Alright, here's a problem I have just encountered. My mom got a ticket for speeding. 77 miles per hour, I think. She was fined 192 dollars. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? My mom is wanting to appeal for court, and I have to go with her, because she can't speak English very well. I'm kind of scared to death. I need some reassurance, help even, on how to present some kind of defense. Because it's such a small 'crime,' I doubt we will get/use a lawyer. The policeman detected this 77 mile per hour with his radar. I think that's the only grounds to his prosecution. Help, please?
I assume the speed limit was 65? Some of the traffic patrols have a split-frame camera which captures an image of where the radar gun is pointed along with the radar reading. If they have that, the chances of arguing your way out of the ticket are slim, unless the officer doesn't show up in court (occasionally happens, but don't count on it). On the other hand, without that kind of evidence, it will depend on the judge (or even just a clerk in some jurisdictions). Some won't budge from the officer's statement on the ticket, others will give the benefit of the doubt if the defendant shows up and remains calm while presenting his or her side of the story. If you know for a fact that the reported speed was NOT what was reported on the ticket, your chances are better, because any proof the officer could give must be erroneous. I recently was ticketed on a holiday weekend on a back road, and the officer tacked on about 10 MPH more than the speed I was actually goind to pad the citation. I decided in the end not to take the day off from work, because I WAS actually a few MPH over the limit, and was not about to take a half day off from work. The chances are I could have gotten th efine reduced, but I decided it wasn't wotrth it.
no, the speed limit was 45. Right now, my mom's thinking about whether or not she SHOULD. She told me she would, but tomorrow's she's going to make the actual decision. I'm torn, because I want to go and defend her, because I believe in the right thing, and the right thing is to defend justice and truth. But at the same time, I don't want to go because I'm, to admit, very scared.
Those devices do not lie. If it clocked her at 77 MPH then she was doing around 77MPH (With a minor margin for error). The only other conditions are if it hit a different car or if the cop was moving.
Tell mom to pay the fine . . . and slow down! Most courts will back up the cop and they have the power to INCREASE the fine, if they feel that the speeder has not learned the lesson. If your mom protests too loudly, the judge or court assigned clerk could make things a bit worse. How would she feel about a suspended license for a few months?
This is true. If she really was going 77 in a 45 MPH zone, she was going 32 MPH over the speed limit, or more than 70% over. The officer could have arrested her on the spot for Reckless Endangerment under those conditions. And if it was a corrupt cop (yeah, they do exist), you still can't count on getting out from under the ticket unless you have strong proof that the cop fabricated a lie. He's probably had a lot of practice in that case.
I'm telling you... it's really IMPOSSIBLE to go that fast in that kind of road.... Either I've been living with a good lying mom or the cop is lying and being racist/sexist
45 is town limit driving I think. she was doing 77. she was speeding, she got caught. other results possible. she was speeding, she hits a child, child dies. she was speeding she got caught pay the fine she got off easy. I know it sounds unfeeling of me, but too many innocents get hurt or dead due to speed. just read your last post. if your mother says the officer is lying and you believe her then go to court. in Ont. if you go to court and the officer doesn't show you get to walk from the ticket. What have you got to lose. Stay respectful and don't lose your cool. If she walks from the fine tell her to use the money to buy a gps that tells how fast you are driving. wins every time.
I love getting into a car and have the driver speed. But I will not get into a car with a drunk. My father used to drink and drive and other than him all the drivers I have been with are sober. But the speedier the better.
Id be inclined to believe this is true lol. Dont know about 45mph, but on the nearest road i know that has a 40mph speed limit, it would be impossible to be going at almost 80, unless it was 3am and was practically empty - and even then it wouldnt be easy. Devices police use to detect speed have been known to read brick walls as travelling at 40mph lol... obviously im not saying they're always going to be off, but i wouldnt consider their evidence as indisuptable. But i would guess that even if it wasnt 77mph, it was still speeding, so you will probably end up still having to pay the fine, or even end up paying more as people have suggested
Well I'm sure even if it wasn't 77 it was above 45, everybody speeds, EVERYBODY SPEEDS. I try and go the speed limit, and you know what happens? Tailgaters, a lot depending on the road, all of them impatient at me for following the law. Even when I go just five over, I get three people riding my ass and making me feel uncomfortable. So in some ways, you may have gotten screwed, but in some ways this may be justice.
