OK I got nabbed. Now I need info. The not so kind officer had the gun pointed up when he first noticed me. Then he lowered it to point directly at me. First contact was about 1500 yards and as he lowered it from upright he passed it by the setting sun. I need to know if the sensor portion of the gun has a persistence problem with direct sunlight, that would effect the reading - even if it was ever so brief.

 

Were you speeding? If so, just pay the ticket.

 

The Radar is only a device to confirm what the officer saw (you speeding). He will testify that he observed you traveling at a high rate of speed and confirmed his observations by pointing the gun at you and getting a reading. The ticket he issued you is not solely based on the radar.

You can fight, but if the officer is experienced in testifying, you will loose.

 

My personal opinion is go to court and bring a lawyer. I think it is always worth the extra money in the long wrong, normally the speeding ticket can be beat or brought down to something that the insurance company will never see. It's always better to pay a fine and a lawyer than to have your insurance go up for the next several years. my 2cents anyway.....

Lawyer quote "Did you bring the mop and glow?"
Steve - "Mop and glow?"
Lawyer quote "Yep, gonna mop the floor with those bozo's"

LOL, we won, not guilty....gotta love it

 

The ticket reads 70 in a 50. I dispute the 70, and I am told that the level above posted effects the amount of the fine. I have not received a moving traffic violation in over 20 years (which means I haven't been caught - nothing more).
I was coming up on a red light, with two of the three lanes occupied. I was approaching in the unoccupied third (right) lane. At about 20MPH and about 200ft from the intersection the light turned green. The third (and last) car back in the next lane over started to make a move into my lane under acceleration, as I was coming along side of him. I accelerated to avoid, passed all others and immediately moved over to the extreme left (primarily to get out of his way). The next light down the street was red (where the officer was parked) and as soon as I started to move to the left I was also coasting back down to stop for the light.
I don't believe I ever made it up to 70, if I did it was only momentary. I was not hot-******* it, or screwing around. The 92 Black Rose is lowered and I know it is hard to see. Situations where other drivers don't see me are common.
The way I feel - If I'm going to get a ticket - give it to me when I am hot-******* it, or when I am screwing around, (which I do on occasion) not when I'm trying to avoid body damage.

 

Plead not-gulity and hope the cop doesn't show at court. If he fails to appear twice (at least that's how it is in NY), the judge will toss the ticket.

If he does show, he'll go into a whole big presentation for the court and the record about his experience with the gun, how he calibrated it, yada, yada...try to plead down the speed to pay a lesser amount.

You're basically dead meat at this point, but you might be able able to negotiate the fine.

Take a defensive driving course afterwards, its good to remove 3 points from your license.

Good Luck :D

 

Here is the side of why you won't get out on a technicality:

The officer nabbed you with a gun operating in one of these frequencies:

X band (10.525 GHz)
K band (24.150GHz)
Ka (33.4 - 36.0 GHz)

More then 90% likely it was the Ka band. So, by your original email, you suspected a potential misreading of the radar gun from the sun glaring into the radar. This is 100% impossible.

First, the receiver will effectively reject ALL incoming frequencies EXCEPT the frequency from the transmitter +/- a few thousand Hz max. So, the suns emissions would have to be in that EXACT frequency operating range at the exact time of measurement.

The measured light range on the earth from the sun is from 380nm-750nm or 399.723GHz to 788.927Ghz. So, as you can see there is over a 363Ghz offset between the Ka band and the lowest range of the sun's light on earth. IMPOSSIBLE.

I feel your position, but you won't get out on a technicality from that perspective! Good luck!

 

BTW, I am from San Diego and I know EXACTLY what road you are talking about- Poway Road. That place is just a trap to begin with. It is basically a parkway, three lanes each way with no turns, visibility obstructions to speak of. By all means, the allowable speed limit should be 60+... I suspect the speed limit is at 50 not for safety purposes, but because Poway is a seperate entity from SD and probably able to reap from the benefits of increased speeding violations... That place is a trap, and I have almost been tagged a few times.

 

It helps a lot if you are good freinds with a high ranking state trooper.... one comes into the school here and has befreinded me because I'm a mechanic ........and he always needs one.......... I needed HIM once too..... he thanked me for my mechanic work quite well one time...... good freind to have :seeya

 

It wasn't a radar is was a laser. I don't think lasers have selective frequency bands. From my limited experience with light sensors, I am led to believe all photo-sensors have a problem with sunlight, because sunlight contains elements of the entire light spectrum. I was hoping that somewhere out there in Corvette land there is a laser gun manufacturer that would confirm or deny.
BTW glad to "meet" you San Diegan. Yes, Poway Road is a trap. I used to travel the road 4 times a day when I worked in Sabre Springs - off Evening Creek Dr. I know where the Sheriffs set up and therefore usually I behave myself along that stretch. This one was SD Cops in a totally new location, never-the-less I thought I was cool with what I did.
In addition to the "sunlight" aspect. I am working the math. With the distances involved, I am fairly certain my stock 92 automatic can't get to 70 in the distance covered especially when you consider the grade of the road. Maybe the damn thing is faster than I think!

 

There is no persistence in lazer speed measuring equipment. The detector in the lazer gun is a photodiode whose output is instantaneous. As soon as the gun was no longer illuminated by the sun the photodiode output dropped to background. The sun will saturate the detector and not allow it to detect any reflected pulses or if not aimed directly at the sun it will greatly reduce the dynamic range of the detector and reduce its range that it can show a vehicles speed. In your case, the sun was not a factor IMHO.

 

I know that when some of the car mags tested the laser guns they found that bright lights can and will affect the reading on the gun. However, I would'nt count on geting off on a technicality. The courts almost always side with the accepted device and the officer!

LASER! That's just plain cheating! :smash:

 

Try this web address, it may have some good information for you if you are wanting to fight the ticket www.motorist.org/

I hope this helps :smash:

 

One more thing. If you have the time always fight the ticket and go to court. There is a very good chance that the officer won't show up (vacation, training etc.) In which case the matter will be dismissed. The other reason is there is also a good chance that even if you are found guilty the judge may lower the speed and reduce the fine. Happens every day here.

 

:rolleyes:

 

Go to court.. always .. if you can afford a lawyer to accompany you, do so. End of story :yesnod: :yesnod:

 

Go to court with or without legal rep. Explain (if given the opportunity) that:

"I accelerated to avoid, passed all others and immediately moved over to the extreme left (primarily to get out of his way). "

Just show the judge that you were attempting to avoid a potentially dangerous situation. You never know, it might help.