I am very surprised that I didn’t post this when the thread was new, and this happened 20 years ago. Well, better late than never.
It was sometime in the 1990s, and a reporter for the Newark (NJ) Star Ledger decided to look at every single speeding ticket written in NJ for that calendar year, and see if he could find anything interesting. As he expected, the tickets were quite varied, for all sorts of speeds on all sorts of roads.
He also found - as he expected - that there was an unusually large number of tickets for 14 mph over the limit, and he attributed this to the fact that the fine for a 15+ violation was much higher than the fine for a 14+ violation. He figured that a large number of police had mercy on drivers who were caught going around 20 mph or so too fast, and they fudged the numbers. Okay, nothing too surprising here.
What was surprising was that in the course of the entire year, exactly one LEO did write exactly one speeding ticket for a driver who was going exactly one mph over the limit. The reporter’s curiousity went into overdrive, and tracked down the LEO to interview him. Would he still remember the incident? Yes, he surely did. There was over a foot of snow on the ground and it was still falling, and “this guy in an SUV is driving like he owns the road. You bet I gave him a ticket!”
My understanding was that if the SUV was going one mph UNDER the limit, he could theoretically ticket him for unsafe driving in such conditions, but that would be too troublesome to prove. But one mph too high was all he needed to bust him dead to rights.
More likely, the drivers went to court and plea-bargained the tickets down to 14 over. Prosecutors are very flexible about this type of thing. (I myself have done this, though I went for 9 over, just in case my insurance company distinguishes for 10+.)
Side note - at one time CA did allow another form of ticket seemingly simply for revenue generation. The last speeding ticket I got was several years ago. The cop who pulled me over pointed out that he was filling it out in such a way that if I mailed in the fine before the date, they wouldn’t report it, so my insurance company wouldn’t know about it. Sure enough, that seemed to be the way it worked. I later saw a news item that the state government was revising the rules so local jurisdictions couldn’t do this, and making them report the damned things.
I was pulled over by a gated community’s rent-a-cop for driving 26 in a 25 zone. Lots of ranting and tough talk from the officer about how they have zero tolerance for such reckless behavior, but no ticket.
I was ticketed for driving 31 in a 30. It was a big fine, too, because it was a school zone. I drove through at 11:05 when the lights were not flashing, but the officer was kind enough to record the time as 10:59. If his clock was off by 6 minutes, how the hell was I supposed to trust his radar? I called the court and was told that there would be an additional $1400 charge if I disputed the ticket and lost, so I just paid up.
Google the correct time, or get the time off of one of the official atomic clock sites (assuming this wasn’t back in the Dark Ages before cell phones).
I was still in college, so must’ve been about 2002. And a phone screencap after 11:00 would not have proven that I’d driven through the school zone after 11:00. And even if the radar gun’s log showed I was correct, I was still 1 mph over the speed limit, thus presumably would have been guilty and subject to the additional $1400 penalty.
Well, yes and no. A written warning issued under §318.18(3)(b), Fla. Stat., is still a “ticket,” it just doesn’t come with a fine. And this exclusion does not apply in school zones, where the fine is 50 mph. Finally, the exclusion only applies to penalties under state law. Counties and consolidated local governments may impose their own fines in addition to state fines under §318.18(13), Fla. Stat. (whether or not the state considers the initial infraction serious enough to warrant a fine).
What state was that? I have only been to traffic court once, in Maryland, 42 years ago. But there was no prosecutor. Just the judge, the cop, and me. You either pleaded guilty or not guilty, but there was nobody to plea bargain with. It wasn’t L.A. Law.
Most days, on my way to work I’m doing about 15-20 mph over the limit – 70-75 in a 55 – and I’m constantly being passed by other drivers. Don’t believe I’ve ever seen a state trooper in the area.
*What will the prosecutor charge? Currently no prosecutor will charge for only 1 mile over in my jurisdiction
*What will the judges convict at? Judges here will not convict speeding cites unless they are at least 12 over the limit. The exception is if there are other circumstances such as an accident or DUI, etc.
*What does the operators manual say as far as accuracy? Most of the radar/laser equipment I use say they are accurate within 0.5mph. But a few say 1 mph. In other words, how could I write you at 1 over if the manual says the unit could be off by 1. A smart attorney would get to see that manual in discovery and blow the case out of the water. Some of the older radar units said they were accurate +/- 4 mph which is where the 5 over standard came from.
So around here you wouldn’t get tagged for 1 over. But given different circumstances and the right speed detection equipment it might happen elsewhere.
Similarly a road I drive fairly often, Palisades Instate Pkwy in NJ and NY, 50 limit, lots of people doing 70, few less than 60. And there are often patrol cars waiting in ‘hides’ in the trees along the median (mainly on NJ side). They are obviously not pulling lots of people over for 10 let alone 1 mph over.
But I guess nobody asked the exact % probability everywhere you could get a ticket for 1 mph, just whether it’s possible at all. Sure, but very rare I’d say from a driving career of 43 yrs when I’ve never been pulled over even for a warning about speed, and I usually go at least a few mph over on highways, more if I judge it safe both in driving terms and that I have a ‘screen’ of people in sight out in front of me going at least as fast. Although when outside my home area on lower speed limit roads I tend to go exactly the speed limit, unless/until it’s clear everyone else is going much faster, then I might go a little faster. The anecdotes reflect the likely statistic (if we could ever get one) that getting ticketed a few mph over is a lot more likely on lower speed roads and particularly where protection of pedestrians is an issue, even aside from revenue grubbing.
Thanks for the clarification. Do you know of any local or county governments in Florida that have added a fine for 1-4mph over? I bet if anyone is doing it, Waldo is. Those bastards.
The basic speed law is what’s reasonable under the circumstances with the posted limit serving as prima facie evidence of what’s reasonable.
The MAXIMUM speed law is 65 MPH (unless posted 70 MPH). I recall when the MAX went from 55 to 65/70, CHP was citing drivers for 1 MPH over for a while to send a “strict enforcement” message to the public.
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1 mph let alone 4-5 mph is not enforcement able. Tire diameter/rpm’s per mile vary with MFR’s tires in the same size. Take a size 235/55zr17 from Pirelli @ 768 rev’s per mile and BF Goodrich 235/55zr17 will have a 766 rev’s per mile. Error of the vehicle alone not counting tires will be around ±5-7 mph. Take in account law enforcement eager to meet ticket quotas and you have a SPEEDTRAP. Good honest law enforcement agency’s wont ticket less than 10 mph.
Canada had a driver get a ticket recently for 1 mph and the ticket was rescinded.
I know this is a very old thread but it is still relevant. I got a ticket on Christmas Day in New Hampshire several years ago for going 80 miles an hour in a 65 mph zone during a snowstorm (in reality, it was closer to 90 mph but I think the NH State Trooper was trying to give me a break).
Judge all you want but all I was trying to do was get Christmas presents to my kids on their grandparent’s farm as early as possible and I told the trooper that. I was pissed about the ticket even though it was completely technically justified so I fought it - for two years by using written deferments. I finally showed up in court when I couldn’t do that any more and went through the plea agreement process. I rejected all of them because I wanted to be let off with nothing but they wouldn’t let it slide quite that way unless I took my chances in court. That wasn’t going to work so I settled for a plea down for 3 - 5mph over the limit. Pay your $40 fine downstairs - cash only and it won’t affect your insurance rates.
I am not sure if New Hampshire has a classification for 1 mph over the limit but I can promise you that they do have one for 3 mph over.