Last night at 1:02AM I was stopped by a county trooper on a highway. He cited me for doing 60 miles per hour in city limits, in a 45 mph zone, during construction. In actuality, I was doing 55 in the 45, outside city limits in a non-construction zone.
My question is whether I should take the rap or plead not guilty. I'm worried about pleading not guilty because:
- I was indeed doing 10 miles over the speed limit (although I was cited in the 11-15 category).
- I was driving after midnight, where my license is restricted to 5AM to Midnight (Can I be convicted for that post ex facto?)
- There are three people who were there -- myself, the officer, and my passenger. Obviously, the officer holds the most credibility.
EDIT -
I found an official website from our Dept. of Transporation listing road construction zones. Highway 16 in Columbia County, the area in question, is not on this list. What is the best way to cite this? I don't want to just direct them to the website as they could bring up that it may have changed since then. Could I just ask them to look up road construction records?
You're probably SOL.
- You're not going to beat the officer on the speed discrepancy. There could have been an issue with your speedometer and you're not an uninterested party. The officer is (at least, more so than you). This is why, if you know cops generally pull you over at 11 over, that you shouldn't do 10 over. You never know when you might look away from your speedometer for a few seconds and just accidentally kick the speed up; hell, I drive with cruise control obsessively, and I managed to kick it up to 15 over on the interstate today without trying.
- If the officer didn't give you a citation for driving outside of the bounds of your permit, then it probably won't cause a problem if you simply pay the ticket.
However, if you decide to go rogue on this issue, the judge would certainly be within his bounds to say "So, I notice your license has restrictions, and this ticket was issued at 1:02am. What's the deal?"
- The passenger would also be biased.
Construction:
Map # 69
Road: WIS 33
County: Columbia
Region: SW
Description: CLOSED WIS 33 between WIS 16 and the railroad tracks on the east side of the city of Portage.DETOUR via WIS 33 to WIS 16 to WIS 22 to WIS 33.
If WIS-16 is indeed part of the construction detour AND bounds of the WIS-33 construction, and/or there was posted signage, you're out of luck. I'd put money that someone has pictures of said signage.
The website doesn't mean anything. It's not a legal document
I have enough points on my license that it'll be suspended if I do.
Well, that's really the consequences of a poor decision.
You know, after I got my second ticket (my first for speeding), I decided to set bounds. For me, in general, my bounds are 10% of the posted speed limit, rounded to the nearest MPH, but bounded up by about 7. So in a 65, I'll do 72; in a 75 (our non-city interstates), I'll do about 82. Within-city (45) I'll do 50. My theory is, if my speedometer is off by 5mph (that's a pretty big gap), I'll probably not be pulled over.
Not surprisingly, I haven't been cited by a cop or photo radar (which is used state-wide) in... 5 years.
The bottom line is:
you and only you are responsible for the situation in which you are. If you don't speed, there is next to no chance that a cop is going to pull you over. Even if you do speed, if you do it in a way in which the cop is going to give you the benefit of the doubt, you'll probably not be pulled over.
Sorry for going on a rant; my roommate just got pinched by the photo radar because of the same thing. "I was going 10 over and I got flashed, going 11. I knew the photo radar goes off at 11 so I figured I'd be ok at 10." Well, 10 doesn't give you a whole lot of margin for error, human, machine, or otherwise.
[edit] If you really want out, get an attorney. But that'll probably cost you more than the car, ticket, and ongoing insurance increases combines.
