“Faulty Cruise Control Causes Out Of Control Acceleration At A Speed Trap”

Cruise control on Dodge Journey went nuts and went into full acceleration and I could not disengage through braking or fumbling with the cruise buttons. You tend to panic a bit in such a situation. Managed to slow vehicle down and pull over with engine locked at full throttle. Put it in park and switched it off. Just my luck a radar cop pulls up behind me, nails me for 86 in a 50, but reduces it to 15 over. That was very kind of him, but I didn't speed, the cruise control went nuts. How can I be held responsible for a component failure? Go to see prosecutor at the courts and show him a recall notice for my car's faulty cruise control but no dice. He offers to leave it at 15 over and drop the fine if I plead guilty. Otherwise, it would go to trial and they "might just bring it back up to 36 over" and hit me with a big fine and demerits, sort of blackmailing me to plead guilty. Being innocent does not stop them from convicting you. My record and Insurance are affected. If I take a chance on getting an honest judge with some empathy I'd be rolling dice. There must be something in traffic law about not holding a driver responsible for component failure on a vehicle.

It’s the driver’s responsibility to ensure that a motor vehicle is fit for the road. This would include dealing with a recall and perhaps not driving it until it’s fixed. Speeding is an absolute liability offence, which means you either were or weren’t speeding. You got a deal with the 15 over. If you’ve never had a ticket, it’s unlikely that a minor offence will increase your insurance rates.

Boghdan wrote: ↑Wed Oct 10, 2018 3:54 pm

There must be something in traffic law about not holding a driver responsible for component failure on a vehicle.

The complete opposite is true.

As Decatur pointed out, the driver is responsible for the vehicle they put out on the road.

Not that it matters for conviction, but during a trial they would ask you questions like "Was the car immediately towed from where you were pulled over?"