It is a beautiful day and you are cruising down the highway enjoying life until your ride is interrupted by flashing blue lights. An officer tells you that you were caught speeding. What should you do now? Here are some tips if you get a ticket for speeding in violation of Vehicle Code section 22349, subdivision (a).
Vehicle Code section 22349, subdivision (a) states, “Except as provided in Section 22356, no person may drive a vehicle upon a highway at a speed greater than 65 miles per hour.”
In People v. Singh (2001) 92 Cal. App. 4th Supp. 15, the Appellate Division of San Joaquin County rejected appellant’s argument that he should not be found in violation of this statute because he had established that the section of freeway he had been traveling was a speed trap. Thus, arguing that you were caught in a speed trap is not likely to work in your case.
If you decide to fight the ticket and the officer does not appear for your court appearance, your case will likely be dismissed. Also, if you challenge the ticket by written declaration, as stamped on the back of your ticket, the ticket will likely be dismissed if the officer does not submit his or her declaration to the court on time.
But if you fight the ticket by going to court and the officer appears in court, you will need to be able to challenge the officer’s calculation of your speed, convince the court that the officer ticketed the wrong driver, or find some other defect in your ticket to convince the court that your ticket should be dismissed.
Challenging the officer’s calculation of your speed can be complicated, so we recommend that you get Fight Your Ticket - California to learn about the methods used to challenge the officer’s calculation of your speed. Also, Beat Your Ticket is good if you are in another state. Also, you can hire an experienced traffic ticket attorney to help you fight this type of ticket. Make certain you ask the attorney about his or her knowledge of how to challenge an officer’s calculation of speed by pacing and by radar.
Here, are some more basic tips. If the officer relied on “pacing,” which means that the officer was following your car and using his or her speedometer to calculate your speed, you can cross-examine the officer about how long the officer was following your vehicle. If you know the officer was only following your vehicle for a short distance, and the officer admits to this, you can try to convince the traffic court judge that the officer’s speed was faster than your speed because the officer had to be to driving faster to catch up to your vehicle; thus, the speed the officer calculated was likely higher than the speed you were traveling and your ticket should be dismissed.
If the ticket is from an aircraft patrol vehicle, both the aircraft patrol officer and the patrol officer that gave you the ticket needs to be in court to testify about how your speed was calculated if the officer did not independently pace your car and calculate your speed. The aircraft patrol officer may not be able to remember your particular vehicle. You can ask the court to order the traffic officer who issued your ticket to stand outside the courtroom while you question the aircraft operator about the details of your stop, such as the color of your vehicle, the license plate, the make/model of the vehicle, etc. It is possible that that the aircraft operator may not remember these details and you could establish that there is insufficient evidence to convict you of speeding.
You can also challenge a radar reading but that is a more complicated endeavor. We recommend that you read about how to do this in Fight your Ticket or Beat Your Ticket listed below.
Vehicle Code 22349 (a) fine cost
The penalty for this violation often depends on how much over the speed limit the citation claims you were speeding. The base fine for this violation is $35 if the citation claims you were traveling 1-25 miles per hour over 65. But the base fine increases to $70 if the citation claims you were traveling 26 or more miles per hour over the 65 mile per hour speed limit. But that is the base fine and in California, penalty assessments are added to ticket infractions.
Penalty assessments vary depending on how fast you are claimed to have been going and which county you are in. If you were going 1-15 miles over the speed limit, the fine with penalty assessments will be about $238, sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on the county, in 2016. If the citation claims you were traveling 16-25 miles over 65, the fine with penalty assessments will be about $367. If the citation claims you were traveling 26 miles or more over 65 mph,, the fine with penalty assessments will be about $490.
Good luck. I hope this information helps you to make an informed decision
copyright © 2016 Christine Esser
The information contained here is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice or a substitute for legal counsel. Online readers should not act upon this information without seeking professional counsel. Information on this blog is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship between you and Christine Esser. An attorney- client relationship is only established when a written retainer has been signed.
Disclosure; If you click on the Amazon link below, you will be directed to the Amazon website. This short blog post may not contain all the information you would want to be able to fight a traffic ticket successfully. If you are in California, for more information, we recommend Fight Your Ticket and Win -California. If you are not in California, we recommend, Beat Your Ticket. Both can be obtained from Amazon by clicking on the links below. Good luck.
Last updated on Novembrer 3, 2016
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete