[s-cars] Speeding ticket technicality

[Varon H. Fugman]

I would concur with the advice to consult an attorney.

I once had a ticket where the officer circled "pm" instead of "am" making it
12 hours off.  However, I was unable to leverage this sufficiently defending
myself, although I did get the officer to (very reluctantly) admit that he
had made a mistake and the ticket was wrong.  But I couldn't get him to
admit that the speed on the ticket might also be wrong!  Or that he might
have made another mistake.

My questioning of the officer did elicit some laughter from the courtroom,
but I don't think that improved my case in the judges eyes.

One other option you might consider if your state permits it is to sign up
for defensive driving.  That what I did for my last ticket rather than try
to fight it.  Of course, gotta keep my record clean for a whole year now!

However, with a good attorney you might have at least 50/50 odds getting it
dismissed because of the error... especially if your attorney frequently has
lunch with the DA!

Start lining up your witnesses to testify where you were on that date and
time!

Varon
'95 urS6 keeping is close to the limit... most of the time!

P.S. If he clocked you while you were coming around a corner, depending on
where he was relative to you, there's always the possibility of the cosine
effect.  This is where the straight-line closing speed between you and the
oncoming police car is higher than your actual speed along the curve.

P.P.S. And with moving radar one should also rule out shadowing...  Could
there have been a large truck or train moving slowly that the radar could
have mistaken for the ground?  This too can result in a higher than actual
speed reading.  The officer is supposed to verify that the "ground speed"
displayed on his moving radar unit matches his speedometer, but in their
hurry to make a U-turn and pull someone over they frequently omit this step.
Of course, that doesn't mean they will admit it in court!

P.P.P.S. And of course we need to make sure both the radar unit and
speedometer in the patrol car were both recently calibrated.  If it has been
too long, they really aren't trustworthy, are they?

P.P.P.P.S. Based on my experience, none of the above information will help
trying to defend yourself in traffic court!

P.P.P.P.P.S Isn't it funny how they police never want to admit that there
are serious shortcoming with radar... until they need the justification to
purchase expensive laser guns!