Charged with speeding based on a guess?

I'm all for nailing speeders but giving someone a ticket based on a guess? Charged him with doing 149 km/h based on a guess? Thats a pretty accurate guess since no tool was used and he never even tried to match the speed to get a reading off his speedometer. I have not doubt this guy was going way too fast but I'm not sure I'm comfortable with police being allowed to "guesstimate" speeds to hand out tickets, just doesn't sit well with me. Could he not have charged him with dangerous driving instead?

The guys says "C'mon, give it up already.' I was acquitted. It was just a speeding ticket." Yeah a55hole and you were convicted the first time too. If it was 'JUST' a speeding ticket then why didn't you just pay the fine the first time and get it over with? Because you're an a-hole, come on he knows he was speeding, there is no way a police officer couldn't have told the difference if he was only doing a 100Km/h. I wish people like this would simply lose their licence, the roads are dangerous enough without these morons out there.

No doubt he was speeding I'm sure. But making up a random number based on...a guess? 149 is a very accurate guess. Even if I knew I was speeding I'd challenge a guess for one reason, the fine is based on the speed, how can they prove how fast I was going to fairly present a fine? The few speeding tickets I've even gotten I was glad to pay, but there was no question if i was paying the right fine.

As I said, could he not have been charged with dangerous driving? Going somewhere around 150 on the Queensway would be unsafe as well as look unsafe.

True, he could have been charged with dangerous driving. I went on a bit of a rant there, it's just that I am on the highway every day and I see selfish a-holes like this all the time. He has no idea the danger he's putting others in, or he just doesn't care, as long as he gets to his destination a few minutes earlier by blazing down the highway, probably lane jumping like a maniac.
Now that isn't to say I never speed, usually the flow of traffic is about 10-20 km/h faster than the limit, but thats safer than trying to be the guy in front all the time.

I'm sure the cop chose 149 because if he charged him with doing 50 Km/H or more over the limit then that is a Stunt Racing charge. Without a radar gun to prove that one the judge would have thrown that one out of court because Stunt Racing is a far more serious charge. The judge would have required a higher standard of proof as opposed to a simple speeding charge (the first judge anyway).



Almost every insurer in Ontario sees Speeding 149 in a 100 Km/H zone as a minor conviction. If his insurance went up $2,000 after getting this ticket that means he has several prior convictions and/or accidents. Sorry, but I have no sympathy for someone who should probably be off the road.

That would be ridiculous, and I agree that it is bs that he was found guilty in the first place.
I thought you are innocent until PROVEN guilty, and one mans word against another mans word is no proof, right?
If opinions will be enough to find someone guilty, we are going to be in big big trouble...

I am all for fining speeders, but based on a "personal opinion"? No. There is no way you can tell the speed exactly if you don't have the tools...

Agreed, he shouldn't be allowed to drive.

149 in a 100 is 1km/h less than the threshold for "racing." It probably means that the officer thought he was doing in excess of 150, but only wrote him up for 149 because he didn't have the evidence to make a racing charge stick. And based on that, this punk wants to get the court to toss the whole thing. Screw him.

You are both very likely right about the stunt racing being the reason for 149.

seems to work if you are a cop.



Lucky for us,





This coming from senior counsel is pretty funny.


Even in Socialist Europe they at least do you the favor of measuring you first.


The cops tried in Slovakia for while, to follow you speeding, with a video
of the speedo of the cop car.

That got laughed out pretty quickly.. now they have real radar at least.


Since..



I'll guess someone is trying to make new law here.




Pacitti should be countersuing the city for all its worth, and get a better
fucking lawyer.. This is a joke.

If the cop was following him, doing the speed limit, and the speeder pulled away, ipso facto he was speeding. I don't have a problem with that. If the cop just stood there and watched him go by, and guessed he was speeding, that seems a little thin.

Long ago I was driving my 240Z, well aware of the highway patrol tailing me. There was a bit of construction ahead that made a nice ess curve, so I thought I'd see what happens, and booted it thru the curve, while out of sight of the cruiser, then slowed right back down. He came steaming thru that curve after me, then saw that I was taking it easy again and just continued to speed on by me - guess he felt embarassed.

I don't think anybody has a problem with them pulling these drivers over and getting them to slow down but in the absence of any actual proof of speed, they can't logically claim that their judgement is equivelant to a radar gun.

I guess by using their super powers of observation, a cop can now tell exactly what your blood alcohol content is without a breathalyser.

Take that one to court and see how it works out for you.

This whole thing borders on the ridiculous. If they had pulled him over, read him his horoscope and issued a warning it would have probably been sufficient to deter him from speeding for a while and saved the government a crapload of money.

+1. In my day, they had to produce evidence of speeding, such as the readout and/or a copy of the equipment certification. Not 'well, it looked to me like. . .'.