First post in this thread: "I was on a road where the speed limit was 55- I am by far not the only preson around, but am the only one around with a yellow mustang. I had cruise set for 59. County cop going north and I am going south."

You were speeding. Just a question of degree.

 

here we go again

 

That sucks April. I was hit for 70 in a 40 last year. Speed limit was actually 45 but fine and points were the same, different boat than you. Personally, I'd fight it if I were innocent to the degree you are. Traffic lawyer may cost as much as the fine but for me it would be the principle. Have you looked into the supposed black box we have? May be too late. Best of luck.

 

Well lets see. I had a tension headache for two solid days because of it. I didn't leave the house. Then my husband made me get out of my pajamas and get out of the house to go to the movies which got me out of my funk. On the way back from the movies I went back to the scene and redid it the way it was. NO way I could have cracked 60. So I can live with myself because I know what was right. The thing is, if the :Censored: cop can live with himself for being wrong, let him- I have a clear conscience.I would be happy to pay the ticket if the fricking cop would just admit he made a mistake.

Black box would never work- My husband is using Eleanor for work right now until September when my POS beater is paid up, so I can't vouch for what he does because I don't go out on jobs with him.

And to all of you- I admitted I had it set on 59, big deal, I have no problem admitting that. He shoulda wrote me for 59 then, I would have happily paid that. Its the principle of getting pegged for a speed I was not doing.

 

You're right! If youre gonna pay, you should pay for something you did

 

Wow, are you OCD? I don't mean to be rude, but stop worrying about it. You can't do anything about it right now anyway.

One thing though. I don't think you have much chance of fighting it unless there is an issue with the radar speed. Did he write down on the ticket exactly what speed he clocked you at? Did he write down the number of the radar unit and the last time it was calibrated? If not, you can fight it.

 

Please get a grip.
It is a speeding ticket not a murder charge.
I have had so many as a youngster I lost count. I never received a conviction. Just hire a traffic attorney and he can take care of the ticket in court.
The court is only interested in your money, not whether you are actually guilty or not.
I also spent ten years as a police officer. Let me tell you that most radar operators do not pay attention to what they are doing. They turn on the moving radar, and when they see a high speed on the radar meter, they look to the roadway to see who is the culprit.
The way to correctly work radar is to first observer a vehicle speeding and then measure his speed with the radar. (Observe suspected violation then measure - not just see who fits the speed you have locked in on your radar)
So you see, by reacting to the speed on the radar, rather than picking out the fast moving car and then measuring his speed, it is very easy for an officer to mistakenly think that an incorrect vehicle is responsible for the high speed. A good attorny can question the officer in court to bring out his observations (or lack of them) which can prove your case.

 

As a matter of fact yes I am... And yes it sucks all around. You aren't being rude, don't think I enjoy obsessing on it because I totally don't. I would like nothing more than for September 7th to get here and pay the **** thing and forget about it. I can why this thing to death to anyone and still not reach the conclusion that is correct.

I have already given up trying to prove my innocence to the court, there is not a snowballs chance in hell the officer will admit it wasn't me, I put it to rest as best I could because I know it wasn't me, yes I even double checked for hills and if I could have done it without knowing which I could not have.Screw it, maybe Karma works and he will eventually get his.
My husband- a ticket veteran- says just suck it up and pay it, check it off to the times I didn't get caught and -its only a speeding ticket Everyone gets them.

And no- he pegged someone doing 72, but wrote me a ticket for 75. Again, that is what I am double ticked at, and why It won't leave my mind.

 

Did this play a factor in what happened to April? Who knows.

In the past everyone said 'don't drive a red car as those cars get pulled over more by the police, but when I asked some officers about that they say color of car doesn't make a difference. I have also had people tell me that after they were stopped why the officer chose to stop them and not the other speeding cars on the road, and the reply 'can't get them all'.
Is April guilty of speeding this time? Probably not.
But the problem is this (and April stated this already) you're not going to get the cop to admit he was wrong.

Pay the fine, go to traffic school if offered in your area and avoid the points on your record and an increase in your insurance.

And Aptil, in regard to getting stressed out so bad where you stayed home for several days after the ticket...it's not the end of the world.
We all take risks everyday when we get into our cars...we risk getting into an accident or getting pulled over. If we can't accept those risks we might as well see the car and take the bus for the rest of our lives.

 

Ach. I am back out and about now. See?
Lesson Learned. Don't drive in a radar trap while yellow.
City I will not be back in. Road I can't help because I live on it.

 

April I really doubt that your choice/color of car (yellow Mustang) had any bearing on getting stopped...the officer probably saw several cars, clocked one at 72 and you were the unlucky victim to be stopped.

I know several people that drive Stangs of different colors that have been stopped and ticketed for speeding...a couple were black and one was tungston.
In a some of those cases the driver had to appear in court and lost their license for a month or more.

As I said before-
Police Officers/Sheriffs/CHP have all told me the same thing...color/type of car have no bearing on who they choose to stop.

