Ugh!!! Speeding ticket in NC

[RedBusarider]

dadofthree NOWHERE (in your post above) does it say he must also show you the results of the test.

So if it was off he could say anything he wanted to. So what good is that law?

How many times do you think a cop would came back and say "You know what, my radar was off so I'm not going to give you a ticket - have a nice day."

 

[TallTom]

Court costs are $188, amount of fine/penalty is $30.

Quote from the NC DMV website: "If the judge dismisses all charges, you'll still be required to pay court and, if applicable, legal fees"

WOW. So they can write you a bogus ticket, and even if you are found to be innocent they still stick ya? Man sucks to be in NC. They have no reason not to hand out tickets to as many as they can write. Doesn't matter if they are right or not. Reminds me of the Kentucky ticket where he got wrote for 1 MPH over the limit. It was some ridiculous fine and court cost.

 

[TallTom]

So a cop doesn't have to show you the reading! That means they can make up anything they want. That totally sucks.

It means you have to take them to court and successfully argue that they didn't properly determine your speed with any certainty. They can make up anything they want. But when you cross examine them, you lead them down the path of proof of the facts. If they made it up, you can paint them into a corner without much difficulty.

The truth is 95% of the people that get tickets are gonna simply pay. They biotch about getting a bogus ticket. But the hassle factor of going to court wins out most of the time. That is why the system generates the revenues it does.

 

[GNBRETT]

yes test for accuracy with tuning forks to demonstrate the unit is properly functioning. says nothing about the operator having a right to examine the radar/laser unit that clocked him by showing him or her the speed.

laser units are portable and the ofc. cud surely show the laser units speed to the operator when he approaches the car but radar units are almost always mounted in the car so to show that to the operator the operator wud hav to walk back to the police car. no where in the statute does it say the operator has the right to do that.

not calln u a liar. just sayn ur wrong. testing for ACCURACY is NOT showing the registered speed to the operator. its pretty clear.

All I can say fellas, is before you call someone a liar you might do a little research

In the state of Georgia, Georgia law under Georgia code 40-14-5(b) pertinently requires that before a law enforcement officer issues you a speeding citation, he must first offer to you to test the accuracy of his radar gun at the roadside traffic stop while you wait.

OCGA 40-14-5(b)

(b) Each county, municipal, or campus law enforcement officer using a radar device shall notify each person against whom the officer intends to make a case based on the use of the radar device that the person has a right to request the officer to test the radar device for accuracy. The notice shall be given prior to the time a citation and complaint or ticket is issued against the person and, if requested to make a test, the officer shall test the radar device for accuracy.

 

[TallTom]

dadofthree NOWHERE (in your post above) does it say he must also show you the results of the test.

Don't assume that you would understand the test if you witnessed it. And the cop sure isn't going to explain to you what he is doing and how the calibration test works. But he will answer in court that a roadside test was performed and no anomalies were noted. How would you know any different?

Look Radar as a technology is pretty accurate when used correctly. Used correctly being the operative phrase. They rarely are going to fail a calibration test if they passed it at the first of shift. If it does fail, it is almost always because it is being tested where there is some outside interference throwing off the signal. But you have to know that. They aren't going to offer it up willingly.

 

[GNBRETT]

The truth is 95% of the people that get tickets are gonna simply pay. They biotch about getting a bogus ticket. But the hassle factor of going to court wins out most of the time. That is why the system generates the revenues it does.

and 95% of the ppl gettn tickets got them cause they deserved them and surely were speeding. sure cops make mistakes. they are human but as some have insinuated that cops lie all the time is just non sense. sure there are cops from time to time that lie just like in any profession but its a small percentage.

there are enough operators traveling far above the speed limit that a cop doesn't have to lie to issue speeding tickets. go down any highway and its like shooting fish is a barrel so there really is no need to make chit up. mistakes are surely made but writing a ticket cause he can't find any REAL offenders is ridiculous cause probably 90% of the ppl traveling down the highway are speeding.

 

[TallTom]

So if 90% of the people are speeding, they need to increase the speed limit to something more in line with reality.

 

[GNBRETT]

So if 90% of the people are speeding, they need to increase the speed limit to something more in line with reality.

agree 100%. raising the speed limit has never been proven to cause more accidents, just more severe ones.

 

[TallTom]

I have had the pleasure of driving on the AutoBahn. 120MPH was NOTHING. Even then you were being passed routinely. The 3 years I drove it, I think I saw 1 accident, maybe 2.

