[zulutango]

Originally Posted by Redlines_Daily

I was driving on hwy 1 east bound towards vancouver from North Van. I passed through the tunnel after the bridge. As I was coming out of the tunnel I noticed a police car parked at the exit facing the same direction as traffic flow. I passed him doing around 90km/hr(possibly 100, Im not exactly sure). He pulled me over came up to my window and told me I would be losing my car for 7 days for traveling at 143km/hr. I told him I was not traveling that fast and I asked to see the radar. He told me I cannot see the radar because he did not get a lock on me. I asked him how he radared me when he wasnt in the tunnel and could not see the tunnel from where his car was sitting. He told me the radar shot backwards from his car into the tunnel, hit the fastest object and came back. He knew it was me because he could hear my car and was watching me in his rear view mirror. He later told me that he radared me at 111km/hr as I passed him. The ticket he gave me is for $485 and is cited as excessive speeding. He also impounded my car for 7 days. I believe the speed limit through the tunnel is 70km/hr.

I am wanting to dispute this ticket as I don't believe he has radar evidence of my speed. I am willing to accept a lesser charge of speeding at 20km/hr over(the speed I believe I was traveling at) or IF he does have a radar read out of me at 111km/hr, then I will accept that charge as well.

If I ask to see the radar, does the officer have an obligation to show me the read out? Also, is he correct in his statement that he can shoot the radar backwards into the tunnel without visual confirmation and without a lock on the target vehicle? It sounds a bit fishy to me..

Also, I don't know if I believe he even clocked me at 111km/hr..it sounds like he made that number up so I would be in the 40km/hr+ range to give him reason to impound my car..and he refused to show me the radar as evidence.

Any help or advice on this matter would be much appreciated. Thank you,

-J

You have asked specific questions that would require me to have been there at the time to be able to answer them but I can answer some of them in a general way.

There is no legal obligation to show you the reading and as you told us, the reading was not there anymore as it was released as part of the tracking history. There is also the concern for officer safety and for you as you walk around the cars at roadside.

He can use the rear antenna to get readings behind the PC and he would have to have some way to confirm it was your vehicle that displayed the speed. As part of his "hearing your car", he could also mean that the doppler audio shift (the sound of the beam targeting your car) matched his readings. He will have to convince the JP that it was your car. Traffic is flowing one way and you emerged into his radar beam, he has to prove it was you and not another car. Watching you in his rear view mirror would be one way.

I don't know the speed limit there but I believe that you admitted to speeding at least 20-30 over the limit, but you are not even sure yourself. You may have been going faster, braked when you saw the Cop car and then looked at your lower speed on the speedo. Happens all the time. It would be stupid and career-ending for him to enter false testimony in court just to write a speeding ticket. He doesn't get Air Miles for each one he writes.