Daily Auto News Supreme Court Ruling Allows Ohio Officers to Guess Your Speed








Daily Auto News

speedlimitsign medium Daily Auto News Supreme Court Ruling Allows Ohio Officers to Guess Your Speed

It may sound like a Carnival game, but this is no joke. According to a recent Supreme Court ruling, police officers in Ohio can now use their own educated guesses to issue speeding tickets. Even more surprising, those guesses will hold up in court.

“You can forget the radar gun, LIDAR or even the archaic pacing method,” marvels Autoblog. “As of right now, officers can merely say that you’re exceeding the posted speed limit and you’ll be stuck with points on your license and a hefty fine to deal with. If that sounds more crooked than a Jersey car salesman, it gets better.”

By that, they mean that police officers in Ohio receive no scientific training on estimating vehicle speeds.

“There’s no timing of cars over fixed distances, no special methods of determining an actual speed, nothing with stopwatches,” explains the Plain Dealer. “There is just a repetition of watching cars go by and guessing speeds, then seeing how the guesses matches up with what the radar says.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling allows an officer’s speed estimate only if the officer is trained by the Ohio Peace Officers Training Academy (or a similar academy) and has experience gauging speeds.

The Plain Dealer adds, “Visually estimating the speed of vehicles is only a small part of a five-hour unit on speed, which also includes lessons on stopping distance, benefits of speed enforcement, types of speed laws, how to track a given vehicle and how to fill out a traffic ticket.”

Top Speed notes that, “Though guesses have been used for quite some time, most courts in Ohio required more than that. Things like radar readings or comparing the speed of the suspect to that of the police cruiser were all used.”

However, now it’s truly “your word against theirs” in Ohio. Based on the ruling, Ohio drivers and those passing through the Buckeye State might want to take extra care to mind the speed limit from now on.

Or, as Jalopnik simply concludes, “If you live in Ohio and pissed off a cop recently we recommend fixing that.”

If you’re in the market for a new car, check out the U.S. News rankings of this year’s best cars as well as this month’s best car deals.





  • This auto news 0 times viewed.
  • 0 person viewing.
  • This auto news 0 times viewed today.
  • Last 2011-05-12 16:39:11 viewed.
  • Related Search :

    Related with this news Japan Auto Store's other car news

  • Daily Auto News GM Bankruptcy May be Next Up at Supreme Court
  • Daily Auto News Supreme Court Puts Chrysler Bankruptcy Sale on Hold
  • Daily Auto News Chrysler Bankruptcy Headed to Supreme Court
  • Daily Auto News Chrysler Bankruptcy Ends; Supreme Court Clears Sale to Fiat
  • Court ends Renault Zoe row
  • Daily Auto News 789 Chrysler Dealers are Out of Time
  • Auto news; Speed cams double up

  • Yorum yapin

    ?sim (gerekli)

    E-posta (yay?nlanmayacak) (gerekli)

    Site