Virginia Beach Speeding Ticket Defenses

Despite the wide array of excuses people may come up with for exceeding the speed limit in Virginia, under the law there are very few reasons that are actually admissible in court. With this in mind, the following is information on the various myths and misconceptions regarding speeding, and what constitutes a legal defense. To discuss your case and what defense may be applicable, call and schedule a consultation with a Virginia Beach speeding ticket lawyer.

Defenses For Speeding

There aren’t very many good excuses that someone can present in court for exceeding speed limit. In fact, emergency or very extraordinary circumstances are some of the only valid defenses that someone could present as to why they were speeding. However, with that said, there are a lot of mitigating defenses in a typical speeding ticket case such finding out your speedometer was incorrect when you get it calibrated.

Is Going With The Flow of Traffic A Defense

Going with the flow of traffic is not a speeding defense, this is very commonly argued in court by people unrepresented by attorneys and is rarely every successful. The reason it is not a good defense is that most judges are of the opinion that it’s very unlikely that the entire highway is speeding. If the entire highway was speeding, then even so it does not provide an excuse for you to be  also breaking the laws just because everybody else is doing it. That would not have been an adequate defense for any other criminal charge and it definitely isn’t one here.

What is a Speed Trap?

Speed traps are areas where Police Officers patrol more commonly, usually, places where the speed limit drops quickly and the Police Officers will be waiting at that spot to catch people who do not see the speed limit drop. The purpose is to catch people speeding in an area where it is unsafe and where people tend to speed more often than they do in other parts of the city. City Police set up and patrol traps in areas where they have had issues with people speeding.

The majority of tickets are from people speeding on the interstate. However, quite a few are caught in speed traps in Virginia Beach or other cities where the speed limit is 55 and then it drops down to 45 or 35 and they do not realize the speed limit dropped and they just keep going.

Where Are They Located?

Speed traps are not usually on the interstate, but in areas like 58 where the speed limit tends to vary. They are very common in more rural parts of Virginia, and the eastern shore as vehicles go through the town of Eastville and other little towns. The speed limit on the main road there is 55 and it drops to 45 in some places and 35 in other places. Police Officers will be waiting for vehicles in those little towns where the speed limits drop.

Mitigating Circumstances For Speeding

Extraordinary circumstances and emergency situations are going to be mitigating circumstances. However, in order for these to work in court the defendant has to prove that this is the case. Additionally, if the defendant can prove that their speedometer was not properly calibrated it can be a mitigating factor in some circumstances.

How To Tell The Speed Limit If There’s No Sign

If there is no sign then there are default speed limits all over the Commonwealth. This is usually 25 miles per hour in business and rural areas. For unpaved roads it’s 35 miles per hour. On the highway the maximum speed is 70, but the default speed is 55 miles per hour.

The highest speed limit in Virginia for highways is 70 miles per hour. The risk associated with speeding on the highways are a lowered reaction time as well as more general damage caused by collisions due to the higher speeds.