Beat That Speeding Ticket!



This manual in no way or form promotes speeding or other illegal activities.

What is presented here in this manual is a collection of tips and advice from

many sources on what you can do to reduce your chances of getting a ticket

in the event that you accidentally stray over the posted speed limit. Every

situation is unique and what is written here are general guidelines to follow

and may have different results than those experienced by the author or

sources. Always consult the advice of an expert in law when the need arises.





About Speeding





State speed limits

Let's face it, we all exceed the speed limit at one time or another and some of

us practice it as a religion. A recent study found that between 88 percent and

96 percent of motorists exceed the 55 mph posted speed limit on interstate

highways in the states that still have it. Since you are reading this booklet on

speeding tickets you either already have one in hand or you are just trying to

avoid one in the future. This booklet places the emphasis on trying to get out

of the ticket before you even get one since this is the easiest method of

beating one in the first place. I am not a lawyer and I won't go into too much

detail about fighting tickets in court other than just giving you some common

defense tactics that an attorney would argue on your behalf.





Most states immediately changed their interstate rural speed limits from 55

mph to 65 mph after the federal government allowed states to do so in 1987.

The states that still have the 55 mph limit are all concentrated in the northeast

with the exception of one. The states are New York, Connecticut, Maryland,

Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Hawaii. I wonder if

the northeast states keep this speed limit so they don't have to fix all those

damn potholes in the roads which keep the local car repair shops in business.

Pretty much everybody will agree that there should be some type of speed

limit but it would be very hard to get them to agree on what it should be. Here

are some statistics that may be of interest to you:





Police point of view

What you may not hear from states often are the statistics of how many police

officers are killed or injured in the line of duty handing out speeding tickets.

The numbers come from various sources but they indicate that 20% of all

police officers killed in the line of duty are killed while giving out traffic

tickets. Of course there are more reasons to get a ticket other than speeding

but the interstate highways are where most of these accidents occur. There

also is the issue that there is so much more bizarre crime going on than in the

past that catching speeders is a waste of manpower and resources.





Insurance company point of view

The insurance companies have always protested raising the rural speed limits

from 55 mph to 65 mph since it is a huge loss of revenue. Car and Driver

columnist Barry Winfield stated in an article that insurance companies

"benefit from unrealistically low speed limits and the resultant high rate of

speeding infractions." The smokescreen is that more injuries and deaths will

result by raising the speed limit an additional 10 mph causing more claims but

real story is that they can get more dollars from safe drivers. Driving 10 mph

more than you used to does not mean you are less safe, it just means that you

are now legal and the insurance companies do not get to charge you more

money. They often cite the increase in highway injuries and deaths since the

1987 ruling from the federal government but they leave out numbers like the

increasing number of drivers from one year to the next.





Local Speed Limits

If you are traveling 30mph in a 20mph zone you are going 10 mph above the

speed limit and you are going to get a ticket and rightfully so. These areas are

usually heavily congested traffic areas so right off the bat you will be dealing

with some irate small town cop, but even so you may be able to get out of one

of these (See: Getting caught). There is simply no advantage to speeding in

local areas as far as a time savings benefit is concerned. The best place to

speed is on the interstate highways knowing that if you are traveling at the

posted speed limit most people consider you a hazard to public safety and

should immediately be thrown in jail. One can justify the risk of getting a

ticket on an interstate highway but not in a school zone at 3pm on a Friday.





How Fast ?

While you are cruising along the highway pick your desired speed of travel

and stick to it. Using the cruise control if your vehicle is equipped, will help

greatly. By this I mean if the speed limit is posted 55 MPH you can probably

drive up to 65-69 MPH without being noticed on an interstate highway. The

reason I say 69 mph because it is less than 15 miles over the limit and fines

and insurance premiums sky rocket if you get a ticket at or above this limit.

After picking your desired speed you will notice how many people will be

flying by you who you will soon be using as shields. It is important to set

yourself a speed limit that you are comfortable with and since you always

know how fast you are traveling and that will also help you in court if the

need arises.





All police officers on interstate highways have a tolerance of how much you

can exceed the speed limit and not get pulled over. I wish I could give you

that number but there is no exact number to give since it is up to each

individual cop to decide. A cop will most likely have different tolerances

depending on time of day, weather, traffic density and more. A safe tolerance

number is 5 miles an hour over the limit, you will not be ticketed for traveling

60 mph in 55 mph zone or 70 mph in a 65 mph zone. Average tolerance is 10

mph and a tolerance of more than 15 is unheard of. If it is an especially heavy

traffic day a state trooper could not possibly handle all the speeders so he/she

will simply increase their tolerance to adjust for the increased traffic. In the

states where 65 mph is the legal limit I would not recommend any speed over

mph which is a comfortable driving speed and within most tolerances

according to the cops I interviewed. In these states it is not uncommon to be

passed by some idiot doing 90 mph, cellular phone in hand, and if that is you,

you deserve a ticket and this manual won't help you (as much).