 

[GNBRETT]

I have had the pleasure of driving on the AutoBahn. 120MPH was NOTHING. Even then you were being passed routinely. The 3 years I drove it, I think I saw 1 accident, maybe 2.

well, although I agree traveling at higher speeds doesn't mean ur gonna crash they certainly do have far better designed highways over there and for the most part far better cars on average so accidents will surely be less frequent over there.

and the roads are kept up far better then here. and their not flooded with illegal immigrants who can't drive for chit either and take off every time they crash. and they enforce drivers who travel in the left lane like miss daisy very heavily as they shud cause thats wat causes a lot of highway accidents is ppl tryn to get around the slow driver who feels righteous driving in the left lane at 55 mph....!

 

[Jeff Kurth]

Pay the fine..... The truth of the matter is you almost never win over a speeding ticket....Its just the way is goes....
Last year i got a $310 dollar speeding ticket...
You will lose a lot more by hiring an attorney....

 

[RedBusarider]

and 95% of the ppl gettn tickets got them cause they deserved them and surely were speeding. sure cops make mistakes. they are human but as some have insinuated that cops lie all the time is just non sense. sure there are cops from time to time that lie just like in any profession but its a small percentage.

there are enough operators traveling far above the speed limit that a cop doesn't have to lie to issue speeding tickets. go down any highway and its like shooting fish is a barrel so there really is no need to make chit up. mistakes are surely made but writing a ticket cause he can't find any REAL offenders is ridiculous cause probably 90% of the ppl traveling down the highway are speeding.

I agree with you for the most part, however the OP claims he was traveling the speed limit and got wrote up for going 80mph. There in-lies the problem.
If he was really going the speed limit why did he get a ticket in the first place. I never meant to insinuate that cops lie all the time. In this case I think they did.
I'm sure there are more good cops than bad ones, and yes cops do make mistakes but in this case it appears that they saw a sport bike and said hey he must deserve a ticket
so lets give him one.

How many people have never broken the speed limit - answer 0. I don't believe that anyone who bought a Busa, bought it to only go 55mph, right?
So does that mean that EVERYONE that can drive should be issued a few tickets when they renew their drivers license because
they must have broken the law (and not got caught)?

I remember traveling in NV and on US95 which is mostly 2 lane between Reno and Las Vegas there would be towns along the route and they would lower the
speed limit to 25 through their town and use cameras to catch speeders. The rub here was that they would purposely put a sigh up that said 25mph speed limit ahead.
Then in LESS than 800 feet (guessing) there would be the YOUR SPEED IS...... AND A CAMERA. To me that was a total money maker for them. IF THEY REALLY WANTED
YOU TO DRIVE ONLY 25MPH THROUGH THEIR TOWN THEY WOULD HAVE GIVEN YOU MORE NOTICE that way you could kick off your cruise control and be to 25 before you hit the town.
So all they were interested in was making money! Sounds like what is happening to the OP of this posting.

I'll stand by my earlier statement that when you see cops slow down extra slow and MAYBE you won't get a ticket.
Not everyone has a speedo-healer so must of us have a speedo that is not accurate. Might as well error on the cautious side and go extra slow when you see them.
Yes I know that sometimes they hide and other times it's just not paying attention. But the OP stated they were everywhere - so that must not have been the case (for him).

I guess it's like most of life and it's a question of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and when your number is up, it's up. Grin and bear it, right? And life goes on.......

Good luck on getting them to raise the speed limit more. With gas going over $4 per gallon that MIGHT slow a few people down. Just not us on Busa's.

 

[GNBRETT]

well, maybe he made a mistake. its possible he saw a bike going 80 and told the pick off car and the pick off car got it wrong and stopped the wrong bike. it happens. sport bikes look similar when going down the highway. or maybe the op was going faster then he thought? it happens, especially on a busa. we both know how these bikes can accelerate to a higher speed quite fast without realizing it especially when changing lanes.

im jus not buying that the trooper is lookn thru his laser unit at the bike goin 60 mph and him stating he was goin 80 cause he simply doesn't like sport bikes. is it possible? sure, but unlikely. like I stated earlier go down any highway in any state and you can catch someone goin a helova a lot faster then 80.

I never said ppl shud be punished for speeds they were doing at other times. not sure where u get that from but that was never stated or insinuated. and like u stated lets face it the speedo on bikes varies quite differently from bike to bike. especially when changing gears. the laser is dead nuts accurate! cud he hav gotten the wrong bike? its possible.

