gteehan

I almost joined Zookie in his 50 over club yesterday.

I was heading south on HWY 41, north of Napanee when someone flashed me going the other way - I hammered the brakes but it was too late. He must have got me from more than a quarter mile away. I had no idea you could get pinched from that distance.

The cop was convinced I had a radar detector. He told me that something came up on his detector unit. He went on to say "one second you're doing 131 and the next you're doing 75, you must have radar detector". He asked if he could search the car. I didn't have a problem with it but he never pursued it. I would think if something actually was detected he would have searched the car. The thought that he was baiting me with the "something blipped on my unit" kinda pissed me off that but I wasn't about to start arguing with a guy who could have left me at the side of the road.

As I waited for my verdict I witnessed a fellow speeder get his 3 series wagon towed. He wasn't very happy. It's an ugly sight seeing someone deal with the logistics of being stranded.

In the end I was luckier than the officer's previous catch. He lowered the ticket to 48km/h over and I was on my way.

As an aside, once I got on the 401 I cruised with a pleasant chap in an orange GT3RS with Quebec plates all the way to Toronto. What a gorgeous car.

theiceman

i would be fighting that one .. seams like TONNES of doubt there .. even on the officers part.. but if you have an "R" on your ticket it shows it was reduced, **** off the wrong JP and he can raise it back to the original charge .... llots there to think about .

Glad you still with us .. oh and one more thing .... if Zookies gets overturned, the pool is open again ..

Torontoworker

Napanne OPP div are noted as being HARD CORE (dona't ask me how I know this!) so count your lucky stars and buy a loto ticket.

And the 48 over: The reason he lowered it was because he couldn't get a good lock on the speed and would have had to testify that he 'observed' your speed on the radar readout without the lock on. There's room for a lawyer to argue that there was a fault in the device and therefore doubt. Shows you how effective Porsche brakes are!

The effective range for radar is a half mile and laser units a bit better then that. I may or may not be ECM equiped and can or cannot tell when it may or may not pick me up.*

*Legal disclaimer

9 lives

did he say how he came up with 48 over vs 51 over ???? Seems like he might have been pullin numbers out of his ***....

Brother in law got pulled over this weekend on the QEW in the construction zone - doing 138 in the 80. Cop asked him if he knew how fast he was goin, he thought about givin the shrug and 'dunno' for a sec, but told him 138. Cops gives him a 138 in a 100 and said only because he told the truth did he cut him a break and not put the car on the back of the tow truck. Roadside judge and jury at its best.

Torontoworker

By Walkers Line westbound perhaps? I see them hang out here all the time with their fishing gear (radar) just waiting and hoping for extra court time so the wife can get a new washer and dryer.

Still hoping for the Charter Challenge, but not holding by breath.

9 lives

Cawthra to Miss Rd section...

theiceman

didn't help that a 20 year old kid was splatttered all over the road there Friday night .. ( QEW and Walkers ) .. even more fishing coming you can bet.

jumper5836

Damn, don't know whether to say your lucky or not with that one.

gteehan

@ Torontoworker: Interesting stuff. Don't think I'm going to fight it though. My fault, my responsibility. I had a clean record before this, so I knew eventually it was coming.

@9lives: Didn't say how he came 48 over. I really didn't care, I just wanted to keep rollin'.

@ Jumper: I'm calling it lucky, though I'm fully expecting my insurance to go up after this one. I had my disabled wife and 2 kids in the car, and he was already towing someone else. I half think he didn't want to have to deal with children and a wheelchair at the side of a highway.

500

To quote Mario Andretti from "The Speed Merchants":

Sometimes it doesn't come cheap... sometimes you get away with it

webbie

Fight it (check option 3) or you will regret later. Trust me!

Btw, live police notification using trapster on iphone works pretty good.

swbatte

Fight it for sure.

I spoke with a friend in the RCMP and learned 3 things:

1. Police can lie when asking you questions (eg. My system shows you have a radar detector onboard. May I search your car?) they have no idea if you have one or not, but if you don't you'll say sure, and then they can look for other stuff. Always say no to a search request.

2. Radar and VG2 cannot operate in the same patrol car at the same time. Apparently one interferes with the other.

3. There are no Laser and VG2 equipped cars in Ontario.

A cop pulled me over 2 years ago, and told me I had a radar detector and that I was going some outrageous speed. I fought it and turns out he had paced me for a bit but lost me for several km before pulling me over. I wrote everything down he said, and that happened leading up to it. I fought it and won.

Brian 162

A friend of mine does traffic enforcement in TO. He always tells me no matter what fight the ticket. Yes the cop may be at court on overtime. However maybe he won't show for other reasons. My ex 's boyfriend got a ticket tossed because the cop retired.

Zeeman28a

It took that long to get to trial, eh?

akw

I would say you are pretty lucky. Glad you didn't join the zook club.