The Man Who Successfully Challenged Five Speeding Tickets Using Traffic Photo Timestamps

[JohnyCanuck]

Will Foreman keeps getting nabbed by traffic cameras for speeding. Believing the cameras to be inaccurate, he analyzed the timestamps and the position of his car in each pair of photos, using them to successfully contest five speeding tickets.

According to the Washington Times, the traffic cameras in Prince George's County, MD use a sensor to sniff out speeders, then snap two photos for every infraction. Foreman took those photos and did some analysis of his own:

For each ticket, Mr. Foreman digitally superimposed the two photos - taken 0.363 seconds apart from a stationary point, according to an Optotraffic time stamp - creating a single photo with two images of the vehicle.

Using the vehicle's length as a frame of reference, Mr. Foreman then measured its distance traveled in the elapsed time, allowing him to calculate the vehicle's speed. In every case, he said, the vehicle was not traveling fast enough to get a ticket.

http://gizmodo.com/#!5794614/the-man-who-successfully-challenged-five-speeding-tickets-using-traffic-photo-timestamps

[jimlup]

1. Sometimes it pays to actually do your homework

Rather than assuming that the "authority" is correct.

[Merlot]

3. I fight all tickets on principle

[jimlup]

6. Yeah, so do I

In my data the cop hasn't shown up 2 out of 4 tickets so those were thrown out. 50% is a pretty good return

[BrklynLiberal]

10. yep. Never plead quilty...even once.

Sometimes I get off simply because the issuing officer does not show up...and other times because the police officer made a stupid mistake. I have even gotten towing fees refunded.

[ReggieVeggie]

11. it's too bad you have to fight the same government that your taxes have gone to

especially considereing you did nothing wrong...how much money went into that camera system, officer training, administration?

[buddysmellgood]

2. Cameras should only issue tickets for speeders 10 or more miles above the speed limit.

Those are the dangerous drivers and in those cases there would be no question.

[upi402]

4. Velocity... and recording machines

Love that physics stuff!

[Jakes Progress]

5. Problem is

that the speed detection device reads the speed before the car comes to the cameras. The cameras only provide evidence of which car. They are not part of the speed measurement mechanism.

I'm all for wiping out illegal speed traps, but I don't much care for people who use legal trickery to get red light runners, speeders, and especially drunk drivers out of their justice. The sensors are exact. The camera timing is not specifically set. The camera people have said that the 0.363 is just a close estimate. It is just to get two photos for identification. The amount of fudge factor in a third of a second is quite a bit. The cameras would have to be high quality scientific grade industrially timed devices. They aren't.

The cases were tossed because the judge lacked an understanding of how the devices worked and it all seemed plausible. I would bet that if the city wanted, they could be better prepared for the trial.

This reminds me of the case in my area involving red light cameras. One guy protested loudly and vehemently that the several tickets (12 I think) were impossible, that no one in his family was a bad or reckless driver. When he took it to court, the city had video of the intersection from a nearby security camera. The video clearly showed the man, his wife, and his son cruising through lights as much as 15 seconds after the red light. Some people just never believe they are guilty and some just want to get away with breaking the law because they think they shouldn't be held the same standards as ordinary people. These are called libertarians.

[ddeclue]

7. Actually the manufacturers of radar guns refuse to disclose how they work

under "trade secrets" claims. Same with breathalyzers.

I know a lawyer/engineer friend who got breathalyzers thrown out in several Florida counties because the manufacturers refused to provide engineering schematics and software source for these devices.

In short you have a right to confront the evidence against you in our system of justice.

That means you have a right to know exactly how a detection device works so that you can refute its accuracy or lack thereof.

In the likely absence of other information on how the radar speed trap sensor worked, the pictures provided the only valid evidence of the vehicle speed and indicated it wasn't speeding so the judge threw it out.

You should not get convicted by a Magic-Eight Ball. No black box justice.

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

[Jakes Progress]

8. These devices don't use radar guns.

I know lawyers that defend drunk drivers too. I also know two families with members killed by drunk drivers. So your legal heroes carry no credit with me. Using technicalities and tricks to put a slobbering drunk back on the road is not the most noble thing one can do with a law degree.

I've gotten tickets too. I was speeding. I didn't go all ayn rand, charlton heston on the courts. I was guilty. I paid the fines and don't speed anymore.

The pictures did not "prove" the care wasn't speeding. You do not understand how these things work. The camera was not a precision instrument. Using those two pictures to "prove" something was invalid. The timing between the shots that the legal whiz used for proof was not exact so his equations were off.

I still say that illegal speed traps and profiling are things to be stopped. But just because a lawyer and get it done doesn't mean it is right. If it were then the courts that put george bush in the white house could also be considered right.

[BlueIris]

12. Nice post. nt

[BrklynLiberal]

9. Kudos. Most of those are just money making scams anyway. The red light cameras here in NYC are

anther example of that kind of scam. They shorten the Yellow light so they can catch more people.
Most people just pay the ticket since it does not go on one's license. The city is making a fortune.

[Jakes Progress]

13. Fighting, not the good fight, but the selfish fight.

Going up against "the man" can be a good thing, but here is is all so that some hot foot can get away with endangering lives. Using tricks and confusion to avoid obeying the law is exactly what the courts did when they installed georgie in the WH.

Sometimes the man is oppressing people's rights. Stand up to him. Sometimes the man is trying to keep you from driving drunk, speeding, or running lights. Support him.

Too many times these kinds of shallow victories for personal excess are celebrated when they really just allow people to put other lives in danger.

Don't speed. Don't drink and drive. Don't text or phone and drive. No one is so special that other people's live have to be threatened just so that someone and drive fast or read their e-mail immediately. So many selfish people.