I agree with you for the most part, however the OP claims he was traveling the speed limit and got wrote up for going 80mph. There in-lies the problem.
If he was really going the speed limit why did he get a ticket in the first place. I never meant to insinuate that cops lie all the time. In this case I think they did.
I'm sure there are more good cops than bad ones, and yes cops do make mistakes but in this case it appears that they saw a sport bike and said hey he must deserve a ticket
so lets give him one.

How many people have never broken the speed limit - answer 0. I don't believe that anyone who bought a Busa, bought it to only go 55mph, right?
So does that mean that EVERYONE that can drive should be issued a few tickets when they renew their drivers license because
they must have broken the law (and not got caught)?

I remember traveling in NV and on US95 which is mostly 2 lane between Reno and Las Vegas there would be towns along the route and they would lower the
speed limit to 25 through their town and use cameras to catch speeders. The rub here was that they would purposely put a sigh up that said 25mph speed limit ahead.
Then in LESS than 800 feet (guessing) there would be the YOUR SPEED IS...... AND A CAMERA. To me that was a total money maker for them. IF THEY REALLY WANTED
YOU TO DRIVE ONLY 25MPH THROUGH THEIR TOWN THEY WOULD HAVE GIVEN YOU MORE NOTICE that way you could kick off your cruise control and be to 25 before you hit the town.
So all they were interested in was making money! Sounds like what is happening to the OP of this posting.

I'll stand by my earlier statement that when you see cops slow down extra slow and MAYBE you won't get a ticket.
Not everyone has a speedo-healer so must of us have a speedo that is not accurate. Might as well error on the cautious side and go extra slow when you see them.
Yes I know that sometimes they hide and other times it's just not paying attention. But the OP stated they were everywhere - so that must not have been the case (for him).

I guess it's like most of life and it's a question of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and when your number is up, it's up. Grin and bear it, right? And life goes on.......

Good luck on getting them to raise the speed limit more. With gas going over $4 per gallon that MIGHT slow a few people down. Just not us on Busa's.

 

[TallTom]

I remember traveling in NV and on US95 which is mostly 2 lane between Reno and Las Vegas there would be towns along the route and they would lower the
speed limit to 25 through their town and use cameras to catch speeders. The rub here was that they would purposely put a sigh up that said 25mph speed limit ahead.
Then in LESS than 800 feet (guessing) there would be the YOUR SPEED IS...... AND A CAMERA. To me that was a total money maker for them. IF THEY REALLY WANTED
YOU TO DRIVE ONLY 25MPH THROUGH THEIR TOWN THEY WOULD HAVE GIVEN YOU MORE NOTICE that way you could kick off your cruise control and be to 25 before you hit the town.

I had a similar thing happen in Fla. They have a 45 MPH in the unicorporated part of the county. They dropped it to 30 MPH even though there as absolutely no difference in the road or the conditions or the density of buildings. It just entered into the incorporated part from county to city. You had to hit the brakes to make such an abrupt speed change.

I was stopped and accused of doing 45 in 30 zone. Never said a word to confirm or deny the officer's claim. Took it to court. Using totally legitimate questions about speed measurement and asking the officer questions, none of which he nor the judge objected to him answering. He showed, through his own testimony, that according to his own answers, I was doing somewhere between 28 and 32. Give or take a second of distance traveled, which he admitted to being unsure about. It was in black and white math.

The officer wasn't pressed for an answer. He gave his answers truthfully and voluntarily. The judge gave him plenty of opportunity to think about his answers. I never even needed to get to the Radar Gun measurement portion of my defense. The cop's own testimony through no objection on his part, showed I was doing a speed considerably different than what he wrote the ticket for. It wasn't even relevant what the Radar Gun indicated at that point. The primary source for determining my speed was the visual evaluation of the officer. He failed that part. The rest was moot past that.

Was I speeding? In reality I think I was doing about 35 maybe 39 tops. Did I offer him any confirmation of that? Nope. I also had no idea what his answers in court were going to be. He wrote what he wrote on the ticket. He answered how he answered. I can't distort what I didn't know he was going to say. So who was right and who was wrong here? According to the law, the cop was wrong. The truth was his testimony, and that testimony was nothing like what the ticket said. The judge at no time asked me how fast I was going. It isn't at my burden to prove my speed, it is the state's burden.

