Cosine Effect, Math Wiazrds - (Speeding Ticket)

[Eric_R_Kissell at email.whirlpool.com]

Steve wrote:
>I've heard it attempted, but never with much success -
>If you intend to take an analytical approach in attempting to get out of
>a ticket, keep in mind that the people working in the courtroom would
>probably have other jobs if they understood much beyond elementary
>science and math. When you say something they don't understand, their
>eyes will become glazed (remember math class?) and your case will be
>over. Know your subject and rehearse your explanation in advance.
>Remember the KISS principle.

I tried a somewhat analytical approach once in a courtroom in Ohio. I had
been ticketed for 93 mph in a 55 zone by a State Trooper on a county road.
I was sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that the maximum speed I could have
been driving was maybe 70 mph and I doubted that it was over 65 mph. Why
was I so sure I was not travelling 93 mph? Well, I was driving a VW Rabbit
with whatever puny engine it had been blessed with - a 1.6 liter gasoline I
believe. Furthermore, there were 4 passengers in the car with a combined
weight of around 760 lb and about 200 lb of luggage in the trunk. We
encountered the radar in a moving patrol car travelling the opposite
direction as we crested a long grade that the old Rabbit found challenging
with a single passenger, let alone the heavy load we had that afternoon.

So, I appeared in court armed with the circumstances of my story, a
photocopy of a Car and Driver road test on a VW Rabbit similar to mine that
showed the best C&D could do was a top speed of 91 mph on a flat closed
track with a professional driver, and new knowledge about dynamics fresh
from my recently completed second year of mechanical engineering school.

To make a long story short the honorable judge suggested that I had a bad
attitude and added mandatory attendance of a defensive driving course to my
already sizable monetary fine. I never did figure out why, if they believed
that I was somehow actually travelling 93 mph in a 55 zone, it did not
immediately qualify as criminal recklessnes with the associated license
suspension and other ramifications. I did not ask.

Eric R. Kissell
1986 5000cstq, 1.8 bar (SJM), K24, Fuchs 1989
200q Avant, 1.5 bar, K24, Bilsteins 1987
VW GTI 16V, 1984cc, Bilsteins
Evansville, Indiana, USA