hospital one morning. She was coming off nights and "forgot where she was". The cops did not ticket her, despite the fact that I wound up in the ED with whiplash! Anyhoo, she jerked me around with the insurance claim ($5,000 of damage to my car) and I had real problems getting her policy to pay because the cop didn't even write up a report detailing that she was on the wrong side of the road when she hit me. It was a mess and I still get PO'd when I think about it. I truly believe that if she hadn't been a nurse they would have thrown the book at her, but everyone wanted to make "nice-nice" because she was a fellow nurse.

Specializes in Critical Care Nursing AKA ICU.

O yes.. i actually got pulled over by the same cop twice leaving the hospital, thats okay love taking care of public servents ;)

Specializes in LTC Rehab Med/Surg.

This is somewhat off the topic, but this story always makes me smile

One night, while I was as work, the house supervisor called every nurses station in the facility to ask if Dr @#$% had been paged. I work in a small hospital so it didn't take long to figure out no one had paged him. She later told us, a state trooper had called the hopital, because he had a car pulled over and the doc said he was speeding because he needed to get to a phone because he had been paged. The doc was the most arrogant, abusive one on staff. Needless to say, he got the ticket.

I love state troopers.

I think that nurses do get tickets.

I was once pulled over after work because I didn't have my headlights on and it was about dusk. We had just been at work so wearing scrubs. Female officer asked if it had been a heavy shift and we said it had been but really they all are. No ticket there.

I've had a state trooper pull me over on suspected drunk driving - wasn't drunk but just tired. I was doing 5-10 under the speed limit and driving "too close too the white line" He was still a jerk when it was proven I wasn't drunk or under any influence. I think it just depends.

Specializes in Med-Surg/Oncology.

Haven't been pulled over *knock on wood* but I did take care of a police officer who had been admitted to my floor once. One of his uniformed buddies came in and I offered him some coffee (he looked tired from the night shift). He told me I just earned a "get out of ticket free" card then laughed and said, "Well we don't give tickets to (name of hospital) nurses anyway." There's only two hospitals in my town and I work at the county one, where most of them work shifts in the ER as security and where they bring all their prisoners, and where most of them come themselves. I think it's an issue of, do I really want to give this nurse a ticket for something petty when she may be taking care of me one day? Haha :)

Specializes in O.R. Nursing - ENT, CTC, Vasc..

I might be slow on this one, but is this why people hang their stethoscopes on their rearview mirrors? (things that anyone can buy...)

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