Speeding ticket for doing between 104-110km. Could you get off on a technicality?

Forums › Off topic › Speeding ticket for doing between 104-110km. Could you get off on a technicality?

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

mattwnz

20164 posts

Uber Geek

#978316 31-Jan-2014 18:57

frankv:
gished: So the consensus seems to be no, because most speedos over compensate. That's fine, good to see it generated some discussion.

Was I aware I was going over the limit? Yeah possibly, if it was where I think it was - I drove just under 1k km's that week so it's hard to say definitively but there were times where I would look down and realised I'd crept over the limit and slow down. It also didn't help that I started using the satnavs gps as the odometer.

Whilst I guess there's no doubt about the *legality* of fining people for going 5kph over the limit, I think there is still a question of fairness.

Do car speedometers *always* over-compensate? Given that the rolling radius of your tyres will vary more than 5% over the life of the tyre (let alone with varying pressures due to varying temperatures), I still think that the small tolerance isn't fair.

Incidentally, given that you have a GPS, you *could* use the GPS as a far more accurate speedometer than the one in your dash.

Also incidentally, (and perhaps getting back to the forum's purpose) 6 or 7 years ago I read an article about a number of software bugs in cars, which included one motorcycle whose speedo would read low by as much as 25kph. And a car (BMW IIRC) whose ABS system would under some circumstances prevent the brakes from engaging when the pedal was pressed.

As speedos in many vehcles often read quite a bit over what speed you are actually going, your speedo was likely showing that you were going over 5km above the limit anyway. I say just pay the fine and move on. They often have small tolerances especially around schools, so it isn't uncommon for people to be pinged for going 5km over. Can't believe this thread has got so long over such a small fine. Life isn't supposed to be fair. It is up to you to make sure all your speedos etc are reading correctly. If you don't think the camera is accurate, I believe you can ask for it's current certificate, if you want to dispute it. Also I doubt a GPS is more accurate for measuring speed, as they have quite a large margin or error, and it would be well out when you are going up a hill.

sir1963

3264 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#978321 31-Jan-2014 19:28

andrewNZ: C'mon, you're clutching at straws.

I'm not claiming to be a perfect driver, I'd go as far as saying I have some very bad habits. But bad habits, are no excuse for exceeding a limit.
A boss once said to me "there's no such thing as a good excuse", and now that I understand what he said, I fully agree.
We must be a speed limit, and it's useless if there is a tolerance.

I'd love to see a sports person say, "it was only a little bit over the line, give me a break".
Or a drunk driver say "it's only 439mg/l, I'm not that drunk, give me a break".

Over the line is in everything except driving at speed it seems.

Perhaps for rape could be ok as long as it's just the tip...

The speed limit is like a price on the item.
If the item said $100, people would bitch and claimed they were ripped off if they were billed $104
but feel good if they paid $96.

So too with the speed limit, it is the MAXIMUM speed.

sir1963

3264 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#978327 31-Jan-2014 19:35

frankv:
gished: So the consensus seems to be no, because most speedos over compensate. That's fine, good to see it generated some discussion.

Was I aware I was going over the limit? Yeah possibly, if it was where I think it was - I drove just under 1k km's that week so it's hard to say definitively but there were times where I would look down and realised I'd crept over the limit and slow down. It also didn't help that I started using the satnavs gps as the odometer.

Whilst I guess there's no doubt about the *legality* of fining people for going 5kph over the limit, I think there is still a question of fairness.

Do car speedometers *always* over-compensate? Given that the rolling radius of your tyres will vary more than 5% over the life of the tyre (let alone with varying pressures due to varying temperatures), I still think that the small tolerance isn't fair.

Incidentally, given that you have a GPS, you *could* use the GPS as a far more accurate speedometer than the one in your dash.

Also incidentally, (and perhaps getting back to the forum's purpose) 6 or 7 years ago I read an article about a number of software bugs in cars, which included one motorcycle whose speedo would read low by as much as 25kph. And a car (BMW IIRC) whose ABS system would under some circumstances prevent the brakes from engaging when the pedal was pressed.

The spedo is set to read high with new tyres, as tyres wear the vehicle is actually going SLOWER than it would with new tyres.

People who cause injury or death though at fault driving (speeding, drink driving, dangerous driving etc) should be
charged with murder because they have made a CHOICE, and that choice is no different than some one recklessly firing a gun
along a street. Dead is dead.
Think different go join a voluntary Ambulance/Fire and see what dead people look like, feel like, and then see how the guilty are more concerned with if they will loose their jobs

Dratsab

3946 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#978354 31-Jan-2014 21:15

andrewNZ: I'd love to see...a drunk driver say "it's only 439mg/l, I'm not that drunk, give me a break".

Join the police - you'll see and hear this kind of thing regularly. Especially from people who've only had "one beer"!

Geektastic

17943 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#978387 1-Feb-2014 00:12

Dratsab:
andrewNZ: I'd love to see...a drunk driver say "it's only 439mg/l, I'm not that drunk, give me a break".

Join the police - you'll see and hear this kind of thing regularly. Especially from people who've only had "one beer"!

Why do people do that?

It's against the law to murder people and generally that is well observed.

It's against the law to drive when you have been using alcohol and yet still so many people ignore that law as if it does not exist.

I have a really simple rule: if I am driving, I drink absolutely zero alcohol. Nada. Zip.

I personally support the limit being zero because it gets rid of all this "I can have x beers and still be OK" rubbish. If you had an accident and killed someone, even if you had had only 1 beer, would you not forever wonder if you would have avoided that somehow had you not drunk that beer? I would.

If a person can't restrain themselves from drinking on the occasions they are driving I would say they have a problem.

coolcat21

285 posts

Ultimate Geek

#978605 1-Feb-2014 18:08

andrewNZ:
Bung: If you have cruise control and it is dead flat sticking to a limit is easy but as soon as you move off the flat your cruise control's ability to stick to a constant speed will be knocking on the Police's tolerance.

If you have shart cruse control like my 2008 Mazda then yes (but the, shart speedo accuracy negates that somewhat...) If you have good cruse control like my Hilux, the needle barely moves, and never above the set speed.

Heya, thinking of getting a mazda soon (axela/3 most likely and probably older than 2008)
Is the cruise control and speedo accurary really shat?

Dratsab

3946 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#978631 1-Feb-2014 19:49

Geektastic:
Dratsab:
andrewNZ: I'd love to see...a drunk driver say "it's only 439mg/l, I'm not that drunk, give me a break".

Join the police - you'll see and hear this kind of thing regularly. Especially from people who've only had "one beer"!

It's against the law to drive when you have been using alcohol and yet still so many people ignore that law as if it does not exist.

Not quite. It's against the law to exceed certain limits.

Back on topic - I'm all in favour of fines being relatively low. It makes people more likely to pay them. What I'm also in favour of is steeper demerits so repeat offenders can have their licence taken away more quickly.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7