Can Fairfax Speeding Citations Be Contested?
If you received a Fairfax speeding citation, know that there are ways to contest your violation by examining the method with which your speed was taken. It is important to fully understand how speed reading instruments work in Virginia, as well as how to spot their errors.
A skilled defense attorney could potentially use their knowledge of speed reader accuracy in order to determine whether or not your citation is valid.
Operator Error in Radar Guns
Operator error is much more common than many people may think in the use of radar guns. A lot of this will depend on the officer, where they are placed, how they are using the gun, when it was last calibrated, and many other small details.
Sometimes the officers will know exactly what type of gun they used and how being stationary or in motion may affect its results, but not always. For this reason, it is important to have an attorney who knows to ask these questions to help determine if an error occurred in the reading.
LIDAR Sweeping
In addition to radar guns, officers may also use a LIDAR to determine a car’s speed. This machine is a surveying method that measures distance to a target by illuminating the target with a pulsed laser light and measuring the reflected pulses with a sensor.
However, the exact reflection of the laser beam is crucial in determining one’s speed. This is because if the officer is pointing the LIDAR in an area where there could be reflective surfaces, an attorney could potentially contest the issue and argue that the LIDAR did not accurately capture the vehicle’s speed.
Pacing Issues
Pacing is a method police officers can use to track a car’s speed by traveling behind or beside the vehicle and watching their own speedometer in order to calculate how fast the car was driving. The officer must do this for a certain distance after ensuring that their speedometer is correctly calibrated in order to issue a ticket for speeding or reckless driving.
An experienced lawyer could defend against this method by asking the police officer how long they actually followed the vehicle and whether they used the correct speed reading. The officer often must speed up in order to catch up with another car, and using this reading while the officer is accelerating would constitute an incorrect pacing test.
If you wish to fight against your speeding violation, consider reaching out today for professional representation.