Well I appreciate some of the advice some people gave me. It was really easy.
But if I had simply paid the $160 fine, I would have indeed, had 2 points on my license if I had not gone to court to plead guilty with explanation. I was there with about 7 other people who were in the same boat.
What happened was the judge called my name, I was about the 4th person called. After he called my name, the officer who pulled me over went over to the plaintiffs side. He asked me how do I plead, I said guilty, just like everyone else. He said “I offer you the chance to speak now, and I will take it into consideration”, just like he did the people before me. I said that I was on the highway and was following the speed of other vehicles beside me (there were other cars that were stopped as well with me). Then he asked if I had any prior traffic tickets. I said no sir, this was my first one. He said thank you and told me to sit on the side bench as paper work was filed.
At the end, I received no points on my license and only had to pay a total of $50.00. That is the same with all 7 people who went that day.
So if I had paid the ticket, I would have gotten $160.00 and 2 points.
Going to court reduced it to $50.00 and 0 points.
Certainly not a waste of my time. The whole process took literally 12 minutes. I was at the defendants table for literally 3 minutes.
Certainly wasn’t a waste of my time.