I was travelling on a very hilly highway the other day, (73, for those of you in Orange County) with my cruise control set on 75. The posted limit is 65. I was immersed in watching my car gallantly struggle to maintain the speed up a hill (tachometer went to 5!!), when I got stopped by a cop. The cop says I was doing 83!! My passenger (witness!)and I were shocked, thinking, this poor car (saturn wagon, '97) was barely maintaining 75, much less 83. I told the officer I had the cruise on, and he said if I was doing 75, he wouldn’t have even stopped me!
What chance do I have to fight this, and what can I do to better my chances? Does having a witness help or will the judge just believe the cop no matter what?
You and your witness may have thought you were going slower but it’s very likely your speedometer wasn’t reading correctly. Probably the only way out of the find is to take your car to a speedometer shop and have them verify that the needle doesn’t match your real speed. A speedometer that’s completely accurate is pretty rare.
Definately fight it, but do so in a respectful manner. If you go in screaming “THE COP IS WRONG! I HAD CRUISE ON!” You’ll get smacked with the whole ticket. If you do what Padeye suggested, get your speedometer tested, get it documented, and go in saying “Your honor, I am sorry. I honestly didn’t think I was traveling that fast, I trusted my cruise control, it was faulty, I have had it repaired in good faith, and I can promise you, with the speedometer/cruise control working, this won’t happen again,” you’ll probably get off. Judges are paid to smell out bullshit, don’t try and feed them any. Be straight with them, and respectful, and you’ll get off.
I agree with you SR. Have the Speedometer tested. If it was, in fact, wrong, then you can have it fixed and do what SR suggested…you may win, you may also lose. You don’t know if you don’t try.
If the speedometer WASN’T wrong, then you go to court and your chances of winning are almost guaranteed.
Also you may want to find out if the cop had recalibrated his speed gun. I have heard that they tend to be off if they are not calibrated on a regular basis.
Everyone should always go to trial on speeding tickets, if for no other reason then to clog up the court system. When we have so many cops that they have time to sit around and harass otherwise decent citizens for doing nothing more then go a few miles over the speed limit, then we just have too many cops. The truth seems to be that drivers that go to slow cause more problems then speeders. On the other hand, those people that do cause wrecks, for whatever reason, (speeding, going to slow, being stupid, etc.) should be punished severely.
The truth of the matter is, cops don’t give a damn about how fast you are going. They are only trying to generate money. It’s nothing more then an industry (as is the case with most law enforcement). Speed limit laws are nothing more then arbitrary limits placed on citizens. Consider a road that goes through several towns and how the speed limit on that road varies to a great degree depending on what city you are in.
Am I saying there should be no speed limits in areas for instance of schools? Perhaps, but maybe that is too extreme. Although I still stand by this: Those who actually cause real damage are the ones that should be punished.
from my understanding, fight it no matter what. the chance is at least 50/50 that the cop won’t show up and the case will be tossed. That’s how a significant number of speeders I personally know have kept their insurance. Doesn’t ALWAYS work, but worth the shot.
I used to have terminal lead foot, til I figured I’ve used up all of my nine lives of escaped tickets - personal favorite was the time when I, too late, saw the cop on the highway turn around, started slowing down and pulling over, looked in my rear view, saw the cop pulling out, started pulling over more, and looked again, the cop had jumped out of his car, thrown up the hood of the cop car 'cause it’d CAUGHT ON FIRE!!!
But, back to OP, fight it, just for drill. worst case is same thing you had going in the first place and a bit of missed work . the raise in your insurance rates would MORE than make up for the missed work. good luck
Thanks, everyone. I have an appt with the manufacturer of the car to have the spedometer tested.
I’m certainly not doing this to clog the court system. I think there’s been a misunderstanding, and I’d like a judge to hear my case. And it’s more than just a “few miles over the speed limit,” after the fines and insurance, it’s also quite a bit of money.
SUre, there are books for ya at your library:
Beat that Ticket is one of the best you can read.
