Do the crime, do the fine. Doesn't matter if you disagree with the law, you broke the law. Face it, we all do it a lot more frequently than any of us will admit to. My guess is that the judge has heard every argument that can be used in this situation.

What would you say if someone ran into you doing 43 in a 30, totaled your bike and put you in the hospital then told you " I drive/ride at a safe, reasonable speed, given conditions, surroundings, and, abilities. If that happens to be above the "speed limit" then shame on them for making the speed limit so low."

If you feel like fighting it, then fight it. But make sure you know the local rules/statutes before you go to court. If you lose don't get all upset and start calling the judge and cop names.

 

Hate away. Victimless crime till someone gets hit, including the rider.

I speed pretty often. But deal is, if I get caught red handed, I have the stones to own up to it instead of trying to weasel out.

 

I tried fighting a ticket once. Lesson learned..... it doesn't pay to fight tickets.

It's your word against a law enforcement officers. That's how the common person sees it. If you fought it by judge decision or jury verdict, the average joe knows you were probably speeding and are just trying to get off because you're pissed for getting a ticket. Therefore GUILTY AS CHARGED ! All other reasoning and circumstances don't matter. Now, if you want to fight it and hope the cop doesn't show, good luck. The likelihood of him not showing is slim.

It will most likely cost you more to fight it than the fine itself, anyway. Plead no contest and pay the fine. In PA, can you keep points off your license by taking a defensive driving course?

It isn't Einsteinian physics to time someone going a distance marked on the pavement. Relativity doesn't apply at these speeds. How much error you think there is in his "reaction time" to turn the timer, aka 'Sergeant', on and off? One-tenth of a second ? Two tenths of a second? The difference between 30 mph and 43 mph in a 100 foot distance is 0.7 seconds. The better part of 1 full second.

They gotcha. Pay the fine.

Math
30 mph = 44 ft/sec = 2.3 sec / 100 ft
43 mph = 63.1 ft/sec = 1.6 sec / 100 ft

Good luck if you decide to fight it.

PS: The title you gave this thread: "Pulled over wtf"? Wtf? What do you mean? You seem to be in denial. You admitted in a post you were speeding. That's why you were pulled over !

 

Don't bank on the officer not showing up if you take it to court. LEO's are served a subpoena for court - if they "don't show up" there will be hell to pay. At a minimum they will get disciplined, and at worst terminated if they have prior disciplines for the same violation.

 

I disagree with 43 Wasn't going that fast. That's the problem. Not much difference in 1.6 or 2.3 To match that accurately is pretty hard. If you put 5 people there each one would get a different time.

 

Yes, victimless. When someone gets hit there are always contributing factors, which are the real reason for the accident. Saying speed kills is like saying guns kill.

Don't confuse stones with stupidity or being to lazy to fight. I've never hurt myself or anyone else but if I hadn't fought (or weaseled out as you put it) I'd have likely lost my license several times and would be being raped by insurance companies right now.

 

Remember, dude, you are going to be in a court of law. Would have, should have and what 5 other people would get doesn't matter. What matters is the people involved. Him and you. He got you at 43 mph. You have to prove he didn't. How are you going to do that? By telling the judge or jury that you looked down at your speedo just as he was clocking you at it said 32 is unlikely going to work. You're still guilty at 32. In the speed zone you were in, you'e guilty at anything over 30. How do you plan on proving the speed you were going? He can prove it with 'Sergeant'.

I also disagree with you. There's a BIG difference between 1.6 and 2.3. I've seen analog and digital stopwatches accurate to 1/100 of a second. You're talking about 70/100ths of a second. That's HUGE.

Good luck.

 

Ever stop to think maybe you shouldn't have a license then? I mean, I twist my throttle, but if I started spending a significant amount of time trying to weasel out of tickets I deserved, then I'd take a look at my riding instead of complaining about a guy on the internet making a very simple statement:

If you went more than 10 mph over the limit and got caught, pay the damned ticket. You gambled and lost.

And yes, speed kills, dumbass.

 

Again, I think this depends on the state. Lo 1 has had the best answer b/c he is actually in the same state and knows the laws of the state. In Maryland the cops have specific "court days". They are scheduled to be in court and the court date is scheduled based on that. So if the officer gets called off "court day" for some reason deemed more important. you luck out. Or if there is a clerical error b/c the cop was on vacation. Or maybe he just had one or two tickets slotted and he decided not to bother. So, there are reasons to get lucky, without the officer being in trouble. At least in Maryland. One time I had an officer write me two tickets b4 realizing he knew me and had promised me a "get out of jail free" card. He told me he couldn't un-write the tickets but to show up in court and he'd likely miss court, or at least would conveniently lose some paperwork so I'd get off.

 

Thats a new one for me since over the years I got out of 3 tickets in Calif. because LEO's didn't appear.