Slashdot Mirror
Fight Over $194 Speeding Ticket Costs $15,000 and Counting
An anonymous reader writes "Roger Rude, a retired Sonoma County sheriff's lieutenant, is still fighting a speeding ticket his step-son, Shaun Malone, received in 2007. Shaun Malone was allegedly going 62 mph in a 45-mph zone, according to a Petaluma police officer. To the officer's surprise, Malone was using a GPS tracking device which reported his speed to an online database every 30 seconds. At the time of stop, the GPS reported Malone's speed at 45 mph. Rude has been helping Malone fight the speeding ticket for over two years. The Petaluma Police Department has spent $15,000 in the prosecution of this case. The case is now in the hands of the Commissioner."
Maloneâ(TM)s family contends a GPS system they installed in his car to monitor his driving proves he was driving 45 mph
It's airtight. When a judge sees that there is evidence from a Global Positioning System system he will be forced to dismiss the case.
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
The court system went down the Stupid Route and said that GPS technology wasn't accurate or reliable enough.
Read up on the case. it's insane. they should have dismissed the damn ticket immediately.
It's easy to make mistakes, and GPS systems are not perfect, but after 2+ years either the GPS data has proven to be very questionable or the procecution refuses to let go of an issue. At this point, I would almost believe the officer who issued the ticket is now holding a grudge to help prove a point. But that's just wild and irresponsible speculation.
Life takes interesting turns, but the most interest is when you're off the beaten path.
... since he got pulled over for $90.00 for playing UNO, on his mobile phone in IRC, while driving: http://aqfl.net/?q=node/7470 ... [grin]
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
From TFA:
The teen's GPS, however, pegged the car at 45 mph in virtually the same location.
At issue is the distance from the stoplight at Freitas Road â" site of the first GPS "ping" that showed Malone stopped â" to the second ping 30 seconds later, when he was going 45 mph.
Sonoma County Deputy District Attorney Michael Li wrote in his closing arguments that given the distance, which he pegged at 1,980 feet, and time between pings, Malone would have had to have been traveling at an average speed faster than 45 mph, thus supporting the officer's observations and the radar.
But Martinez, in his written statement, said the distance was 1,950 to 2,010 feet, making it possible for Malone to travel the two points without speeding.
The difference between 1,980 and 2,010 feet is a red herring. If he covered 2,010 feet in 30 seconds, that's an average speed of 67 ft./min., or 44.3 m.p.h., awfully close to the 45 m.p.h. limit. It would take nearly instantaneous acceleration to get from a dead stop to 45 quickly enough to achieve that average speed over 30 seconds. I'm not sure they make cars that accelerate like that. On the other hand, cars can decelerate much better than they accelerate, and it would be much easier to get from 62 to 45 m.p.h. upon noticing a police car beside the road ahead.
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." -- George Orwell
1. Radar signals can bouns off of objects and give false readings.
2. Radar will significantly multiply a vehicles speed on hills and corners.
3. Radar can be affected by interferences inside the patrol car, such as, a fan.
4. Mobile radar, as opposed to stationary, is often inaccurate.
5. Radar tunning forks inaccurate for radar calibration check.
6. Human error include:
A. Officer locking in the speed of the wrong vehicle
B. Officer not identifying the correct vehicle
C. Officer not stopping the correct vehicle
Now, I'm trying to think of GPS inaccuracies...........still thinking............No, I can't come up with anything.
GPS tracking is state-of-the-art technology, many govt fleets already use it so they should already know how accurate these systems are.
Radar Flaws 1. Radar signals can have interference from outside objects 2. Radar can pick up multiple vehicles at one time giving false readings 3. Police departments sometimes fail to maintain annual certification 4. Many times officer identifies and stops the wrong vehicle because they are distracted by trying to safely pull out into traffic in pursuit of the suspect vehicle. GPS Flaws 1. Tampering 2. Bridges, parking garages, bad weather causing interference The interferences with GPS can't really be called flaws. The main concern with GPS tracking technology is receiving and transmitting the signal. If the signal can communicate, the information will be correct. In general, GPS is reliable and accurate.
I was a police officer for many years. I wrote hundreds of speeding tickets. Radar is generally reliable, but with all things considered in this case, I would trust the GPS tracking device over the radar.
Do you even have a driver's license? No, I didn't think so. You're an idiot.
There are PLENTY of people who do exactly that all the time. In many areas, the cops don't bother with you unless you're at least 20 mph over the limit, because otherwise they'd be stopping everybody. And no, braking to shave 20mph off your speed doesn't "destroy their cars." If it did, no car would survive a trip with a top speed of 20 mph.
It seems as though everyone is assuming that he started from the stoplight at the same instant that the GPS pinged.
If he sat at the light for 5 seconds after it pinged then the average speed is bumped to 54 mph average, 10 seconds and it becomes 67.5 mph average.
In this instance GPS is extremely weak evidence. It isn't exculpatory because of the potential to have still been speeding.
GPS accuracy shoudn't come into play, only the interpretation of its readouts.
It should still be strong evidence if there are few speed changes such as a freeway.
He was on the way to the speedway and forgot himself for a moment. I'd be lenient if the rest of his trip showed him near the speed limit.