Hi all,
I just received a speeding ticket from a highway patrolman in Guilford County, NC, 73/55 (work zone). I am an out-of-state driver (from South Carolina). There are some oddities about this ticket.
Just a hundred yards or so before the HP car, there were two speed limit signs, one on each side of the road. The sign on the left was for 65 (I was in the middle lane), the sign on the right was for 55 (it was blocked by a semi truck in the far right lane and I didn't see it until I returned to the site). I don't believe that I was going as fast as he clocked me (there was another car passing me at about the same time but the patrolman chose to stop me, I suspect he clocked the wrong car). The officer denied that the 65 MPH sign existed; I returned immediately and took photographs of both signs in their positions. Will this be useful in possibly getting the ticket reduced? I have read elsewhere that 15 MPH + over means a 30-day suspension in NC. Can someone clarify this rule?
The other odd thing is that, on the citation, the officer wrote a court date of Friday, Sept. 9, 2008 (Written on the ticket as Friday, 09/09/08). This seems like an awfully distant date; also, given that Sept. 9 does not fall on Friday in 2008, I can only conclude that the officer intended the date to have been in 2005. Since the citation has been signed now by both parties, can the State simply correct the error, or have they been locked in to a court date that does not exist? Can I use this error to my advantage?
I'm meeting with my attorney tomorrow about this, any help you can give will be appreciated.
I just received a speeding ticket from a highway patrolman in Guilford County, NC, 73/55 (work zone). I am an out-of-state driver (from South Carolina). There are some oddities about this ticket.
Just a hundred yards or so before the HP car, there were two speed limit signs, one on each side of the road. The sign on the left was for 65 (I was in the middle lane), the sign on the right was for 55 (it was blocked by a semi truck in the far right lane and I didn't see it until I returned to the site). I don't believe that I was going as fast as he clocked me (there was another car passing me at about the same time but the patrolman chose to stop me, I suspect he clocked the wrong car). The officer denied that the 65 MPH sign existed; I returned immediately and took photographs of both signs in their positions. Will this be useful in possibly getting the ticket reduced? I have read elsewhere that 15 MPH + over means a 30-day suspension in NC. Can someone clarify this rule?
The other odd thing is that, on the citation, the officer wrote a court date of Friday, Sept. 9, 2008 (Written on the ticket as Friday, 09/09/08). This seems like an awfully distant date; also, given that Sept. 9 does not fall on Friday in 2008, I can only conclude that the officer intended the date to have been in 2005. Since the citation has been signed now by both parties, can the State simply correct the error, or have they been locked in to a court date that does not exist? Can I use this error to my advantage?
I'm meeting with my attorney tomorrow about this, any help you can give will be appreciated.
