Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/08/808.asp

12/1/2005

Florida: Inaccurate Lidar Tickets Discovered
A local television station investigates the accuracy of Florida Highway Patrol laser speed gun tickets.

Florida Highway Patrol officers have been issuing inaccurate laser speed gun tickets on the Midpoint Memorial Bridge toll plaza between Coral Ridge and Fort Meyers. After hearing a complaint, WBBH-TV double-checked a day's worth of tickets issued at the same location and discovered a number of tickets were based upon the wrong speed limit. The mistake often added as much as an extra $100 to the cost of the citation.

Roger Parks, a truck driver, was the first to notice the problem after he looked at a ticket he received for doing 44 MPH in a 25 zone. It noted that the officer was 700.6 feet away when he issued the penalty. Parks later measured that 700 feet himself and discovered it would have placed his vehicle in a 35 MPH zone. The error turned a $78 ticket into a $178 ticket. Parks plans to fight.

Another motorist who received an inaccurate ticket didn't have the time to fight. He paid up instead.

Source: NBC2 finds major errors on speeding tickets (WBBH-TV (FL), 11/30/2005)

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