Need Help with speeding ticket

[TrevorK]

defrauding? do you have any idea what police corruption is? oh and this is WAY more costly to the legal system then a traffic offence ... you fail to prove you point by stating a 19 over speeding ticket it "fraud" once appealed ... choose better words please! [/b]

And what does that have to do with what the poster is doing?

Nothing.

It doesn't change the fact that he is guilty, yet is willing to stand in front of a court to proclaim his innocence.

[b]
Your comments ... IMO... are hilarious in the fact that they are un-educated and rediculus! ... yet ... you seem to persist your rants! You want to see fraud, go and see an officer beat the living CRUD out of a 15 year old because he is holding a knife to cut his food with! This happens everywhere! yet a speeding ticket at full is unjustified because if one were to go 10 over, would they get a ticket?? NO! so whats fair is a 9 over ticket at the MOST.

Uneducated? That's a laugh.

Your logic makes no sense - you really need to sit down and think.

Why does the officer give you a break for the first 10KM? Is it because their equipment is 20% inaccurate (As in this example, where the poster was in a 50KM/H zone, and they usually don't ticket until 60KM+/h)? Do you really believe that?

[Invincible]

In Alberta that's not enough to get you off - it's just a minor detail.

As for your ticket - were you going with the flow of traffic or were there many people speeding by you (So your reading could have possibly been the wrong car)?

As well, you appear to have a newer car - do you have a different sized set of tires that would throw your speedo off?

I did a little research, and in Ontario it isn't either. I was... hrmm. Actually I kinda jumped out ahead of traffic after a stop light. There was one guy in front of me, he merged to the right lane and I had to do the same because my exit was coming up. So I sped up a little to get in front of him as there was no room to merge directly beside me. I later managed to talk to the guy I was trying to get in front of, and apparently he was going over the speedlimit as well. No wonder I had to go that much faster to get over.

You bring up a very interesting point. I do have massive all season tires on my car (look more like truck tires) that I'm sure are bigger than the original tires. I think I will explore that idea.

In the meantime, I am waiting for a mailing which is supposed to include the date for my first attendence meeting. They're apparently booked until late April, so I have a bit of time to prepare a case.

I hope I'm not hijacking the thread here. IMHO any advise given here may help someone else as well.

[gilboman]

mk316: I'm not gonna post anything regarding your situation. I only posted my above statements and previous ones to correct some of the invalid arguments concerning speed in the thread.



Wonderful, Society as a whole shouldn't have morals because police corruption is so rampant. I remember reading a thread about you being in eng (correct me if I'm wrong). Have you taken an discrete mathematic course yet or an ethics course for that matter...



How is this an example of fraud? Also you make this statement as if its happening all the time. Could you kindly point me to some examples of these incidents.

you havent corrected anything regarding speed on highways and safety. You said the speedlimit decreased in the past and the next year fatalities declined, correlation is not causation.. any student in post secondary education should know that, especially if you are an engineering student.

you did not mention/find out any other changes that could've contributed to decline in fatalities.

your energy and speed rant is great except it doesnt mean anything for speed limits. sure 130km/h and 100km/h there is difference in the energy in a collison but unless you hit a brickwall on the highway its a moot point.

i can use that argument to say that since most people travel at 120km/h, if i travel at 100 km/h and we collide there is 20km/h of energy to absorb but if i was going 130, its only 10km/h that is transferred

lastly you as an engineering student dont know what the speed limit should be on roads... fine, so does that mean if an engineering student doesnt know something, a politican is better qualified to judge what the speed limit should be?

maybe next time i dont know how to solve a calculus equation i pass it on to the garbageman to do it, thats same as you saying engineering students dont know what speed limit should be so lets let politicans decide.

[TrevorK]

You bring up a very interesting point. I do have massive all season tires on my car (look more like truck tires) that I'm sure are bigger than the original tires. I think I will explore that idea.

When I bought a car the owner put on low profile 14" tires which threw the speedo off by ~10% - so tire size will definetely make a difference.

You should be able to call around and find someone who is able to calibrate your speedo, or at least tell you how much you're off.

If you have a friend with an almost new car (Who hasn't modified the tires) get them to drive beside you, call each other and see what speeds you each get.

<Note - only do this on a road that is dead quiet with no one around>

[Hippak]

i can use that argument to say that since most people travel at 120km/h, if i travel at 100 km/h and we collide there is 20km/h of energy to absorb but if i was going 130, its only 10km/h that is transferred

Do you really believe that accidents where fatalities occur only happen in these types of circumstances? Can anyone here post if they've been in an accident where they were travelling at 100km/h and someone hit them at 120km/h and they were severaly injured? Often fatalities that take place involve stationary vehicles and or vehicles that could not stop in time. Also they involve cars which lost control at higher speeds. So my reasoning still stands.

I ask again can you honestly tell me that you'd like a 18 wheeler travelling at 120km/h right behind you on the highway?

lastly you as an engineering student dont know what the speed limit should be on roads... fine, so does that mean if an engineering student doesnt know something, a politican is better qualified to judge what the speed limit should be?

maybe next time i dont know how to solve a calculus equation i pass it on to the garbageman to do it, thats same as you saying engineering students dont know what speed limit should be so lets let politicans decide.

