Speeding: the fundamental cause of MFFY

(Matthew Russotto) wrote in
:

> In article >,
> Jim Yanik .> wrote:
>>
>>Interesting that the courts treat radar readouts as accurate,but in
>>reality,the gun's indicated speed is NOT the true speed of the vehicle
>>being measured.
>
> Since cosine error can only cause the radar to read low, it's not
> really important. The charge is the same regardless, and the radar
> reading is still good evidence (ignoring other sources of error,
> anyway -- the biggest being targeting the wrong vehicle) that you're
> doing _at least_ the speed on the readout. If they were trying to
> enforce minimums with radar it would be a different story.
>

Courts seem to take accuracy of evidence into consideration.(usually)
As I noted,having the wrong TIME or date on the ticket is grounds for
dismissal.

Inaccurate evidence should be useless legal evidence.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik-at-kua.net

Scott en Aztlán > wrote in
:

> On 22 Dec 2004 02:11:18 GMT, Jim Yanik .> wrote:
>
>>> Since cosine error can only cause the radar to read low, it's not
>>> really important. The charge is the same regardless, and the radar
>>> reading is still good evidence (ignoring other sources of error,
>>> anyway -- the biggest being targeting the wrong vehicle) that you're
>>> doing _at least_ the speed on the readout. If they were trying to
>>> enforce minimums with radar it would be a different story.
>>
>>Courts seem to take accuracy of evidence into consideration.(usually)
>>As I noted,having the wrong TIME or date on the ticket is grounds for
>>dismissal.
>>
>>Inaccurate evidence should be useless legal evidence.
>
> Almost all radar gun readings are going to have some cosine error -
> the cop would have to be standing in the middle of the road and aim
> completely orthogonally to your car in order to completely eliminate
> it. If the courts refused to accept the reading on the gun as a
> scientifically valid lower bound on the vehicle's speed measurement,
> municipal revenue enhancement activities all over the country would
> grind to a screeching halt.
>

Sounds OK to me.

(the cosine angle could be determined to be acceptable if it were less than
some percentage of the reading,rahter than just be an unknown.)

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik-at-kua.net

Scott en Aztlán > wrote in
:

> On 22 Dec 2004 02:11:18 GMT, Jim Yanik .> wrote:
>
>>> Since cosine error can only cause the radar to read low, it's not
>>> really important. The charge is the same regardless, and the radar
>>> reading is still good evidence (ignoring other sources of error,
>>> anyway -- the biggest being targeting the wrong vehicle) that you're
>>> doing _at least_ the speed on the readout. If they were trying to
>>> enforce minimums with radar it would be a different story.
>>
>>Courts seem to take accuracy of evidence into consideration.(usually)
>>As I noted,having the wrong TIME or date on the ticket is grounds for
>>dismissal.
>>
>>Inaccurate evidence should be useless legal evidence.
>
> Almost all radar gun readings are going to have some cosine error -
> the cop would have to be standing in the middle of the road and aim
> completely orthogonally to your car in order to completely eliminate
> it. If the courts refused to accept the reading on the gun as a
> scientifically valid lower bound on the vehicle's speed measurement,
> municipal revenue enhancement activities all over the country would
> grind to a screeching halt.
>

Sounds OK to me.

(the cosine angle could be determined to be acceptable if it were less than
some percentage of the reading,rahter than just be an unknown.)

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik-at-kua.net