OHTA.ca

On Thursday August 20th I was travelling from my home in Belle River with my son to go to a Detroit Tigers game for the evening. I left my home in Belle River at 4:45 and drove via EC Row Expressway exiting onto the Dougall avenue exit continuing onto Ouellette avenue with intentions of going to the ball game via the Detroit / Windsor Tunnel.

On this day it was cool, breezy with partially cloudy skies. I would consider traffic to be steady with congested traffic at times going in both directions on Ouellette. I recall this because while stopped at the traffic light at Eugenie and Ouellette I was looking at the gas prices at the Petro Canada station on the Southbound side and thinking Im going to need gas on the way home and the price was cheaper there than what I noticed in Emeryville on the way to Windsor. Now that I would believe would have put me 8 or 9 vehicles behind from the traffic light. When the traffic light was clear we proceeded over the train overpass by continuing to follow traffic in front of me. While cresting the overpass I did notice an unmarked Police Cruiser on the grass on the right side in the Jackson Park shoulder if you will. While passing it I thought that is interesting place to set up and never once did I think I was speeding or going over the speed limit as cars were travelling in front of me and behind me at what appeared to be a safe travelling speed. I continued northbound on Ouellette to the Tecumseh rd. Intersection, where I stopped and observed traffic and turned right onto Tecumseh rd. heading eastbound. I then continued east seeking to turn left onto Goyeau avenue to continue onto the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel. Seeing this intersections has a restrictions and does not allow vehicles to turn left before 6pm. I proceeded to the next street to turn left onto which is Windsor Avenue. I waited to turn right and when safe proceeded down Windsor Avenue. While travelling down this street a Semi truck is coming southbound towards me where I had to veer to the right side of the road and onto the curb to allow him to pass at a safe distance because there was parked cars on the west side of the street making it very tight for both a transport truck and pickup truck to pass safely. While continuing down Windsor avenue approximately 500 meters I noticed a police cruiser was behind me with the emergency lights on. I slowed and immediately tried to get closer to the right side of the road. I then realized he was slowing down too, so I pulled over into a gravel parking lot just south of Sheppard St.

While waiting for the officer and puzzled as to why I was being pulled over I thought I may have turned left when not permitted to do so and I missed the sign. He came to the truck and requested proof of insurance/ownership and my drivers license which I provided. He at this point advised me he was pulling me over for doing 89 in a posted 60 km/h zone (which is ironically 29 over the speed limit ). I advised him I was unaware I was speeding and he took my license and returned to his car. It is not in my nature to dispute this infraction at the vehicle window with the officer. nor be argumentative as things likely will not be better for you. Furthermore I had my 11 year old son in the car with me (who was scared and visibly shaken and wondering why we were being pulled over) who my wife and I teach to respect authority which would include police officers.

I still do not believe I was travelling at a speed of anymore than the posted rate and would be unlikely with the congestion and traffic on Ouellette at this time of day. As well the officer who was on monitoring speeds I believe would agree that traffic at 5:30 is a busy period of time and with a unmarked cruiser would causes plenty more congestion at the point of recognition.

With no other previous convictions in the past years I am requesting the court today to drop the ticket for speeding as I don't believe he targeted the correct vehicle, nor do I believe his radar/laser equipment would have been tested and calibrated to meet the manufacturer's specifications correctly before clocking myself or any other vehicle at this time.

I believe I will be requesting a trial date and disclosure.

In Ontario speeding is an Absolute Liability offense which means either "yes you were speeding" or "no you were not speeding" and there is no defense for giving any reasons WHY you were speeding (other than somebody's life was in danger). So "what appeared to be a safe travelling speed" and "everybody else was going the same speed" and "no other previous convictions" are not a reasons that they will accept.

However you believe that you were not speeding at all, so that is good. If you admit in court to even going 1 km/h over the limit (regardless of reasons) then you will be charged with speeding.

Can you scan copy of ticket and post here (block out personal identifying information) so we can look for fatal errors?

Assuming no fatal errors on the ticket, I would choose the NOT GUILTY option for TRIAL with the Officer present. Once you get your notice of trial, you can then request disclosure (officers notes and any manuals for radar/lidar). Once you get the officers notes, then you can decide whether to proceed further or not. You can post notes here when you get them and we can give advice.

With regards to testing radar, if the officers notes show that he tested the radar (and it passed) both before AND after he wrote your ticket, then when the officer takes the stand and gives that evidence, the court will accept that as proof that it was working correctly. Officer will probably also say that you visually appeared to be speeding. So even if you take the stand and say you were not speeding, this would not be enough to bring reasonable doubt to the officers testimony and you would still be found guilty. If you have another witness that can testify you were not speeding then that is a different story as this could bring reasonable doubt to officer testimony.

But anyways lots of speculation until we see the ticket and the notes.