Magistrate,

	Hello, I am writing you today to inform you of an unexpected circumstance regarding the court's orders for me to purchase and install a Speed Monitoring System in my vehicle. I had researched the device that I would need, and brought in a printout of the retailer's website with the price and a short summary of the device and it's use.  I was ordered by the court to purchase and install this device within 30 days because it was somewhat expensive and I needed time to gather the funds to purchase it.  Today, I finally have enough money to buy the device, but when I visited the website, the device is now listed as "DISCONTINUED".  I tried to call Brick House Security's help line, but was told that they were only a retailer and not the actual manufacturer of the product.

	After a bit more research, I found that the manufacturer's website for the product and when I attempted to purchase it, I was taken to a page that told me "At this time, we only have market testing quantities of this product." And there is no way for me to contact them, other than sending them an eMail, to which they have not yet replied. I have searched online for a similar product but have not found anything compatible with my make and model of vehicle. I will continue to search for a solution to this issue but in the mean time I ask that you bear with me. Attached, you will find a printout of the "retailer"'s website and I have also included a link to the SpeedSpy page so that you may check it out for yourself.


	On a somewhat unrelated note, I recall you saying that if I felt that something had finally clicked and I realized that driving recklessly is not only irresponsible but dangerous, I could write you to explain my thoughts and possibly appeal the suspension on my Driver's License.  I'd like to go ahead and do that while I've got your attention.

	When I got my first car, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I drove all over the place and would use any excuse I could just to drive. I'd run to the grocery store, the bank, the post office, anywhere my dad needed an errand ran to. After a while, I got confident behind the wheel and thought it would be cool to speed down the highway. A State Highway Patrol officer passed me in the opposite lane and pulled me over when he saw me exceeding the speed limit.  I was cited for speeding and had to come see you at the court and have my license suspended. After I got it back, everything was alright for a while until one day, my friend got his tires slashed on his car. I was on my way over to his house to take him to purchase new tires, when I was involved in a car accident due to inclement weather.  For quite some time after that, things were going good and I was looking for a new car. I finally found one that I liked, and after a few test drives, I purchased it. It was a 1995 Eagle Talon ESi. I spent several months tuning the car and making it customized for me. Thousands of dollars were invested in that car and possibly almost the same amount of hours. I spent every minute I could working on that car making it look nice and preform better. I took it up to the racetrack in Norwalk and had a great time running it with my car club. That car was my most prized possession. I had never been so proud of anything in my entire life. Everywhere I went, I got compliments on the car, how nice it looked, sounded, everything. I had all sorts of modifications including a carbon fiber hood, 17" Enkei rims, ground effects, and much much more.

	I took it to car shows and Park Avenue all summer to show it off to my friends and other car enthusiasts. I have never had much of a passion or hobby for anything until I got that car. I was so happy to have a "cool" car that I could call my own. In mid March my girlfriend moved in with myself and my father after things went south where she was living. I had to take her to school and to doctor appointments as well as several other things and it was really the only kind of livelihood I had. One day, I was on my way home from school with Gabby, we were taking 39 towards Ontario as per usual. I had been down that road hundreds of times over the summer and the past two years.  It was just a regular day in October, the weather was nice and I had my windows down, just enjoying what I figured was the last of the warm temperature before winter. (Little did I know, we would only have a few inches of snow this year). Anyway, we were halfway down 39 almost home, when I approached the stoplight in the middle of the road. I knew it was there, I had stopped at it hundreds of times.  But this time was different.  I was approaching the light and when I saw it turn yellow, I downshifted into 4th gear, and then into 3rd. I applied my brakes as it turned to red and seemed to slow down slightly. I pressed harder on the brake and to my horror, my foot went all the way to the floor without any apparent deceleration. I was coming up to the intersection at about 40mph by this time and I knew the other light had to have been turning green. I downshifted into 2nd gear and weaved around an almost-stopped Pontiac G6 and entered the intersection as a car pulled out into it and for some reason stopped when the driver stomped on the brakes. I knew at that point that there was going to be a collision, and pulled the emergency brake in my car and cranked the wheel as hard as I could to avoid a head on collision.

	The side of my coupe slammed into the rear end of the much larger sedan at what I estimate was 30mph, as I was sliding sideways. The impact spun my car 180 degrees and pushed me off a hill on the side of the road. As my car teetered on the hill, all I could hear was my girlfriend screaming and the crunch of glass. I felt a sharp pain in my arm and back and realized I was covered in broken glass, and that my driver's side door was touching my steering wheel due to being crushed in by the impact. I was trapped in the car and we started teetering backwards. As I attempted to climb through the window to pull my girlfriend out, my car slid down the hill at a somewhat high speed and I fell back into the car.  Luckily a Sheriff's deputy was in the area and alerted the Highway Patrol. Nobody was hurt aside from myself and I didn't feel the need to go to the hospital.  As the wrecker came to load up my car, I took a picture of the damage which will be included in this letter. After I got the car home, a friend of mine came over to check out the damage. He told me that the car was totaled and it would never be driven again. After hearing that I just remember being somewhat numb. All the hard work and money I had dumped into the car was for nothing now. I cried for several days and didn't know what to do.  After about 5 months, in early January, I purchased another car, similar to the one I had, but not quite as fast or nice.  It had a blown engine and several other small problems.  I still had my Talon sitting outside so we decided to put the Talon's engine into my new Eclipse.  After hundreds of hours of wrench time and thousands of dollars, my new car was complete. I drove it to school for 3 days and on the third day, on my way home, they engine blew in my Eclipse. One of my bearings spun and a connecting rod put a hole in my engine block the size of an apple.

	After another several weeks of hard work every day and night, and several thousand more dollars, we had completely rebuilt my engine from the ground up. Everything is brand new except the block itself.  As with all new engines, you want to go pretty easy on them for a while to let them get broken in.  As of today, Feb. 7, my engine has 195.7 miles on it.  I have to keep the car under 60mph for the first 3,000 miles to make sure everything gets adjusted properly and there are no more mishaps.  Honestly, the fear of blowing the engine in my car is more of a speed deterrent than any kind of restriction could ever be.  I guess that's why I took the time to write all this, because I wanted to show that even though I won't have a restriction on my driving privileges, I will still be in compliance with all local speed limits for fear of damaging my new prized posession.  I never ever want anything like that to happen again to myself or anyone else, and I now realize that driving a vehicle isn't a game, and should be taken seriously at all times, no matter how experienced the driver is.  I see people get hurt everyday, and if I could do my part to prevent being involved in any kind of injury, well, that'd be alright with me.

	So, I'm asking you to consider reinstating my license so I can go on with my life unhindered by restrictions on driving. I recently turned 18 and have lots of responsibilities now. I have to drive to work, school, and many other places that I otherwise wouldn't be able to get to if I couldn't drive. Since I've been 16 my dad has worked out of town frequently and my mother hasn't been a part of my life in years, and even when she was, it was like pulling teeth to get her to give me a ride to school.  I pretty much am on my own as far as transportation is concerned, and I promise you that I have seen what being careless on the road can do to people, not just myself.  Thankfully I have never seriously injured anyone or myself and I'd like to keep it that way.  I don't ever have to go through what I dealt with when I destroyed my beautiful car, and I knew it was MY own fault. It was horrible.



Thank you for your consideration,




Tyler Flaherty