Summersville, West Virginia Speed Traps

Speeding is not required. I’m aware of the reputation so I kept it at several MPH below the limit at all times. I still got a ticket for 11 over! [10mph+ is where the fine goes up]. I should have realized being a non-resident is all it takes.

The town of 2700 now collects about $1 million in fines/costs, and another $300 for their bogus driving school, which is on the internet. They say it is public safety. A bogus rip-off. STAY AWAY FROM ROUTE 19 AND SOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA. THEY ARE WAITING FOR YOU IN THE TOWN OF SUMMERSVILLE.

While working for a small delivery service delivering delayed luggage from Yeager Airport in Charleston, WV I was ticketed for exceeding the 50 mph speed limit being clocked at 61. I had just topped a small hill and started down. Not being familar with the area I was looking for the turn I had to make. When I realized I was going too fast I looked at my speedometer, it said 55. I immediatley took my foot off the gas. The officer was not very understanding and did not respond when I asked him about the other vehicles who were ahead of me and pulling away from. This is not the first the delivery srvice got cited in Summersville. I would have paid the fine for 55 but felt the 61 was a blatant attempt to extort more money from the firm. they do not pay yhe fines,the driver does. I am retird and was working extra to make ends meet. My advice is to avoid this area at all cost.

Any vehicle, especially an out of state motorist, WILL be ticketed when traveling late at night. You don’t have to actually be speeding to be ticketed.

Here is the deal with Summersville… I live in Beckley WV, but attend school in Morgantown so I drive through Route 19 at least twice a month. Also I have lived in the summersville area, and am quite aware of how "safe" the road is.
This stretch of highway has a police car patrolling it 90% of the time I travel through, and out of that 90% a great majority of that time there is three or more police cars. Why three cars are needed on a less than 10 mile stretch of highway, I don’t know. I have only seen State Troopers on this road once, and they were assisting a summersville officer on the side of the road with a traffic stop. I have not gotten a ticket through there because I slow way down (to 45MPH), and use radar-detection to help. However, I have been in the car with people who have been pulled over at less than five miles an hour over the speed limit. The officers are very rude, and demeaning. Furthermore the road is relatively straight (extremely straight for WV roads), and the traffic has NEVER been bad on that road. I don’t think that the officers pull over out-of-state residents more, but they write a LOT of tickets. Also the city is responsible for setting the speed limit of highways within there district. The WVDOH has requested repeatedly that the speed limit through Summersville be raised to 60MPH, but the city has refused. Why would Summersville want to get money from people by writing tickets, as opposed to adding more services for them to spend money at? It just seems a little silly to me.