I don't want to scare you more RG and I dont know how things are in PA, but in NC a judge might still suspend her license for 30 mph over the limit, especially if this is not a first offense and if it was on a road or neighborhood where such a speed would have been highly dangerous, as Lessa indicated. Don't count on the Policeman not to show up. As others have said, it is very unlikely. And most judges in such a case will take the word of an experienced police officer every time unless you have substantial evidence that his equipment was faulty or he made a mistake. Very hard to do. Is this a first offense. Is her driving record clean? If not and there is a history of speeding or at fault accidents, pay the fine. It wont end there, most likely. If the judge allows her to keep her license, it is likely her insurance company will cancel her policy on renewal. or, send it out to one of their high risk companies who will usually only write liability (at an enormous premium.) If she's required to have comp and collision on the car (if she owes payments on it), finding a company to write the policy will be hard and they will charge you a fortune. If her record is clean though, go see a an attorney. I don't know how it is in Pa, but here it usually doesn't cost anything to at least talk to one. And frankly the cost of the attorney might save you a ton of money over the next three years in astronomical insurance premiums or losing your policy altogether. This happened to a friend of mine. He had a clean record, but he was speeding on an interstate 30 miles over the limit. The attorney had the charge reduced to 15 mph over, which was the best he could do, saved my friends license from being revoked, and kept his insurance company from canceling his policy, although his premium doubled for the next three years. He was only 18 at the time. That was five years ago and I believe he learned a valuable lesson, he's never had a ticket since and I've never known him to speed since that night. I'm sorry you having to face this.
This is not entirely true. Hand held or vehicle mounted radar units need to be routinely calibrated. The officer using the unit must be trained and certified to operate the unit. Manual calibration is done by striking a small tuning fork 'cut' for a certain speed. The officer strikes the fork and holds it in front of the unit. If properly calibrated, the radar will indicate the speed that is stamped on the tuning fork. Traffic radars will make mistakes if they are not operated by properly trained officers. For example, if the target is a small car, it is possible that a false read might be given if the radar is actually targeting a vehicle further down the road. (This happened to my mother quite a bit as she had a tiny Mercedes sports car.)
Still. if the car was clocked at 77 in a 45 zone, it would be visually apparent whether it was hauling ass, even if you would contest the actual speed, That's not a calibration error. Unless the officer is lying outright, that is a serious speeding incident.
My mom says that there was another silver car--ours is silver--driving in front of her that was going really fast. My mom got a speeding ticket in VA, and ever since she's been really careful. I don't know... things aren't looking so great.
If the car ahead of her was going that much faster, it would not be near enough to make a difference for long at all. Again, I don't see how the officer could make that mistake, unless the two cars were VERY similar in appearance as well.
We were driving through a town that is known for speed traps. We were taking our time since it was a beautiful day and we were heading home after being out of town for a week. Cars went wizzing by us and an officer pulled out and stopped us. He was reading us the riot act of how fast we were going. Being me I piped up and said that thing says we were doing the speed limit. The officer looked past Don and saw the GPS and it said we were doing the legal speed. He stopped the lecture and said to keep the speed down. He knew others were speeding but we were still within his don't have to do much range so he picked on us. It would have meant losing points and raising insurance if we got the ticket. Don would have gone to fight it but it was 6 hours from home so it would have cost a lot to get there and we didn't really want to. So the GPS saved us that time. Since all our driving is on the highway we have a cb radio in both vehicles which has paid for itself many many times over in letting us know where the speed traps are.
