Police don’t have to witness speeding to issue a speeding ticket, as woman discovere

Should the cop have issued a speeding ticket here?

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Steely Dan

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http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/oddnews...ng-ticket--as-woman-discovered-235230099.html

Police don’t have to witness speeding to issue a speeding ticket, as woman discovered
By Charlene Sakoda February 10, 2014 6:52 PM Odd News

A woman whose car landed in a snowbank as she was exiting a Michigan freeway was slapped with a speeding ticket by a police officer that didn’t witness the incident and arrived ten minutes after it occurred....

I am probably going to be on the unpopular side of this, but I agree with the cop. She was obviously driving too fast for weather conditions. There's no argument against it. If your car ends up in a snowbank or off the road, you were driving too fast for weather conditions. JMO
 
If she wasn't speeding she wasn't breaking the law, but if she were going to fast for conditions, that's wreckless driving IMO.
 
A ticket is really just a charge or accusation. You can always hire an attorney and go to court and argue a defense case against it, people get out of tickets via attornys all the time. So, the fact that the officer didn't witness her speeding would be part of her attorney's defense. But other posters are probably correct that skidding into the snow bank is evidence that she was driving too fast for the conditions, regardless of the posted speed limit.

Just realize that being issued a ticket does not equal a conviction.
 
It's the same as an accident report. If the police find you at fault, you get a ticket... even if they didn't witness the accident themselves.
 
It really depends on the circumstances. Just sliding off the road in icy conditions doesn't mean someone was traveling too fast. Going any speed on ice is hazardous. I've slid off the road on an expressway a couple of times.

The first time, I noticed cars were going slow when I entered the expressway, so I didn't drive over 30 mph. As I approached an on-ramp, a semi was entering the expressway and I didn't want to be in the way, so I got into the left-hand lane. I suddenly hit some ice but was keeping my car under control until the semi started passing me. My car was getting sucked into the semi, so I started steering away from it. That's when I started fishtailing, my car hit the dividing wall and spun around 180*°.

The second time, conditions didn't appear that bad when I got on the highway so I gradually sped up to 5-10 mph below the posted speed limit (of 50 mph). But, cars started whizzing past me. Some were driving too close to my lane because they were trying to avoid the ice and snow on the left-hand shoulder, so I moved farther to the right and hit a patch of ice. Again, my car spun around and hit something (a guard rail, maybe).

I wasn't cited either time. I'm glad police are cracking down on drivers that ignore weather conditions, but in my case I slid off the road because vehicles around me were traveling too fast. How do we know that wasn't the case with this woman? What if she didn't intend to exit the freeway, but was forced off by another vehicle that was going too fast?
 
Indy Anna said:
It really depends on the circumstances. Just sliding off the road in icy conditions doesn't mean someone was traveling too fast. Going any speed on ice is hazardous. I've slid off the road on an expressway a couple of times.

The first time, I noticed cars were going slow when I entered the expressway, so I didn't drive over 30 mph. As I approached an on-ramp, a semi was entering the expressway and I didn't want to be in the way, so I got into the left-hand lane. I suddenly hit some ice but was keeping my car under control until the semi started passing me. My car was getting sucked into the semi, so I started steering away from it. That's when I started fishtailing, my car hit the dividing wall and spun around 180*°.

The second time, conditions didn't appear that bad when I got on the highway so I gradually sped up to 5-10 mph below the posted speed limit (of 50 mph). But, cars started whizzing past me. Some were driving too close to my lane because they were trying to avoid the ice and snow on the left-hand shoulder, so I moved farther to the right and hit a patch of ice. Again, my car spun around and hit something (a guard rail, maybe).

I wasn't cited either time. I'm glad police are cracking down on drivers that ignore weather conditions, but in my case I slid off the road because vehicles around me were traveling too fast. How do we know that wasn't the case with this woman? What if she didn't intend to exit the freeway, but was forced off by another vehicle that was going too fast?
Click to expand...

The woman in the OP's car ended up on it's side not just in a ditch.
 
That is a crash of sorts. If I get hit in the rear, LE can assume somebody was following too closely. He didn't have to see the car hit me. Not sure why this is different. I guess the officer could see that had she been driving normally, she wouldn't have slid so far.
 
I thought legally they needed proof of speeding - so that even if a policeman sees someone going too fast, if they don't have a radar gun, or a speed camera, they can't prove it.

Dangerous driving on the otherhand could stick.

Unless that's different in the UK?
 
She told The Detroit News, “I ended up sideways, and the way I was sitting, I was afraid I’d get hit by other cars, so I called 911 and told them I wasn’t hurt, but that my car was in a dangerous position.”
Click to expand...
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/oddnews/police-don-t-have-to-witness-speeding-to-issue-a-speeding-ticket--as-woman-discovered-235230099.html

My understanding is that the woman ended up sideways, probably with one end of the vehicle sticking out into the path of traffic which is why she felt her car was in a dangerous position. The video shows a white van/SUV on its side, but Matthys drives a red Chevy SUV which was also shown in the video.

How did the officer know that 1,000 vehicles went over the same spot in the road without incident if he wasn't there? Some spots (usually intersections) become icy after several cars drive over them or are stopped at an intersection for a while, melting the snow, and then the melted snow freezes when no traffic pass over those spots for a length of time. Also, other vehicles may have slid off the road in the same spot as Matthys but missed the snowbank and were able to get back onto the ramp. After my car spun off the expressway when the semi passed me and I hit the dividing wall, two other vehicles slid off the road behind me as LE was talking to me. But, the other vehicles didn't hit the wall and were able to proceed on their way.

IMO, there are just too may factors to consider. :moo:
 
A friend of mine was driving home in very thick fog, he was very close to home and knew exactly where he was when he suddenly came up behind some tail lights of a car in front of him. The fog was so thick the tail lights were all he could see of the car, he decided to overtake the car when suddenly he heard wee-oooo wee-oooo and the fog turned blue. Oh dear! it was a cop car. The fog was so thick he could not see the blue lights on top of the car. They charged him with overtaking when unsafe. They felt that if they did not know where they were then he could not possibly have known where he was.
 
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