speeding tickets: disputable?
 

I have a court date in 2 weeks for a minor speeding ticket (in municipality).

I was driving down the road and the cop I guess followed me for about half a block and pulled me over, stated that I was over the limit.

(I'm actually not too sure becuase I wasn't paying attention but I was following flow of traffic)

Now in these circumstances, and if I wasn't, can the officer just tell the judge he "estimated" my speed? Or does it get thrown out? I've heard so many conflicting stories.

I'm not extremely worried about it, but am curious, given that I don't think I was speeding at all. i am however concerned that the cop pulled me over and gave me a ticket just because my car att he time was modded slightly, and that his speed reading wasn't not of my vehicle, but someone else in traffic (there were vehicle passing me at the time just before the pullover"

Any thoughts?

There is a pretty strong chance that you were speeding, as "the flow of traffic" tends to be 10-20km/hr over the posted speed limit.

His evidence will likely be the speed at which he paced your vehicle, thereby determining your speed. If he was pacing someone else, he would have pulled them over, not you.

The fact that you don't know how fast you were going will be the biggest proverbial nail-in-the-coffin.

I pulled over a lady who was driving 83km/hr in a 50km/hr zone, right past a big, bright, flashing display showing a) the speed limit, and b) her speed (southbound No 5 Rd in Richmond for those of you that know it). She said that she wasn't aware of the speed she was driving, and was surprised to find out she was driving that fast. It is very common for people to just drive with the flow of traffic and not think about how fast they're driving.

No JJP will accept "well, I was following the flow of traffic" as a valid defence.

Damn, I want to Fail the OP so badly.

Why are you wasting the court's time? I can guarantee you right now, unless the cop doesn't show up, you WILL be found guilty.

The cop will step up and describe how he paced you at some amount over the speed limit, and probably back it up with a precise description of where you were, how long he paced you for, what the weather was like, how recently his car's speedometer was calibrated, and all sorts of other information to prove that he was PAYING ATTENTION to everything that was going on.

You'll step up and have nothing but, "I didn't THINK I was speeding."

The JJP will give you a look like he wants to punch you in the face before deeming you guilty.

:haha:

To the OP: If you are planning on disputing it.. please let us know where and when, so we can come watch this :thumbsup:

Just man up and pay the ticket. Stop wasting the court's time

that flashing display speed limit doesn't work most of the time. It has never worked for me, and I drive past that thing every other day.

well, before you judge that i'm just going to try and get off on it, Soundy,
I'm not. I'm not one of those 18 year olds in a rice rocket just barelling down every street i go on. I'm actually a pretty obediant and slow-paced driver, unless it's on the track.

I AM going there to ask for a reduction and time to pay for the ticket, and nothing more.
On the flip side, I thought I'd ask for information, for my own curiosity. If you're not offering it, then don't bother posting on here. This isn't Fight Club.

I do thank Sho_BC for the info though.

I HAVE been pulled over before by police when I KNEW I wasn't speeding (I was driving 45K on Steveston Hwy at 2 in the morning, 2 blocks from my place), and had the officer THREATEN to take my license away (had no record at the time). She went as far as to threaten to "take you and your kind" out before we went to court. So since then, my perception of law inforcement has been permanently tainted.

I've never really had anything bad on my record before, so I've never really had to look any of this stuff up.

That's not what your Subject says....

That thing doesn't seem to catch your speed if you're in the outer lane.

Is it just me or does that thing seem like it's taunting you, everytime as soon as I see the sign I just get the sudden urge to want to go as fast as I can to see what I can hit... but never had the balls to...

I see so many people slam on their brakes because of those things -.-

I know...=p it wasn't what I meant but I couldn't come up with a better word T__T

cops are being pretty anal lately eh? i got pulled over for having a license plate that was blocking the BAR CODE on the insurance sticker.

when i went to the station to get a cop to check it out, even the cop thought i was a stupid ticket and said "he actually gave you a VI for this?!"

They are really anal lately.

I've been pulled over thrice in the last 3 months for "tinted windows" (I have it on my back window only). They always ask me to roll up the window until the 3rd time I went off on the officer, telling him "well, if my passenger window's not tinted, what the hell do you think I'd be doing, tinting the driver's side?!"

I have a friend who drive's a civic EK hatch, nothing fancy. He's got a muffler (but always slienced), some 17" rims, and that's about it. He's one of the safest, most docile driver I know. He's only had 1 ticket, about 1.5-2 years ago, for speeding in municipality. (I saw it before, it was going 10km over limit on the highway). He never disputed, just manned up and paid it.

A month ago, he was pulled over right after getting off of Knight Bridge on the richmond side. He was pulled over, given a CLASS 1 VI, AND had his license suspended for a month (cop said he's a danger on the road). The reason was that his muffler was a danger to pedistrians due to sticking out (it was recessed 2.5" behind the edge of the bumper).

I didn't even know what to say about that.....It was pretty horrible.

my case notwithstanding, I noticed a LOT of police abusing their power with drivers lately. I'm really sick of it. I can understand if a car's super duper low, with tow hooks, running 120db mufflers, driving like maniacs. But for just regular cars with little or no mods that actually will pass VI (or shouldn't even be VI), it's pretty overkill.

They should start pulling over the kids in the high powered cars, ripping around the lower mainland all the time. I get into "almost" accidents at last twice a day because someone sped, cut me off, and slam brakes, etc. Just a bunch of idiots on the road.

If one officer's remarks permanantly taints you with a negative view, isn't that the same as her having a negative view of "your kind" after an encounter with only one of you?


Lol...

And.... your friend altered some major parts out on that story. We aren't able to arbitrarily suspend licences roadside unless its a 12/24hr suspension or the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles puts a notation on the driver's file to have the driver served a Licence Suspension or Driving Prohibition.

what if the OP was from out of town, can you conference call in to dispute? My buddy was told from the judge, why don't you have the hearing at your town instead of driving all the way out here....

anyone heard of this before?
sorry to thread jack