Backround - I recently got a ticket in my A4 on the way back from picking up a friends friend at the airport. I was driving on the expressway going down a hill and wasn't really watching my speed and my cruise control is broken so it obviously wasn't set, when I noticed a state police officer sitting at the bottom of the hill, so i did as any other person would do and hit my brakes and slowed down. Then my radar detector went off very faintly and I passed him, then he pulls out behind me and follows for maybe a mile, and pulls me over. He came up to the car and asked me how fast i thought i was going and i said "around 78 maybe" he said "nope like 83 or 89". at this point it didnt seem right, one because the two numbers were so far off second theres no was i was almost doing 90mph, and my radar detector which always has worked didnt show he was gunning me until i was going the speed limit for sure. anyways, he also asked about my front side window tint, and when he came back to the car he said he had some good news for me, that he was just going to give me a fix-it ticket for the tint, and proceeded to talk about how to take care of that, then he goes, "oh yeah and i wrote you up for 78mph in a 70mph" - the max speed i told him i maybe was doing

So what I am trying to figure out is
1. did he even get a speed reading on me? because he didnt write it down on the ticket which they normally do. ex. 60/55 actually 70. he just wrote 78/70, was he just guessing that i was speeding and going off of the speed that my dumb *** said?
2. one of my friends who was with me mentioned to me something about an "acceleration zone" or something, which says that because of a hill it it acceptable to go up to 5 mph over because of the hills natural affect on the speed of a car. has anyone heard of this? might it be true? he said he heard it in a driving class he took, this might be able to get it down to a 3mph over
3. The Police officer didn't give me the envelope that they normally give with the ticket or say how much it was for? do you think that he was kinda saying, go to court and fight it? because thats what it looks like i'm going to do, everyone in the car said there was no way i was going as fast as he "said" i was, and i really just cant afford another ticket, I'm almost 19 and hadn't had a single ticket until about 5 months ago when i got a 5 over in my BMW then i got another one 2 or 3 months ago in the BMW with another friend who flew home and didn't have a car. Its kinda starting to give me a bad outlook on helping friends, especially after picking them up from the airport. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated, oh and I am planning on looking into why my cruise control isn't working. Thanks, Nick

 

All of this was in Michigan too on the way back to Traverse City from the Grand Rapids Airport

 

All I can suggest to you to do is fight it in court.

 

I am also trying to decide what to do for the window tint, as i believe both are supposed to be taken care of within 10 days, do i remove it and take it in to be inspected or since its part of the same ticket do i not remove it if I am going to fight it in court?

 

Fight it in court. You'll get away with it because there's no way a cop can give you a ticket for going 8 mph over because your speedometer is not calibrated exactly so there's some margin for error in civilian cars.

 

Or you could try not blaming your friends for your speeding. It's not like your friend drove your car through a speed camera and you got the ticket because of who the car is registered to. It's not like your friend had a gun to your head and made you drive 78-89. You are the driver. You are supposed to be in control. If you're 19 and have way too many tickets already and can't afford another one, don't speed. It's that simple. That you weren't paying attention on a hill is no excuse, I could easily unintentionally hit 100, 110 in the M5 if I wasn't paying attention, that doesn't mean I shouldn't get a ticket for it.

Actually, an officer can give you a ticket for ONE mph over the limit. They usually won't because of the reason you stated, but they most certainly CAN, if they choose. And you can take it to court and fight it, I've seen judges throw out greater speeding tickets than eight over, but I've also seen them convict on lesser ones. It's all up to the judge. One mph over the limit is still illegal, even though you'd have to get a dick judge to get convicted of it, you can.

It doesn't help that you said you were going 78, because now if the officer shows up in court (which they usually do, it's a day of paid vacation essentially), you admitted the speed you were going and now can't feign ignorance or mechanical calibration problems, because you said you were going the speed that you were cited for.

My advice, pay the stupid ticket and don't speed if you can't afford to get caught speeding.

 

Thanks for splitting hairs, lol

 

i just got a window tint ticket myself... just pay the fine, at least thats what im doing, car is too secksy with it

 

amen.

 

I am not trying to blame my friend for any of this, I know its my fault it happened. I actually volunteered to take him back too(i was only supposed to pick him up), after i got the ticket, in a pretty bad snow storm too. all I was saying was that I am noticing a pattern here. I already took the tint off, since its really no big deal, I'm taking it in tomorrow to get inspected and that part of the ticket over with.