Fairfax, South Carolina Speed Traps

As the driver leaves the Allendale city limits, the speed limit rises to 50 mph as on most improved SC roads. Within a mile, one enters the town of Fairfax where the speed limit drops to 45 and then 30 mph over a quarter of a mile. When driving at night the signs are hard to spot. The policeman was hidden behind a small building on the right with an unmarked car. I slowed to 25 as I entered the business district because of a train crossing the road. The officer pulled up behind me at the train crossing.

Speed limit quickly changes from 55mph to 35mph. Although the highway does go through the center of this small town, there is no warning of the abrupt speed change on this US highway; there is very little traffic in this small town that would necessitate such a speed limit.

The officer that pulled me over was talking so fast that I could barely understand him. The formality of actually speaking to me was apparently taking up too much of his time that he could be spending pulling other cars over. He was talking so fast that he appeared to be out of breath.

This was my first and only speeding ticket in my 15 years of driving. I believe I was clocked at an astonishing 44 mph. Instead of a warning, I was slapped with a ticket and a breathless and rehersed "concerned" comment about "the seriousness of driver safety." Before he even pulled out of the parking lot from pulling me over, he had his lights on and was in pursuit of another car.