Speeding ticket from pacing

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?- Virginia
Greetings all.. I hope someone out there can help. I am delivery driver and was recently pulled by an officer for speeding. This caught me off guard as I was going 49 in a 45. The officer proceeded to tell me I was going 60 in a 45 and wrote me a summons for this. When I asked the officer how he registered my speed he said that he paced me for 3/10 of a mile. I believe that the delivery sign on my car caught his attention and the speed he was reading on his speedometer while "pacing" me was his catch-up speed to pace me -OR- he pulled up my license plate and pulled me due to my license being restricted to working hours only ( due to mistakes a few years back- I've been a good driver since, but feel I've been being harassed by the local law enforcement ever since) and felt the need to write me up for something so he wouldn't look like a fool when everything else was in order on my part. However, I still have a ticket and will be going to court for this matter . Does anyone know if there is a minimal distance for pacing or any other information that I may need to know while defending myself? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

"I believe that the delivery sign on my <A TITLE="Click for more information about car" STYLE="text-decoration: none; border-bottom: medium solid green;" HREF="http://search.targetwords.com/u.search?x=5977|1||||cars|AA1VDw">car</A> caught his attention"


Huh? If i were a cop i would pull you over if you had that gobbly-gook written on your truck.

whoops... don't know how all that crap got in the original post... hope my edit fixed it ... thanks for pointing it out

I have not heard that VA has a minimum pacing distance. if I had to guess, I'd say they don't. However, a quarter mile or more is generally a good idea. And if the officer really wants to, he can do the math and measure the distance, time and speed as he caught up with you and use THAT to estimate your average speed ... it works pretty good.

The officer will have to show that he paced you for a reasonable distance, and you can certainly ask him if the speed was from a pace or when he was catching up to you when you go to court.

However, keep in mind that sometimes the less painful options (such as traffic school) are not available if you contest a citation.

Unless you can say that you were NOT traveling that speed, it might not be a good idea to try and argue the matter. But, its certainly up to you.

Carl