Unfair/invalid Speeding Tickets/traffic Citations

[Rosedog]

I am in the process of looking for a new radar/laser detector and came across something that I felt must be passed on. I'm always for getting out of Tickets when I can and this just happens to be some useful in the information in the fight against Ol' Smokey.

 

Unfair/Invalid Speeding Tickets/Traffic Citations

 

Where/When exactly does the speed limit change?

 

I was coming around a corner yesterday in a 55mph and rounding the corner there is a speed limit sign that notes the speed limit changes to 45mph. This corner is downhill as well so it seems to be a perfect location for a speed trap (which it was). I was clocked doing 61 in a 45 by laser. I was clocked what I would say to be 100ft past the speed limit sign. My question is where exactly does the speed limit change? Is it when you can see the sign, where to sign is located, is there a certain grace period past the sign you have to slow down? I'm just trying to cover all angles to argue this.

 

[The MUTCD (Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices) standard requires a speed zone to be marked with, at minimum, one sign located at the beginning of the zone. That same imaginary line across the road is also accepted by the courts as the boundary of the zone.

 

On roads with higher speed limits, having one or more additional signs upstream of the location is also recommended, particularly when topography or other barriers dangerously limit sightlines. If the road's not properly marked and the distance too short to decelerate in time, you've got a legal out.

 

That sounds like it might be the case in your instance. You may consider pleading not guilty, requesting a trial (by jury, if possible) and start using the public safety/criminal justice juggernaut's bureaucracy to your advantage.

 

With good preparation, you can win. And you'd avoid attorney fees that could easily run to several hundred dollars. If your record is less than pristine, you'd also be paying about the same bucks for three years of insurance surcharges.

 

I’d also suggest getting a certified copy of the most current traffic survey on the road in question. You can do this by filing a Public Record Request, a simple matter.

 

In the survey you’re looking for the most recent speed survey on that road. It should include median speed, 85th percentile speed and 10 mph pace speed. State law requires every municipality to conduct periodic speed surveys, to justify the posted speed limit. But many don’t bother.

 

If they don't have the survey, the posted limit is invalid. If the cops have been running a speed trap there for a long time without the speed survey having been done, by stopping and citing a citizen, they're committing a felony: extortion, under color of authority. (Translation: give me the money or I'll arrest you.)

 

And in California, among other states, multiple episodes like yours, done over a period of years, constitute a violation of the federal RICO Act. (LA attorney Ernie Franschesci, in 1990, sued the city of Huntington Beach in a class action, precisely this way for $60 million.)

 

Good luck.

 

Craig

 

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Craig's Sig:Protect yourself: Learn everything you need to know about police radar, lasers and laser jammers and radar detectors from the man Automobile magazine calls "the world's most-quoted authority on speed-measuring technology and tactics, and an underground legend among speeders"

 

Read Driver's Guide to Police Radar, the definitive guide to radar, lasers, time/distance computers and police speed-enforcement tactics

 

Member of The National Motorists Organization since 1990.

 

Hope this helps somebody...

[TexasAl]

Very interesting info. I hope I don't need it, but it is good to know.

 

-Al

[saxdogg]

That bit about a missing speed survey means the cop is committing an extortion felony is simply not true. Never trust everything you read on the web.

[Wingnut]

That bit about a missing speed survey means the cop is committing an extortion felony is simply not true. Never trust everything you read on the web.

 

Yup....Not to mention the fact that every.single.town.county.and.state. each have their own laws and interpretations.

[Rosedog]

That bit about a missing speed survey means the cop is committing an extortion felony is simply not true. Never trust everything you read on the web.

 

Yup....Not to mention the fact that every.single.town.county.and.state. each have their own laws and interpretations.

 

 

Only to a degree do they vary.

 

NHTSA

 

HIGHWAY SAFETY PROGRAM

GUIDELINE No. 6

CODES AND LAWS

 

Each State should develop and implement a program to achieve uniformity of traffic codes and laws throughout the State. The program should provide at least that:

 

 

There is a plan to achieve uniform rules of the road in all of its jurisdictions.

 

 

There is a plan to make the State's unified rules of the road consistent with similar unified plans of other States. Toward this end, each State should undertake and maintain continuing comparisons of all State and local laws, statutes and ordinances with the comparable provisions of the Rules of the Road section of the Uniform Vehicle Code.

 

Every little bit of help, helps...(and of course that speed limit thing...)