‘I was fuming all weekend’: Ursula gets her first traffic ticket in 30 years
Jul 6, 2026, 2:01 PM | Updated: Jul 7, 2026, 8:41 am
Washington has shifted from handing out warnings for work zone speeding to issuing $125 fines, a change that took effect July 1. The move follows a staggering 85,000 infractions in 2025, though most of those drivers received only a warning.
While a first work zone infraction now comes with a $125 fine and a second results in a $248 ticket, KIRO host Ursula Reutin received her first traffic violation in 30 years on Friday: a $150 fine, though it wasn’t for speeding in a work zone.
“I’m kind of a little ticked off. I got my first traffic ticket in 30 years,” Ursula said on “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “Actually, the one I got 30 years ago, I got that wiped off because I went to court and fought it, and it never made it on my record. So, really, I got my first traffic ticket. Not in a work zone, though.”
“Is it the first time you ever deserved a traffic ticket?” KIRO fill-in host Mike Lewis asked.
“No, haha,” Ursula responded.
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Ursula explained how angry the ticket made her, which ruined her clean sheet of traffic violations, though she felt the need to explain what unfolded.
“I was fuming all weekend, but honestly, by today, I was thinking, I deserved it, even though I thought it was ticky-tacky,” Ursula said. “Can I explain what I was doing?”
“Something illegal,” Lewis responded.
“Haha, well OK. So, southbound I-5, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. People do this all the time, but I am getting off on the James Street exit, but I realized I don’t mean to be getting off. Even the trooper knew. So I cut back over, and I crossed over the very tip of the gore point. I see the lights flashing, and I should have known better. I should have just kept going off the wrong ramp,” Ursula said.
“I pull over thinking, OK, he’ll go past me. No, it was for me. No matter how nice I could be, nope,” she continued. “He says, ‘I’m just going to have to give you a ticket.’ It was $150, but you know, I’m not going to get overly upset about it. I still love State Patrol, appreciate what they do, but I was so mad, though.”
Watch the full discussion in the video above.
Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.
