OHTA.ca

So background, I have been driving basically every day for over 6 years and had never gotten into an accident or been pulled over prior to this.

It’s my first week driving for work, and I don’t live in the area where I work so I’m unfamiliar with the roads and speed limits and what not. I ended up going down a parkway which is owned by the National Capital Commission (Ottawa) and therefore policed by RCMP. The speed limit on here was 60 (posted so no real excuse) and I was going 87 because I thought it was an 80 zone (it’s a long straight road with no intersections and 2 lanes of traffic each way that are separated by a median, how is it a 60?!)

As I drove down the parkway, I passed a car that had been pulled over, and saw a police officer parked on the grass further up ahead. Thinking I was going basically the speed limit, I hardly even slowed down, and sure enough he pulled out and pulled me over.

Officer asked me what the reason for the speeding was, I said I thought it was an 80 zone.

And that was basically that, $140 ticket and 3 demerit points. He didn’t lower my speed at all on the ticket or give me any advice (this is typical for RCMP).

I also ended up getting a distracted driving ticket 2 hours later, which is in another post on this forum.

So what should I do? The ticket hasn’t been reduced yet, so are my odds of getting it reduced to maybe 15km/h over good? Is radar gun evidence flimsy in court?

Thanks in advance.

otathrowaway wrote: ↑Fri Apr 08, 2022 10:21 pm

So what should I do? The ticket hasn’t been reduced yet, so are my odds of getting it reduced to maybe 15km/h over good? Is radar gun evidence flimsy in court?

The odds of having the ticket reduced are pretty good.

You're only really saving on the fine amount. Insurance is going to treat 27 and 15 the same. They don't care about demerit points. Points are mostly meaningless if you're a fully licensed driver. They expire two years from the date you were charged. They don't even show up on your abstract until you're convicted. If you request a trial, which you're probably going to do, those points may only be on your license for a couple months depending how busy the court is. Don't put too much stock into demerit points unless you plan on being pulled over every couple months.

Officers use a variety of ways to calculate speed. Example, lidar can look like radar but they're two different things. Lots of people make the mistake of assuming the process in their particular situation. If you're going to request a trial anyways, you're going to want to make a disclosure request. At the very least, you'll get a copy of the officers notes. There you will find out how your speed was determined. If a device was used, its make and model will be listed along with other information.

No, it's not flimsy in court.