[s-cars] Tagged

[Lee Levitt]

Paul,

Thanks.

He didn't ask.

My case hinges on the fact that he was standing in the road with a 
handheld laser, taking readings on two vehicles coming at him. He 
was either on the shoulder or in the slow lane, and we were in the 
fast lane.

I was about 8 carlengths behind the car in front of me, which was 
a big GM SUV (Suburban or Tahoe).  From the cop's vantage point at 
1000 feet, my car must have been almost completely shaded by the 
SUV.

I spent some time thinking about the geometry of this, then looked 
at two cars on the road in a similar configuration. A picture will 
be worth a thousand words. I'm going to stage the configuration 
and then take some pictures. I'll bet I won't be able to see 
anything of my car at all, except perhaps my right hand mirror. 
Not much of a target for laser, especially since the pattern at 
1000 feet is a 3" diameter circle, and that assumes that he was 
able to hold the laser steady.

Evidently there's a "measurezone" that suggests that if other 
objects are in this zone, readings are questionable.

http://www.radardetector.net/forums/how-beat-your-ticket/25163-slip-sweep-effect-laser-lidar-speed-traps-lti20-20-a.html

This is 2x the diameter or 6 feet. That's half a lane and would 
certainly cover both the SUV and the right side of my car.

Lee

On Mon Mar 30 09:22:18 CDT 2009, pkrasusky at ups.com wrote:

> 
> Mike asked:
> 
> <<<Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:17:24 -0700
> From: "Mike Sylvester" <mike at urq20v.com>
> Subject: Re: [s-cars] Tagged
> 
> The bigger question is, what did he say to the cop?
> 
> Did the cop ask you "Do you know how fast you were going?"
> If he did your answer is very crucial.
> 
> The only good answer to that question is "Yes".
> 
> Mike>>>
> 
> 
> 
> Lee-
> 
> Mike's spot-on with this one.  I got bag'd in MA in Dec. coming 
> back from Mikee Platt's bonfire in the 930 w/ Rossato.  76 in 55, 
> which was kinda laughable as we'd done nearly door to door to 
> door @ 120+++.  I plead NG as the court was all of 18mi north of 
> my office here, and better yet - it bought me like 3+ months more 
> time of MY MONEY.
> 
> The process went exactly as Mike's previous email to this one 
> went.  They only need to prove a "preponderance of evidence", and 
> a Trooper is present to discuss the facts with the Magistrate and 
> you.  This is tough to beat.
> 
> I plead my case, which I thought was a good one.  But then, the 
> inevitable:
> 
> "The Trooper's notes say he asked if you knew how fast you were 
> going, and you replied NO".  End of story, I was SOL there 
> forward.  They then asked me that Q again, to which I could only 
> reply that I was NOT going either 55, nor 76 - both of which were 
> true 8-).
> 
> Long story short tho - in MA it was a whopping $100, where in CT 
> that'd been $289 or so.  I happily paid (which you have another 
> like 21 days, AND you can pay online AND can use credit card), 
> and went 120+++ (+++++++) on my merry way.
> 
> Sorry I can't help you more, other than to suggest YES go fight 
> it, if only to negate the $$$ level and the specific infraction.  
> In CT if you know your statutes, you can ask for something less 
> than "speeding", like "unreasonable speed".
> 
> HTH, good luck.  Don't let The Man keep you DOWN - FIGHT DA 
> POWAH!!! 8-)
> 
> -Paul not particularly right K.
> 
>