On my way to Mosport for a September track lapping day I pulled out and passed 4 cars in a train of 8-10 following a slow moving transport truck on a two lane highway, and an officer was right there attending another vehicle at the side of the highway. I was driving in Dynamic Mode which adjusts a variety of performance parameters, including opening the muffler by-pass valves in the exhaust system. I was particularly careful to make a text book safe pass. I had barely finished the pass and I see the officer screaming up behind me, lights flashing, having already passed the four cars I just had. I figured he must have left the vehicle he was attending to respond to an emergency call, and was in disbelief when it became apparent he was pulling me over. When he claimed I had made an unsafe pass I told him he had targeted me based on the aggressive exhaust and sporty style of the car. He said he hadn’t, wouldn’t discuss the details of the pass, and said I could do that in court if I chose that option...which I did.

After stewing over this almost daily for months, I finally had my day in court yesterday, and represented myself. The officer gave his evidence, reading from his notes, and recalling additional details. He claimed the pass was unsafe, that I didn’t leave enough room for the on-coming car before merging again, and had passed at estimated speeds above 110 kph (~66 mph) in the 80 (~50 mph). I then cross-examined the officer, providing all with a photo of that section of highway, looking down into a long valley and up the other side. I had marked the officer’s location on the photo, where I had pulled out, where the on-coming car was when I did so, where I merged again, and where the on-coming car was then. l clarified some important details from his notes, and established that the details shown in my photo were accurate. I then got him to state that the pass was initiated safely, and that I had told him that I felt he had targeted me. He tried to dance around the latter, but when asked again if I had, yes or no, he answered yes. He also claimed he hadn’t started the pursuit until after he saw that I hadn’t allowed a safe distance before merging.

Then I took the stand and gave my evidence, recalling what the officer was doing and the details of the pass, which noted that I had passed 4 cars doing 60 kph, that there’s no way I had reached 110 kph, that his position directly behind me didn’t give him the required perspective to judge my speed, and that his judgement was affected by the aggressive sound of the exhaust and the flashy look of the car, that he immediately gave pursuit based on that, and prior to the unsafe part of the pass which he was claiming. I suggested the only other explanation might be that the officer thought the driver was making a run for it, having been seen by the officer, and gave chase for that reason. The prosecutor then cross-examined my evidence.

The judge summarized the details, noting the aggressive exhaust, that the defendant was articulate and had been very forth-coming, and concluded that the prosecution had not proven their case beyond reasonable doubt. He then acquitted me of the charge. While that saved me 3 demerit points, and exceeding the points requiring me to have a licence review, I’m still just as upset about being targeted by that officer. Hopefully that will pass in time.

So the lesson I learned was to select “Dynamic Mode” with discretion... and to continue to carry my helmet in the trunk where it’s out of sight from an officer who might be looking for any other excuse to deem me an aggressive driver again! A friend installed a front facing video camera on his rear view mirror to record things that might happen on the road, and I think I may do the same. It would also be nice to record some track footage!

Bruce

 

Congratulations, justice has been served. I have one question...If I should get cited, anytime in the future, what is your fee schedule for representation?

 

Thanks. Based on your appealing location, and what I've been known to do for a beer, I'm sure we can work something out

 

Nice job Bruce. I've done the same with similar results. Most officer traffic monitoring is a form of "Revenue Collection" fueled by military tribunal rules..."Your guilty untill proven innocent".

 

Haha, glad it worked out. If you were in the US, the cost of the administrative fees would've been almost as much as the original ticket!

 

Congrats
Good job, I certainly couldn't have done that well on my own!

For me I learned years ago not to bother with court. There are some excellent traffic attorneys around here, and I let them handle it. Each time it gets dismissed from court.
It's not the money for the speeding I object to, its the lasting record I pay to fight.

Vince

 

Good work. I'm glad you chose to contest the charge.

I received 3 tickets in the last 6 years for speeding all in speed trap locations. These areas are targeted because people normally exceed the limit because they feel it is safe (no housing, no schools, no pedestrians, etc.). In some areas to go the limit just seems so... slow. In Halifax there has been a movement to reduce the city limit to 30km/hour. I can run or bike faster than 30km/hr. Can you imagine having to drive a car with over 500hp at only 30km/hr?

Some officer's are just *** holes just like some civilian people. Some officer's are exceptional people just like some civilian people. I've had it both ways. Recently I have experienced more *** hole officer's.

 

Well done Bruce. I imagine the officer was embarrassed by the trouncing you gave him in court.

 

I would think he was, and showed none of the attitude from when we first met.

Our system up here allows you to plead not guilty and have a trial set. If the officer doesn't show up then the prosecutor throws out the charge, if he does the trial proceeds. You can then enter a plea of guilty (if you had no defense), "guilty with an explanation" in hopes of a reduced fine, or make your defense as I did. Twice in the past I plead not guilty to a speeding ticket, and both times the officer didn't show up!