& read my artcle at: http://www.pacificgrove.com/ticket.html
Search here at Straight Dope
Check out everything you can. I fought against a jaywalking ticket and won because the cop cited the wrong law. If I hadn’t looked it up on the internet, I never would have known. Check out what regulations the cops have to follow (I heard somewhere they have to have their speedguns recaliberated every so often) and find out if your cop did.
And if you lose, I’ve heard that if you overpay the fine (pay $80 instead of $75, for example) they have to send you a refund check for the difference. If you never cash that refund check the matter never gets closed and the infraction doesn’t go on your record. At least that’s what I’ve heard. Can anybody help me here?
A faulty speedometer is no fault of yours, and can be used as your defense in court.
Take the car to a mechanic who can test and calibrate the speedometer, and get him to fill out a report documenting that your speedometer was indeed faulty. Take that paper to court and use it as your evidence. Once the judge finds out that your speedometer was faulty, your case will be dismissed.
Unless of course your speedometer works. If that’s the case, then the cop’s radar gun is not calibrated. When you go into court, ask to see the following :
The radar unit’s calibration and maintenance records.
The officer’s radar training certification{s).
The tuning fork used to calibrate the radar unit and their calibration certificates.
The actual radar unit that was used.
The agency’s FCC license.
If none of the aforesaid can be produced, any one of those can be used against the officer.
but I have fought speeding tickets before and won. the trick is to confuse the judge so they are willing to agree to anything in order to get you out of the courtroom
If it is a hilly road, is it possible you were doing 83 downhill? Cruise control won’t stop you from accelerating due to gravity (or at least the last car I had with CC didn’t).
If he had so, “Oh, ok, then I’ll just right out the ticket for speeding at 75” would you still feel wronged?
Though I have never received a speeding ticket, I speed all the time (once got from Portland to Seattle in about 2 hours) and would not protest if I were ever caught.
Yeah, because those who get ticketed for speeding are bad drivers. Oh wait, no. I drive around 30k miles per year, and thus am more likely to get traffic tickets (and yes, I do occasionally get speeding tickets). Does this make me a bad driver?
I’ve fought six tickets, and five times the officer didn’t show up. I think I’ve been lucky, but the ratio of no-shows seems to be at least 50%. Wait until the last day you can appear, and then ask for an extension. At the end of that time, ask for another one. Cops hate going to court as much as you do, especially for a three month old citation they can’t even remember writing.
If he does show up, you’ll probably lose. I’ve watched quite a few tickets argued while I was waiting to be called, and I’ve never seen anyone win.
Sort of. My experience in sitting through a morning of traffic court is that those who could prove the speedometer was inaccurate got the ticket knocked down from speeding to Failure to Maintain Equipment. Less fine, fewer points, still a violation. This is in VA, CA may be different.
If your speedomoter happened to be working, then you would have been going 75 instead of 83!! I think you are forgetting that this is still speeding. Are you going to go in there and tell the judge “Sorry, I only intended to go 10 mph over the limit. Ooops my bad! I have had it fixed and I will only be doing 10mph over for now on!”
For those of you whining and blaming the cops for making speed limits and trying to make money: Grow up and get the facts!! Most of the money from the tickets go to the State not the local agency. And the speed limits were set by the Federal Government to conserve fuel. They kept the limits because they felt it was safer that way. Just recently they lifted the National Speed limit and now States have the right to make it whatever they want!! They were not put in place to make money. Traffic laws are put in place to keep order on the streets. Yes I agree that one person breaking a little rule is not going to hurt anything. But these people need to be put in check every now n then so that EVERYONE does not start driving however they want. Go drive in Peurto Rico for a day and you will appreciate traffic laws. They do not even respect the lines dividing a road. A road striped for 3 lanes, can easily fit 4 or 5 cars across, so that is how many cars drive side by side there. Yikes!!
If your driving record is good though, (no tickets withing last three years) you should take it to court. Plead NO CONTEST. You will probably have adjudication withheld. No fine and no points against your license. “Probably? You ask”. Yes, probably. But trust me, you have a lot better chance getting off that way, then with all this nonsense everyone else is feeding you!!