Any testimony I would have given, would have been on the side of the road the day the of the ticket. They had NO testimony from me to support any claim of any speed I was traveling. Never admit to anything. Try to not even talk to the cop if possible. Anything you say, can and will be used against you in a court of law.

In my case a fine for 9 and under would have been way cheaper than 15 over. As it turned out it was completely dismissed. My job was done as soon as the judge heard the cops testimony.

 

[brian7396]

I live in the Asheville area and over the yeeeeears I have had mannnnnny tickets. Last one I had was 83 in a 55 in the GT by one of Woodfin's finest. Went to court, saw the DA before court actually started (there is always a line of people waiting to see him) He looks at my ticket and my smiling face and says "If I reduce this to 64 in a 55 can you pay court cost today?" Why yes I can! 1 license point, no jump in insurance rates as long as I behave for 3 years. I was never a fan of the PJC. If you get busted within 3 years both offenses will go against you at once. And that's money and points plus more money.

Either way, good luck to you OP!!

 

[jellyrug]

well, maybe he made a mistake. its possible he saw a bike going 80 and told the pick off car and the pick off car got it wrong and stopped the wrong bike. it happens. sport bikes look similar when going down the highway. or maybe the op was going faster then he thought? it happens, especially on a busa. we both know how these bikes can accelerate to a higher speed quite fast without realizing it especially when changing lanes.

im jus not buying that the trooper is lookn thru his laser unit at the bike goin 60 mph and him stating he was goin 80 cause he simply doesn't like sport bikes. is it possible? sure, but unlikely. like I stated earlier go down any highway in any state and you can catch someone goin a helova a lot faster then 80.

I never said ppl shud be punished for speeds they were doing at other times. not sure where u get that from but that was never stated or insinuated. and like u stated lets face it the speedo on bikes varies quite differently from bike to bike. especially when changing gears. the laser is dead nuts accurate! cud he hav gotten the wrong bike? its possible.

Think, I have licked my wounds and made peace with this.

But the facts are simple, I used two GPS units, an older Garmin 276C on my bike which showed a maximum speed for my entire ride today of 68mph and a new Garmin 810 Edge cycling computer in my pocket which recorded the whole route with live average and maximum speed for each mile. Maximum speed on the 810 unit correlated exactly with the 276C at 68 mph and my maximum speed on the Garmin 810 edge in the 1 mile section under the bridge where the sergeant was sitting was 64 mph. I got the ticket for 80 mph, no way, no argument, I got screwed. I was the only bike on the highway and a nice Busa probably attracted attention.

Just to make this clear, they had a Sergeant on an overhead pass with a laser, with almost 10 cars pulling people over writing tickets. There were cars stopped all over the highway. The Sergeant could have made a mistake, I did not make a mistake. C'mon speeding on a highway when you know cops are all over the place and you are riding through them, who would be that stupid?

Friday the 13th, not the right day to ride through a bunch of LEO's with a Silver Busa, while they are on standby for safety and security for the US open golf tournament, my bad.

 

[eibiskit]

With lidar more than likely and officer if sitting on a bypass or hill clocking people and telling the other officers which vehicle. It possible that the sgt made the mistake and the officer was following his orders

 

[RedBusarider]

Just to make this clear, they had a Sergeant on an overhead pass with a laser, with almost 10 cars pulling people over writing tickets. There were cars stopped all over the highway. The Sergeant could have made a mistake, I did not make a mistake. C'mon speeding on a highway when you know cops are all over the place and you are riding through them, who would be that stupid?

If that is not called a speed trap I don't know what is.

 

[GNBRETT]

If that is not called a speed trap I don't know what is.

speed traps are no different then DUI check points. perfectly legal.

 

[el stumpo]

Willem - here are my thoughts fwiw.

A-Tickets are a source of revenue in NC
B-80 in a 65 will be serious hit on your insurance
C-I see three ways to play this in order of preference:
1. use your PJC. This is serious, but would keep the PJC in your back pocket
2. Go to court and try to fight it with your GPS
3. Go to court and ask for leniency ("It was an error in judgement your honor, I have a clean record, I will not do it again") and get 9 over. No insurance points.
4. Pay an attorney and have it dropped to 9 under (or go away). Attorney fee around $100-$150 + court costs

Sometimes it's worth fighting, other times you pick your battles. Find the cheapest attorney and they will get it dropped to 9 under at least. Improper equipment is possible but it depends on the county.

With your clean record, you can skip the attorney and I'd almost guarantee a 9 under. Sorry to hear about this, I've seen the bridge traps. Money maker is all.