I've been snared many times in the traps that DGL pointed out, and use cruise control extensively to prevent my speed from constantly creeping up on the highway, and losing my license. I've been called in for a license review once because I had lost too many points, and I've been on that threshold for years. Had I lost this case I'd be back for a second interview, and likely asked if I was learning impaired. That would have been a whole other defense!

Have to tell you about one run in with the law when driving my modified Supra TT. It was late one evening as I pulled onto a highway on-ramp and nailed the throttle for a little excitement before slowing to merge with traffic and abide by the speed limit. An officer was parked under the bridge over-pass, heard the roar of the bridge-amplified modified engine and exhaust, and bolted after me before even being able to see the car coming down the elevated ramp. I merge and moments later the cruiser is bearing down on me at warp speed expecting the chase of a lifetime.

I pull over, he takes my license and registration, returns a few minutes later. He asks where I'm headed, viewing the car crammed with a full set of race wheels, gear and helmet. I explained I was going to fill up before heading down to Virginia International Raceway the next morning. He asks me all about the car, what mods I've done, and if I'd consider selling it! He gives me his contact info, and then asks me to give him a minute to drive ahead a bit and pull over, and then to rip past him at full bore so he can hear the exhaust again! I obliged the officer's request, back end stepping out slightly, and probably made his night.

He was a cool dude in a loose mood, and I'm pretty sure he's going to get that opportunity to buy it this summer as I've been tracking the XKR ever since buying it.

Bruce

 

Good job, Bruce. Sounds like the cop was hungry to fill his quota. Still, they usually win in the courts as judges prefer to give them any benefit of doubt over the average driver. Well, you proved to be better than the average :-).

Remember one day driving my previous juiced-up TT with a young kid sitting next to me. I was showing off the power of the car. We just accelerated from 60 MPH to 150MPH when we flashed by a police writing a ticket on the side of the freeway. He was staring at us in disbelief as we blew by him and my arm swung out, pointed to him, instructing the young son of my best friend:

"Brandon; see what happens to you when you drive too slow???"

Albert

 

I like how people act like they only drive 150 mph on public roads when the roads are empty, yet in your case there were cars pulled over on the shoulder.

 

I, for one, would never claim that. We did semi official banzai races with our exotics, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Porsches, etc where we regularly hit 150 MPH on open public roads. Never a single accident but, plenty of great stories...

In CA, there are some roads that are basically weekend race tracks, known to all, including the police. I honed my racing skills on those for years, going up against all, including superbikes. Most of the time you'd see the police just sitting there at the meeting places with dozens, if not hundreds, of potential racing machines lined up before taking off for a banzai run.

Why would anyone buy ultra performance machines to drive at the speed limit?

Albert

 

Ive strongly been considering a go pro vid camera just for the many times people do stupid stuff almost resulting in a accident. Then the lies, and denials that would comeup later. Hard to argue with a video, there a reason why damn near every russian has one. If you dont have video youre screwed.

 

Keep in mind that here in the US, it is a two way street.
Officers have confiscated onboard cameras and used video if the owner exceeding the legal limits in a court of law. It held up, and regardless that the driver was an idiot (IE REALLY exceeding), it set a legal presence for our courts.

Vince

 

In CA, to my best knowledge, any surveillance such as video, had to clearly show the driver of the car. So, if you are taking videos mostly from the back, the courts will do nothing for you because they can not identify who actually drove the car. It used to be an open secret among banzai runners that all you had to do was to put enough distance between yourself and the cop car to allow you to stop, get out of the car, sit an the curb and claim that you were not the driver during an infraction. It was your right to withhold the information on who the "actual" driver was. Both, my CA Highway Patrol friend and my County Sheriff friend confirmed this years ago.

On the other hand, I remember when a racer used his own video to try to prove after a race that I was at fault in a crash (at a race track) when, his video clearly showed him T-boning my formula race car, entering into a corner. The officials could hardly believe that they guy would use his own video to convict himself. Like: 'You are clueless when it comes to racing "right-of-ways", aren't you. Perhaps we should review your racing licence....' :-)

Albert

 

A good friend of mine is a CA police officer in charge of review video infractions (running red lights mostly). If the owner/driver did not commit the infraction, it is up to the owner to tell you who it is, or their ticket. Police can use Lexus/Nexus to determine who the driver is based on the owners friends and relatives. 90+% of the time, the police can figure out who the driver is on video whether the owner wants to help or not.

He is quite lienent, but when you see some of the sh** that some pull at lights, you want him to ticket the heck out of them.

 

I was going to buy one of these:


and hardwire it to an unused fuse connection. However, I think the battery draw would be too much given that the X150 already has enough trouble with the batter draw when it's not driven! (I guess I could wire it to something that only runs when the car is on, but I want to catch vandals, too!)

 

im speaking more of issue like last week and was almost hit twice pulling into the subdivision from a 4 way stp. 2 car go then my turn, signal on and Im making a left and twice people just dont look left and start going. friday a guy in a pickup just about tboned the other side of the car since he went when we were right in front of him . or the accident I had a few years ago were the guy said I came in his lane thats why he rearended me. A video would have shown differantly. And other situation similar to these, plus would cover when we go offroading. alot of people vid offroad runs