QuestionI was pulled over on I-15 on the border of 65 mile and 70 mile zone by police officer in the car. There was a lot of cars and I was in the left lane behind another car, I was going 70 mph but officer told me I was going 85 and said I was following the car in front of me too closely. However the citation he gave me was for speeding. I know I wasn't going 85, I never drive that fast and there were many cars, it would have been impossible for me to go that fast. What defense can I use? and what records should I ask for at court?
Thank you.
AnswerHello Antonina and welcome to AllExperts!
In so far as the officers reason for stopping you, all they need is an on-viewed violation. If there are multiple violations viewed, it is entirely up to the officer whether he will issue a citation on all violations, or a few of the many, or perhaps just a single one as you had received.
While many vehicles may be in violation of the same section at the same time, the officer can only stop one car at a time, and will generally pick the one who is the most grievous in their offense, or the one who is perhaps in violation of multiple sections at once. Perhaps everyone was speeding, but you were speeding and following too closely. This would make your car stand out as a greater need to be addressed.
As to the speed the officer had stated you were driving, this becomes a bit more tricky.
If he had followed you and used his certified and accurate speedometer as a reference, Then it's his word against yours, using a court approved and recognized device (the speedometer) as evidence.
In this case, I am sorry to say that he will win the case. You can certainly ask the officer in court whether a certification tag was shown on the dashboard indicating the date and accuracy of the speedometer, and what the tag had shown. You see, all police patrol and traffic vehicles must have the accuracy of their speedometers checked regularly. I have not ever seen a time where this has not been the case though.
If the officer had used radar, then there are a few things that must be answered:
Was the officer trained in radar and with the particular device he was using? .... This shows technical knowledge and qualification of the unit used.
How many speeding ticket violations has the officer won in court? .... This shows his subject matter expertise.
How many speeding ticket violations has the officer lost in court and why did he lose them? .... This shows his credibility and trustworthiness.
Was the unit properly calibrated that day? .... This will dump the case if he had not. The unit can deliver faulty information and cannot be trusted if not calibrated.
Was his target focal point directed at your car or a broad spectrum of cars around you? .... How can the officer be sure it was you.
Was it possible that the radar picked up traffic going in the opposite lane? .... When using radar across an opposed 2-lane roadway, it is very hard to distinguish who is going the fastest.
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Also keep in mind that the radar only picks up the speed of the fasted vehicle being queried.
When a group of vehicles are shown to be speeding at the same velocity, any one of the cars within that group are in violation. If the officer can say that your group was in violation of speeding, all the cars in the group were traveling at the same speed, and your car was one of them, then unless there were cars going faster in the opposite direction, your pretty much cooked, unless the above questions that need to be answered are in dispute.
Hope this has helped Antonina