Can you tell me what type of engineer learns about human physiology and the limits and types of forces a human body can withstand. I wasn't aware that a civil engineering degree required this type of knowledge /sarcasm

And again. If you really think that a politician sits down and decides hey I guess the roads should be this speed limit without any research then there's really not point in contesting that type of thinking. Infact if you really think that is the case then why would you trust anything. The food labels in canada may have been arbitrarily decided by some politician, are you gonna trust that you're getting everything your body needs?

You chose not to answer my points about reaction time, stoping distance, safety limits in cars and congestion on the road. Like the previous poster who said that I dont know anything about speeding or what i'm talking about you chose to ignore all these points. Way to go!

[vvv1]

This message thread and the http://www.magma.ca/~fyst/ website have helped me a lot in regard to what to expect, which is great.

Just for reference.. if you change your court date I was told you have to go in and fill out a form in person.

For the disclosure letter posted... or people who have mailed disclosure letters, do you address it to the court house that sent the "Notice of Trial"?
Also I'm not sure where I am supposed to send a public records request. If no one can help me with this, I suppose that I will just end up phoning the court and asking them...

Also, I'm not very clear on people's replys with "approach the Prosecutor" or "Prosecutor will call you over and start offering plea bargains to most people with no prior history." So.. do you go to them, or do they call you? Is this BEFORE the trial time on the "notice of trial"?

Thanks.

[weedb0y]

Does anyone have any experience fighting tickets in Quebec?

From experience, I know that they will NOT let you off if the officer doesn't show up (in fact it makes it much worse; when it happened to me the judge made it very clear that since the officer wasn't there to defend himself, there was no way he take my word over the notes the officer left so there was nothing I could argue (and if there was ever a case with holes, it was this one (long sob story coming up): Quebec).

Let me know,
Mike

in Ontario, THEY WILL LET YOU OFF. It has recently happened to me. To the guy who is fighting the ticket, just PM me for more info. Stop listening to people who are telling you to go to paralegals or pay it up. Its a minor ticket which you can fight easily. There isn't a lower change than yours for speeding.

In the mean time, do send a registered letter asking for disclosure.

[vvv1]

When I phoned and talked to them at the court house, the answers to my questions were this:

1. disclosure letter was sent to the court house.

2. in order to find out where to send my public records request I have to call some police station number... where I have to call also in order to find out the officers name, since I can't read it on the ticket.

3. maybe people talk to the procesutor on the court date before the trial, but the person I talked to said I talk to them on the phone before ever going in court, and they will look at my record and talk to the officer to see if I behaved myself when pulled over and stuff like that, and of course "anything you say can and will be used against you" in court if you are unable to settle before your court date.

[vvv1]

Ok, here is the update.

I had to phone the court house for the information. The disclosure was mailed to the court house by xpresspost (so it was "registered"). I did not recieve my disclosure before the court date. As for the public records request, they forwarded my call a couple times and I ended up with an address for the Police Service with Attn: Freedom of Information Act. I did not bother to send that one in as it has to be mailed 30 days in advance, with a $5 application fee.

When I called the court house and asked them about talking to the prosecuter on the day of the trial to reach a "settlement", they said that it has to be done before hand. She asked me for my court room number and then gave me the name and phone number of the prosecutor. I called and got an answering machine, but also located his e-mail address on the internet. I shot off an email to him telling him my story... the circumstances and why I wanted the charge reduced.. without admitting to anything in my email. He phoned, confirmed that this was my first offense..and some other details... talked to the officer... and then offered me a reduced charge. I still had to go to the court house, and I did not see him call anyone up and offer them any deal. I did not stick around to see how the rest of the cases proceeded... although it would have been a little interesting, I was just happy to get the reduced fine and wanted to get out of there and do other things... anyway... I talked to him for a second before the judge came in, and he said to just plead guilty to the reduced charge, so after a while of going over other rescheduling and such things, and some other people were called up for things (not actual trials), then I was called up and the prosecutor said they wanted to change the charge to whatever, and would I plead guilty giving up my right to a trial and I said yes and thank you... ok.. I stumbled through saying "your magesty" once, as it felt really weird cause I come from a religious past.

Anyway, for people in Ottawa like me who may not be aware of it... the new Ottawa court house building is right behind the baseline transitway (ie bus 95). It's basically the transitway stop, a fence, a path, another fence, a large parking lot and then the building. Towards the north there is a "break" in the fences where you can walk through to the parking lot. However, I'm sure most people would be driving to the courthouse... just that usually I DON'T have a car.

Anyway... this thread and fyst were just really helpful so that I somewhat knew what to expect and what to do... if not for either of them, I would not have had any idea to contact the prosecutor before hand, request disclosure etc, and I really don't know what I would have done... probably looked stupid in court. They need to have more helpful information on the net.

Anyway, I hope that might be a little helpful to others. I just recommend that you call up the court house as soon as you get your notice, and ask them for the information with where to send the disclosure, public records request, and how to contact the prosecutor... I waited longer than I should have.