Speedometer Calibration - How Your Broken Speedometer Can Help With Speeding Tickets

There are times that you don't even expect it and you get pulled over. You can't think about why you were pulled over and find that you are speeding. You see how fast you are accused of going and it doesn't make sense according to your speedometer.

Very well your speedometer could be uncalibrated giving off the wrong speed. You may have been driving too fast for quite some time unaware.

There is a simple speedometer test that you can do yourself. Find an area with mile markers and drive for 5 miles going 60 miles an hour according to the speedometer. If it took you less than 5 minutes than you speedometer is showing a much lower speed than you actually are going.

From here it's important to get a speedometer calibration at an auto shop. Once the speedometer is fixed get a certificate or form from the auto shop showing that your speedometer was indeed broken. It needs to be something somewhat credible as opposed to a scribbled note.

Go to court and show this to the judge showing that you were not intentionally speeding as your equipment wasn't fully operational.

Two things will normally happen. You may get a lower ticket for your speedometer being broken having the other ticket thrown out. You may also get the ticket reduced to a much lower offense. You could even be lucky enough to have the ticket thrown out entirely.

If you find your speedometer was accurate, there are other ways of fighting the speeding ticket in court.

Basic Speed Law Defense - Beating a Speeding Ticket by Knowing What You Are Charged With

Even though we refer to them as speeding tickets, there are actually a variety of speeding tickets, violations, and citations that exist. One of these is known as basic speed law. This is quite a bit different than speeding as in breaking the speed limit. Basic speed law means that you are driving in a way that is deemed unsafe for the conditions of the road as it might be unsafe for other drivers. Under the tenants of basic speed law, you could be going faster than the posted speed limit but still be within the bounds of the law in jurisdictions that accept this as a practice.

When you get your speeding ticket, it's important to know what type of ticket you have received. This is where you can start building your defense. You have to know what parts of your actions are acceptable and what parts the prosecution or officer has to prove to make you be found guilty in court.

If you have got a basic speed law type of ticket, sometimes these may be referred to as safe speed laws, then you need to think back to the initial conditions that you were pulled over in. This would be what kind of traffic is on the road and what the weather conditions are. If the conditions were awful with fog and ice and traffic was congested and you were going much faster than the other cars, you probably don't have much of a case. But if the conditions were clear with good visibility you have much more of a chance of winning.

The defense would be to ask the officer what the weather and traffic conditions were during the time he or she decided to pull you over. If the officer agrees the conditions are much like what you presented, then you have a case. You can argue that under basic speed law you were driving in a safe manor. Having a clean driving record free from other tickets and accidents will help your credibility because it shows that you have a history of safe driving and have been able to determine what is safe.