Guesstimate is good enough. Now pay.

[toocrazy2yoo]

Coming soon to a traffic court near YOU:

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio's highest court has ruled that a person may be convicted of speeding purely if it looked to a police officer that the motorist was going too fast.
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that an officer's visual estimation of speed is enough to support a conviction if the officer is trained, certified by a training academy, and experienced in watching for speeders. The court's 5-1 decision says independent verification of a driver's speed is not necessary.
The court upheld a lower court's ruling against a driver who challenged a speeding conviction that had been based on testimony from police officer in Copley, 25 miles south of Cleveland. The officer said it appeared to him that the man was driving too fast.
___
June 02, 2010 01:54 PM EDT
Copyright 2010, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[hqp921]

Hmm... no one would ever abuse that power, right?

- HP

[sveesix]

what happens when the officer does not appear in court?

[Slyder]

Think I'll move to Ohio next. Sounds like a wonderful place to live.

[Punjistick]

Geeze...I knew this country was broke but I didn't think it was that bad. Luckily they passed this purely for safety reasons I'm sure.

I suppose this ruling doesn't really even matter as some (notice how I didn't say all) officers are already willing to lie in front of a judge already. I had a state trooper on the stand admit that the sun was in his eyes when shooting radar but immediately retract his story to say that a 'stand of trees was present' between the officer and the highway which 'blocked the sun yet not the radar' when in fact there were no such trees present. I can only imagine how this law will be abused.

[e30addict]

Fuck me. That sucks. What if the kick stand is down and people are posing. Your bike looks like it's going 70. Here's a ticket. Kaching.

[RandyO]

Estimating speed is and has been an accepted in many states, here in NH they do it all the time

some hotshot lawyer thought he could get the courts to rewrite legislative law and lost, what's new ?

they did not determine that the cops word is prima facie evidense, as a witness you still get to confront him and impeach his credibility

[e30addict]

as a witness you still get to confront him and impeach his credibility

I'm sorry, but hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Good luck with that. Traffic court is is like playing the lottery; sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

[Omahastylin16]

an officers estimate of your speed has been used as evidence for as long as i can remember....soooo what else is new?

[SP GSX-R]

[Cid369]

Like the other night, a cop pulled me over and said that I was speeding cuz I shifted 2 gears. I was like. Lucky he didn't ticket me tho.

[RandyO]

I'm sorry, but hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Good luck with that. Traffic court is is like playing the lottery; sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

something that works every time (unless yer a regular speeder known to the cops)

one of the questions the procecuter always posed to the cop is "can you identify the person you saw commit the violation?" and they always point at whoever is sitting in the defendents chair

under cross examination, ask the cop if he recognised you, or just "pointed to the person sitting at the defendents seat"

the next sound you usualy hear will be studdering