My speedometer says I wasn’t speeding, but I got a ticket
“But officer, my speedometer says I was only going 50 km/h. I’m sure I wasn’t speeding!”
You plead with the officer, but receive a speeding ticket anyways even though you were sure, absolutely certain, that you were not breaking the law.
So how do you know whether the officerâs reading of your speed was different? Was their reading more accurate? More importantly, how does the court determine who to believe? Was your reading of the speedometer more accurate, or was the officerâs?
How officers determine your speed
First, the onus is on the prosecution to prove that you were in fact speeding. This can depend on how the officer determined you were going too fast. Was the officer using a recently calibrated radar device they were trained to use? If not, was the officer merely âpacingâ your vehicle by remaining a certain distance behind you, and checking their own carâs speedometer? Perhaps the officer purely relied on a visual estimation and did not have a record apart from their own observation of your car.
Often in court, officers will provide evidence as to exactly how they determined you were over the speed limit. Radar and laser instruments should be tested for calibration each day and are accepted by the courts as very reliable devices. Speedometers built-in to the officerâs vehicles are also considered reliable. That is, unless the defendant were to cast some doubt as to just how accurate the officerâs equipment was.
In most cases, officers will have a tag or sticker located within their vehicle stating the date that their cruiserâs speedometer was last calibrated. This step of calibration helps provide credibility to the officerâs evidence. So if the officerâs speedometer was calibrated recently, and thereâs no conflicting evidence suggesting it wasnât as accurate as it could be, the court tends to accept the officerâs speedometer reading.
How can I use my speedometer reading to dispute a speeding ticket?
The courts have established that an officerâs speedometer reading is accepted as evidence as long as there is no conflicting evidence challenging it. In most cases, the officer is not required to prove their equipment was accurate. But what you can do is demonstrate to the court that perhaps their equipment was not accurate. That your reading of the speedometer was more accurate. Often, the best way to do this is to have your speedometer calibrated by a qualified professional, followed by a certificate from that professional that verifies the accuracy of your speedometer. Of course, youâll also have to prove you were monitoring your speedometer at the time of the alleged offence.
In one speeding ticket dispute, a judge laid out plain advice on how to do this:
â…basically the simplest way I can put it is if you were going 51 miles an hour in a 50 mile zone, and your speedometer was showing 40 miles an hour and you were taking somebody dying to the hospital, youâd be guilty of speeding. So the only defence to a speeding charge is if you werenât speeding and if youâre going by way of your speedometer, that you have some way of knowing your speedometer was right.â
Great advice. But how do I know my speedometer was right?
âOne thing I might say is that if you run into the situation again where you donât feel you were speeding, what you should do is calibrate your speedometer, bring in the certificate with you and testify that you looked at your speedometer and thatâs what it said.â
Itâs far from a guaranteed defence, but if youâre able to prove your speedometer was accurate, then your evidence may put into question the accuracy of the officerâs speedometer. In some cases, it can be more than a year since an officer last had their speedometer calibrated. To the court, it wonât be clear just how accurate the officerâs equipment was, especially if you can prove that you may have more accurate readings.
What about GPS devices? Donât those also measure speed?
The courts have also accepted evidence from Global Positioning Systems in speeding disputes. The principles are the same, in that if youâre relying on a GPS reading as your defence, you will have to demonstrate that your GPS system is accurately displaying your location and speed at the time of the alleged offence.
Itâs happened before. In one dispute, a speed camera caught and photographed a truck as it passed an area where road workers were near. The alleged traffic violation was that the truck driver was traveling too fast in an area where road workers were present. The defendant, however, introduced GPS evidence that showed the truck was actually âfully stoppedâ at the location where the road workers were. Even though the speed cameraâs reading of the truckâs speed was correct, it was the wrong location â thanks to the GPS.
An officerâs equipment is going to be better calibrated in many cases compared to the average road user. That, along with an officerâs experience in determining speed, makes a defence relying on your own vehicleâs speedometer difficult. But in cases where youâre absolutely certain you knew how fast you were going, it might be something to work with.
If youâve got a speeding ticket, give us a call and we can discuss your options. It never hurts to dispute a traffic ticket.