If by “most jurisdictions in the US” you mean “Montana”, then yes, the posted speed is merely a suggestion for what is reasonable and prudent. If you mean any other state, you are very incorrect.
Yeah. Sounds good to me, and I’d snow the judge with technobabble. “Your honour, my dashboard display was on the metric setting, which I use at home, so while I was trying to find the Fahrenheit satellite radio dial, I forgot and drove at 110 km/h.”
I just wonder why after such a long time it’s so important to now get it reversed / refunded. There seems to be more to this story than what is being told.
Probably a soul tie.
Doesn’t Australia still use miles? Or New Zealand?
It’s not most states, but there are several states (not including Montana) where the posted speed limit is not always an absolute speed limit.
(I suspect the number of successful defenses against a prima facie speeding charge is very, very, very small, making it just a theoretical issue.)
Why didn’t your guardian angel convince the cop not to issue the ticket in the first place? I don’t understand your OP. How could it have even have happened in the first place???
Your Honor, as a species Homo Sapiens are an inherently violent bunch of primates. How is it possible to be held to the standard of 100% never choking a bitch. I should not be held to a standard that could not possibly be met. Besides, my wife pissed me off. A verdict of not guilty must be found on moral grounds. The defense rests.
It’s Kanic.
If that won you an acquittal, it’d be a Festivus miracle!
I don’t think you could have successfully argued this point at the time, let alone a couple years later. I fail to see how it is a moral issue (a philosophical one, maybe).
Don’t waste your time (or embarrass yourself) by trying to challenge it now. Your “Nobody’s Perfect” defense is a non-starter.
There are two major routes between Austin and Houston: US290 and SH71/IH10. I am intimately familiar with both routes, especially the 71/10 route. There is no spot on either route that has a posted speed limit of 80. The only highway I can think of in Central Texas with a posted limit of 80 is SH130, which runs roughly parallel to IH35 (not toward Houston). In fact, its speed limit is 85 in some places. The speed limits on 290, 71, and 10 range from 55 to 75.
Your vehicle can likely safely handle 95+ mph. Did it occur to you, however, that you do not control everything on the highway? Perhaps a car pulling out from a side street would not be able to tell that you were coming at him/her like a bat out of Hades. You may think you’re safe, but everyone else may not share in that opinion. As someone who travels that same route very often (and has a number of loved-ones who also travel that same route), I respectfully ask you to slow your ass down.
When I went to court to pay a late fix-it ticket*, the judge played a video of “procedural details” supposedly to help us with our pleadings but actually to list a number of excuses that were commonly given, but that just wouldn’t fly, so don’t even bother stating them. One of them was driving along at the “established rate of speed” of all the other cars on the road.
I think that just falling in with the established rate of speed of all the other cars on the road is an extremely human thing to do. I’ve even heard people say that it’s not safe to go slower, and I’m sure the judge has heard that, too. Unfortunately, as the video stated, the typical driver on State Hwy 99 is travelling 15 miles over the speed limit, and that’s against the law. So if you fall in with that, and you get a ticket, you have to pay the ticket, even if there were other people going faster who didn’t get ticketed.
- Fun fact. If you borrow a car and get pulled over for a fix-it ticket, you are responsible for getting the ticket validated even if that means you have to pay for extensive repairs to someone else’s car.
What the hell for?
This is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever read on these boards. What makes it even more absurd is that all this happened a long time ago and isn’t even a current issue of your life. This is just a rather strange thread.
It could be more ridiculous. We could be talking about raping a tied up person in the forest. And after all, we’re all human, so we can’t be held to a 100% level of compliance with the law. A little rape now and then is pretty much unavoidable, right? :smack:
I’m always perplexed as to why people plead guilty to traffic violations. They think by “pleading them down” they’re saving a tremendous amount in fine money but that’s not always the case. Also, any violation on your record is going to be noticed by your insurance company. “Disobeying a traffic sign” is no less serious than Speeding to an auto insurance carrier. Except for things like DWI & reckless driving, a violation is a violation.
By burning half a vacation day from work and demanding a trial you’re making the system earn it’s money. Theres even a chance the officer doesn’t show up or says something stupid on the stand and the case get’s kicked. At least go down fighting!
*This is not legal advice, I am not an attorney.
This is incorrect for at least two reasons:
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Even in states without absolute speed limits, the posted limit has a “prima facie” presumption of being correct. Arguing that the posted limit is “always” 15mph too slow is counter to the law stating that the limit is presumptively correct.
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Your driving skill has little bearing on the maximum allowable speed. The state has clearly intended for one limit to be applicable for all drivers based upon traffic flow. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. must travel as the same speed as me on the public roadway. The legislature didn’t write the speeding laws with the intent of creating a “sliding scale” speed limit based upon intent. Arguing that you are an extra-good driver goes against this clear intention and doesn’t take into account factors other than your driving.
I can’t imagine the “I was travelling faster than the posted limit but I was still driving safely” defense ever working unless you are talking about a very special section of road where the state clearly and plainly screwed up and placed a speed limit so horribly incorrect and obvious to all reasonable people.
From what I’ve heard, you are correct that the difference in the size of the fine usually doesn’t justify the time involved. But if the difference is in the number of points assigned to one’s record, that can be very significant indeed.
Not the US, but apparently, some cop in the UK managed to successfully make that defense in the UK. Karma keeps track, I guess, because he died in a car wreck going over 90 in a 40 zone.
This is a police officer who is ostensibly so good at driving that other police officers were vouching for his high speed car driving skills. And he was still wrong.
YMMV depending on the state, but not really. Around here “defective equipment” is one of the most common plead downs. It’s a 2 point violation. Speeding is a 3.
This line of argument is most unlikely to be of any use in a courtroom. Courts are pretty much founded on the principle that punishment deters future bad behavior, both by the guilty and by those who might consider engaging in similar actions.