Pissed off business owner got 41 speeding tickets
"It is extremely easy to beat this type of ticket in court. Your easiest defense is to simply throw the ticket away. If it does not come with a return receipt that requires a signature, there is no proof that you actually got the ticket."
-Norman G. Fernandez, attorney at law, BikerLawBlog.com, free ebook How to Beat a Speeding Ticket - Photo RADAR
Business owner beats speeding tickets by turning town's traffic enforcement camera technology against them
A Maryland business owner has successfully discredited the camera equipment used by traffic enforcers – ironically by using their own technology against them to prove errors in the system.
Will Foreman, the owner of Eastover Auto Supply in Oxon Hill, Maryland, has managed to prove reasonable doubt five times before three separate judges, by bringing photos snapped on the highway of his company’s vehicles into court and proving that there is no way they were travelling over the speed limit.
But how did he do it?
Foreman took a close look at the photos snapped on Maryland’s Indian Head Highway by Optotraffic. The company’s devices first use sensors to detect vehicles traveling at least 12 miles over the imposed speed limit, and then snap two time-stamped image of the vehicle 50 feet down the road, at 0.363 second intervals.
The allegedly speeding motorist is then sent the pictures and a $40 ticket.
After superimposing the two photographs into one image - using the vehicle’s length as a frame of reference - Foreman was able to calculate the vehicle’s speed, given the distance and the elapsed time of the shots, and was able to prove that the vehicles were not in fact speeding.
‘I’ve never seen this before…You’ve produced an elegant defence and I’m sufficiently doubtful,’ Judge Mark T. O’Brien said in court before throwing the tickets out.
Foreman says that he is waiting to prove the system’s technology wrong on at least 40 more tickets that drivers at his company have received.
‘This whole thing…I can’t wrap my head around it. They’re stealing from the public. It’s highway robbery,’ Foreman said.
‘It p***** me off. I’m trying to run a business…they’re raping the public,’ he added, calling the ticketing of the public for driving the speed limit ‘appalling’.
Forman went straight to the mayor when he spoke in a public forum at a Town of Forest Heights Council meeting in March.
'I explained how I and many others had successfully defended ourselves in court. I tried to emphasize to them that I wasn't complaining because we were ticketed. I was furious because the charges were false,' Foreman said.
According to Foreman, the town's newly elected mayor Jacqueline Goodall said that it was an inappropriate forum to discuss the speed cameras. He said that Goodall told him he 'would call him tomorrow.' Four months later he says he has still not met with her and that she has not returned her calls.
Many have said that they feel that the speed cameras are just a cash cow for local governments.
In Forest Heights, the small town where Foreman’s company received the majority of the speeding tickets, $2.9million is expected to be generated in ticket revenue this fiscal year alone.
Speed cameras are becoming increasingly common across the country. Vendors that sell the devices can receive up to 40 per cent of what motorists pay on each ticket, with the rest of the cash going to local, county and state government.
Optotraffic states that photo enforcement significantly reduces the number of traffic violations and crashes, but maintains that the photos are not meant to be used to capture the actual act of speeding.
‘No one has come to us with a proven error. Their speed is not measured by the photos. The speed is measured before the photos are taken,’ Optotraffic spokesman Mickey Shepherd said.
Judges in Mr Foreman’s cases have sided with him, not believing that the vehicles would have slowed significantly in the 50ft from when the sensor clocks the vehicle and the photo is snapped.
Foreman also said that the brake light would most likely be showing in the photos if that were the case.
"Traffic cops and State Troopers are purely there for the money. I used to be a traffic cop in Panama City, Fl. Traffic tickets pay for the policeman's ball and the Christmas party. The more money we bring in from tickets, the more beer and food at our parties. If anyone tells you that traffic cops don't have a quota, they're lying. I hated the days when I was posted on traffic because if I brought in less than 14 traffic citations daily, I was considered lazy. Traffic tickets have nothing to do with safety and everything to do with increasing revenue for the city. If the law was really concerned with traffic safety, they would revoke the license of anyone caught speeding or running a red light. Removing bad drivers from traffic permanently is much more effective than issuing a traffic citation."
-Dallas, West Palm Beach, FL, 22/4/201
COP.
2. to steal; filch. 3. to buy (narcotics). 4. cop out, a. to avoid one's responsibility, the fulfillment of a promise, etc.; renege; back out. 5. cop a plea, a. to plead guilty or confess in return for receiving a lighter sentence. b. to plead guilty to a lesser charge; plea-bargain.
—Random House Unabridged Dictionary
"Lasercraft is a member of the Public Safety Equipment PSE group of companies. Public Safety Equipment (Intl) Ltd, Registered Office, Yeadon, Leeds, England. Beijing Mag Science & Technology Development Corp, Beijing, China."
http://www.lasercraftinc.com
http://www.pse-intl.com
http://www.maggroup.org
"Redflex Group is based in South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Redflex Holdings Limited was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in January 1997. Redflex Traffic Systems Inc has contracts with more then 130 USA cities, and is the largest provider of digital red light and speed enforcement services in North America."
—Redflex.com
$500,000 Knoxville TN Redflex invoice paid to National Australia Bank
"Your photo radar defense: Ignoring The Letter. When you receive a general post letter advising you of your photo radar citation, you have the option of just ignoring it. All states have guidelines on how the citation must be served. In effect, your payment or appearance at the courthouse is your acceptance of service. By not responding to the letter, you are refusing acceptance of service. In addition, none of the departments are making personal service to anyone that lists a PO Box as their mailing address on their vehicle registrations."
-Lt "Radar" Roy Reyer, Maricopa County Sheriff Office, Phoenix, Arizona, RadarBusters.com, Your Photo Radar Defense
75% of AZ Drivers Refuse to Pay Photo Traffic Tickets
85% of TX Drivers Refuse to Pay Photo Traffic Tickets
Only the DUMB pay traffic camera tickets:
"You've got all these speed cameras here. In L.A. people would say, 'Why don't you just shoot them out?'"
-Jay Leno, BBC Top Gear (crowd cheers wildly)
Knox County TN deputy sheriffs confess to shooting redlight camera
Green Hornet shoots redlight scamera (crowd cheers wildly):
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