 

I agree with what you said- he pulled over the most likely suspect. Thanks Officer. You have given me my headaches back I had thought long gone.

Times like this I wish I had a credit card. Paying cash for everything sucks at times like this.

 

Roman Proverb - "Let justice be done though the heavens fall."

Fight it.

 

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You were written a ticket for 75, you were not going 75 so you are not guilty. Thats the legal issue, are you guilty of what you are accused. Everyone has gone over the speed limit at one time or another. That does not give the cops a the right to give you a false ticket. 20 miles over is very different than 4. In some states 15+ over is reckless op and is 4 points not 2. That can cause you to pay high risk insurance, even if you have never had an accident. In Ohio points come off your license in 2 years but insurance holds them against you for 3 years.

Go to court plead Innocent and they should set up a trial date. If the cop don't show, you win. Listen to everyone at the court house that day. See if anyone else had the same problem and see if they will go to trial with you

If he does show, don't attack the cop. Go after the radar, how it was used, when was it calibrated, how was traffic in front of you, bad weather etc. Bring up the car and the color as attention getters. Don't say you were going 59, just say you weren't going 75. Ask why he wrote a different number down than was on radar. Focus on this, if he made that mistake, maybe he made a mistake about the car. Maybe he was just having a bad day. We are all human, we all make mistakes. take pictures of the area, if he describes something else, then show the pictures as nicely as passable trying to discredit him.

A cars speedometer is normally 2-3 miles under the actual speed. That is done on purpose. get yours check if you can. I have proved this time and time again with the road side radars and my GPS. A cop cars speedometer says certified calibrated on it, because it has to be right.

Good luck, oh and dress nicely, appearance does matter. Never lose your cool.

 

What I think happened is this-
By the way April explained what happened is that she was in a pack of other cars (I was not the only one there) driving at 59 mph (with cruise control set) in a 55 mph zone.
She saw an officer on the other side of the highway that apparantly used his radar on opposing traffic, got a reading of 72 and proceeded to turn around and April was the car he stopped.
Do I think that he chose April because she was in a bright yellow Mustang? No I don't. I think that he simply picked a car out of the crowd and it happened to be April. (and NO I'm NOT saying April is guilty of speeding)
Maybe what the officer thought when he turned around and saw April had was driving slower (doesn't really matter if it was 55 or 59), believed that she saw him turn around and slowed down due to that.

If April feels that she can beat the ticket I would say she fight it.
If I got the same ticket I probably would pay the fine and attended traffic school to avoid the points and higher insurance.
I figure that it would be cheaper in the long run to do that then take a day off for court, plead not guilty then get a trial date which means ANOTHER day off.

BTW-I'm going to post April's first post on another site where people ask LEOs for advice and see what they suggest.

 

Thats crappy, Good luck, I think you can beat it. Some great advise has been given here.

I got my 1st ticket in the stang few months back, took the traffic class online to avoid going on my record. The day I finished the course I got pulled over on the same street goin 9 mph faster, and got let go! When I got the ticket it was for 51/40. This one got me for 60 and let me walk, I was amazed, but thankfull.

 

In my last post I said that I would copy and paste April's 1st message in this thread on another sites board where people ask LEO's questions.
Here is the response I just found on that site-
----------------------------------------------
Here you go April-
If you didn't do it, fight it in court like you are supposed to.

Good Places to Start.
1.Verify that the officer is trained for motion radar.
2. Make sure he has Pre and post radar calibration checks
3. Ask for the logs on the last time the Speedometer was Verified on that car.
4. Make sure the antenna was pointed directly forward to avoid the co-sin effect.
---------------------------------------------
The person that replied to my post is a police officer, but I'm not sure where he works.

 

Now how would I go about doing this?
This was a county Cop.
I guess he would have assumed I slowed down since I Was going slower than the other traffic(der, I wasn't going over 70 like they were). The road the ticket came from is wreck alley. Hills and Valleys and blind spots. Someone turns over in a ditch like every other week. Its also heavily patrolled because of it. By cities state and the county. Even more reason I wouldn't be goofy enough to speed on it.
Unfortunately I also live on this road, so avoiding in the future it is impossible.

 

Good job mike. Cosine Error

The below figure is a graphical representation of the Cosine Effect for measured speed, as a percentage of true speed versus angle (alpha) between radar and target -- the larger the angle the larger the error and the lower the measured target speed. For example at angles of only a few degrees the measured speed is 99 to 100 percent of actual; at an angle of 60 degrees the measured speed is half (50 percent) the actual target speed.
Figure 4.1-4 -- Angle vs Measured Speed (percent of actual speed)
Just because the Cosine Effect works in favor of the motorist (moving mode radar has an exception) does not mean one cannot become a victim of the Cosine Effect. See chapter 7.2 -- The Courtroom-- http://copradar.com/preview/chapt7/ch7d2.html#ceffect