Ok so I get pulled over yesterday by a highway patrol he said I was doing 83mph when I was only at 68mph if I want to be exact. When I asked him if he had proof that I was in fact going 83mph he said "I visually estimated you doing 83mph". Keep in mind I live in Cali in ventura county. On the ticket though it says he used his radar....???? Really confused I had 2 other people in the car and one is gonna go to court with me to fight this. My question is, are they allowed to visually estimate speed? I haven't seen anything in the cali state laws but if you know that would save me some time. Thanks.

 

I doubt it...I heard they must have a Calibrated Radar Gun that they Must use.......So If somehow u can prove he Didnt use a Radar Gun...then you can prob. fight it and win...

 

Ok cool cause he did say he didn't use a radar it was a visual estimate

 

I highly doubt your gonna be able to win this ticket i had the same type of ticket earlier this year in january .

I was doing 65-68mph on the 60 westbound by atlantic and i was in the fast lane when i saw a cop pull into the freeway on the onramp i didnt think anything of it because 3 mph is not gonna hurt anyone especially because their was no cars next to me in the right 2 lanes and the nearest car was i mile in front and i mile behind . any who he jumped all 4 lanes just to get behind me. He tail gates me for about 1 mile in half and pulls me over telling me he was pacing me at 80+ . i was like wat the . didnt bother arguing with him because he was being a dick . the funny thing was i had my girl who is pregnant in the car with me and i told him "you really thinking im gonna put my life and my wifes and baby in danger like that" he tells me :well you own a fast car so you can drive fast anytime ". i just didnt say anything after .

I went to court in march the judge was a dick also i presented evidence of the situtation at the time i recorded driving through the same spot and showed where the officer proceded to tail gate me and supposedly pace me ... i had my wife as a witness even though she looked like she was about to have the baby their because of the baby being so big . The judge looked at my driving record .which the only thing i have is a moddified emissions ticket that i got when i had my old integra. long story short the judge used that as leverage against me and told me to slow down and that the officer was behind you for a reason and that was to protect others from you because you where driving so fast she let me off with $330 fine and a point on my record .

I talked to a lawyer and told me the chp and other agency are trying to get as much revenue as possible right now because of their big budget problems .

Just thought i would share that with you . so you can get an idea of what you might expect in court .

 

Thanks for the heads up... Hopefully I'm able to get out of this one.

 

I doubt anybody fighting a ticket "now" will win unless they have really good evidence like it being caught on film or something really good like that to win.

With the budget crisis in california the way it is they need money any which way they can get it.

 

^^^ Exactly

I have a friend who works for the LAPD and for them its mandatory now to show up to any citations given out to court . even if its there day off . Thats the only way they would be considered for any bonuses in the future so you know that the cop will be their .

 

sorry to hear about that. i guess its a lesson for everyone to drive like a grandma from here on out.

 

^x2 gota becarefull I try to keep it below 65 during the day..

 

x3

 

Wow. Well you can always try and fight it. Maybe the offier gets lazy. but then again luck has to be with you...

 

lol i doubt any officer right now is going to be lazy they need the money bad if not more cops get laid off. this guy better pray and have insane luck to get away with the ticket even if the cop shows up and doesnt say anything hes guilty ..

The cop in court with me didnt even say anything he just said his name and his badge number and thats it . he didnt even remember me lol . The judge and i did the whole talking. comes to show how things are right now the economy will cause more and more people to be targeted .
oh i forgot to tell him the $330 i paid was not for the 80+ the judge reduced it to 68mph because thats what i admitted to be doing . oh and that includes courts cost in east LA .

 

Well everyone I appreciate all the info. I guess I'm gonna need a lot of luck and maybe a good demonstration for the judge. I'm gonna make the cop estimate distance accuratley becasue he was so accurate on the speed. When he gets it wrong I will tell the jusge if you can't visually estimate distance how can you visually estimate speed. Hopefully that will win for me. Is that a good point?

 

okay this is what you going to do

Fight it, there might be a chance he might not show up at court and thats a def win for you, 75% chance

You gonna say to the judge exactly what he said that he visually estimated ur speed, and he putted on the ticket that it was by radar when he never said it was by radar,
you should have asked him to show you, by law he is supposed to.

If that dont work:
ask when was the radar gun calibrated, IF he does not have proof or any paper work of that specific radar gun and specific vehicle he was using on that day he would lose, so thats a def win cause he is not gonna be able to show proof of it, they are always going to court and they always loose track of it.

other thing what you can do is get a court date, like 2 weeks or 1 week before the date, change it to a later date, that would really get him off track, and maybe not even show up,

believe me u can defenetly fight a speeding ticket, especially with the question, when was the radar gun calibrated? they never have that paperwork with them.

and make sure u tell the judge that he said he visually estimated ur speed make it very belivable.

 

Cops get paid for their time in court. Even if it takes 5mins, they get paid for a certain number of hours. If you change a court date to a day when they're supposed to be off, it's overtime for them, and you can bet they'll be there to make those few extra bucks. Just be wary of this.

Your best tactic is to do research on the calibration of the radar. Google how to do that. You usually want a friend to do the request, and not you.

Don't bother touching the subject of road surveys, because surveys don't matter on highways.