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GPS Used As Defence In Radar Speeding Case
James Thigpen writes "There is an article over at Ars Technica about an accused speeder contesting his speeding ticket based on his car's built-in GPS system's records. According to the article his car says he was going slower than the radar gun clocked him at. Contesting a ticket based on GPS data has never before been tested in court."
GPS data was actually used recently in taiwan to prove a man's innocence. A truck driver A went into an accident with a motorcyclist B. A stayed and helped B up, and even paid cash. B said he's fine, so A drove off, only later to recevie a notice that B has filed a hit and run case against him. The court found A not guilty since the gps data showed that A stayed at the site for more than 15 mins.
From my understanding, and the contention of the officer, the GPS logs average speed. Which means that during a short period of time, the defendant could have greatly exceeded the speed limit (and was clocked by the officer at that time), while the average speed was far lower than that. In which case, both the cop and the defendant are correct, and the cop is till valid in giving the ticket...
Eaton VORAD units, which are a phased-array anti-collision radar for trucks, have been used to provide evidence in favor of the truck driver. The VORAD units track individual car-sized targets, and provide range, range rate, and azimuth. Range and range rate are quite good; azimuth isn't that accurate. The control unit keeps track of recent events ten minutes before a collision, and also has speed info available. The latest versions can interface with GPS and other vehicle systems. This allows detailed accident reconstruction.
It's most useful where an accident resulted when someone drove in front of a truck. The VORAD record shows not just what the VORAD-equipped vehicle was doing, but what the other vehicles were doing.
In most jurisdictions, such traffic cases are considered civil and the standards for evidence are different than those of criminal cases or what you may see on 'Law & Order'. The judge is free to weight the officers evidence more highly than yours and presume it to be correct unless you can show overwhelmingly that it is not. Sort of like being guilty until proven innocent.
Furthermore, courts have quite a bit of latitude to allow or deny the admissibility of data as evidence. For example: Radar is quite accurate (it reads the speed of an object quite close to its actual speed) but not very selective (it might be reading the speed of something else, or interpret some RF noise as speed). Take the boilerplate testimony that an officer reads about 'calibrating the gun with a tuning fork' and all the b.s. about standards traceability. None of this is necessary, as the most common source of errors are due to poor selectivity. But it sure sounds great in court.
In fact, calibrating a radar gun with a tuning fork is a good demonstration of its susceptibility to AM noise. An ideal radar gun should only measure frequency shift due to the Doppler effect and reject the sort of modulation that a tuning fork creates. After all, the instantaneous velocity of its tines is dependant on its amplitude and the average velocity is zero (unless you throw it). But no court would hear such an argument, as it would undermine their entire traffic enforcement/revenue collection program. And, as a civil case, they are not required to consider it.
Have gnu, will travel.
It's probably far too late to get a mod up on this, but I thought I'd add it to the knowledge base of the Internet in case somebody decides to Google it one day.
Simply put: This is not going to work.
The system is rigged against fighting speeding tickets. Even if you've got the money to pay for evidence collection, expert witnesses, and everything else -- BEFORE your trial -- you'll still lose. The justice system will protect the police from having even one ticket investigated, because it calls into question other tickets the officer may have written using the same or similar equipment; a very large expense. It just won't happen.
Here's a TRUE story, as related to me by my friend who drives commercial truck:
My friend was pulled over by a police officer for "speeding" and given a ticket for 75 in a 65. Only one small problem here: The area in Ohio where he received the ticket was absolutely flat, and his truck is GOVERNED at 68. Exceeding 68 miles per hour on a flat road is literally IMPOSSIBLE for his truck, so says the manufacturer of the engine and the manufacturer of the vehicle. Understandably, my friend was very upset at receiving such an obviously bogus ticket, and decided to fight it.
Nice thing for my friend, engines in big trucks have computers to track fuel usage, speed, etc. over time. Getting the data from the engine is a matter of taking it to the service center, hooking up a computer, and getting a printout. He obtained this printout and showed it to me; it's so simple my grandmother could easily see his truck hadn't gone over 68 at any point during the data recording. The dates were clearly marked; it showed on the day in question, the truck did not go anywhere near 75.
Armed with this and people willing to testify that the truck's governor was functional and the printout was accurate, he attempted to fight the ticket. He was informed that he would have to pay all of the trial costs up front ($10,000) before the trial began, and even if he won, he wouldn't be able to get reimbursed for this expense. So basically, it came down to a choice: Swallow pride and pay the $350 ticket, or pay $10,000 to prove he was in the right and get the ticket voided on the basis of the evidence.
Sadly, but wisely, my friend opted for the former. Proving his case was not worth the extra $9650 it would cost to do so.
Take note: Traffic court is rigged against regular people. If the highwaymen in blue try to rob you, just give up the money; losing your time, energy, and sanity over government sponsored theft will just victimize you more.