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Speeding Infraction in South Carolina

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Comcastlu

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? FL/MD

Around March 10/11 i was driving home from Florida to Maryland, while i was in South Carolina i was pulled over by a trooper. It was early in the morning 5-6am. He was very worked up and highly Irate, he had somehow convinced himself that i was purposely messing with him somehow, he did not clarify. When i said i wasnt and i didnt really understand what he was getting at he got more aggrevated and told me to stop lieing because he knew i was doing it. I personally had been driving for 7 almost 8 hours and had about another 4-5 hours of driving ahead of me so i was just kinda focused on what was ahead of me and not going stir crazy.

He asked me for my License and Reg, I gave him both. He said that he had clocked me on his rear car speed gun at 83 mph and the posted speed limit was 70 mph. Now i will admit that i was at least doing 80 as i had my cruise control set to around 80, its not an exact science with those white mph lines so i could even concede 83 as i he may have caught me changing lanes as well. He claims that he then paced me for a couple miles and that i was really doing at least 86 mph according to him pacing me. He dissapears and comes back and issues me a speeding violation for 180 dollars, while i am reading the ticket he just walked away. Before I even got the chance to ask him why he had ticketed me at doing 86 in a 70 instead of 83 in a 70.

My major questions are these. Is pacing a legally verifiable form of documentation for issueing a speeding violation in SC? I know in MD it does not hold up in court they are asked to produce the speed gun logs, a troopers word that someone was Doing "X" mphs no longer flies. Also is SC like MD where the fine and punishment for 15+ over the posted speed limit is more grave than 10-15 or even 1-10 mph over the posted speed limit? I do not intend on paying this ticket and pleading guilty as i know i was not going 86 mph. Is there anyway to have this taken care of where i dont have to drive all the way back to South Carolina, spend gas, and accomidations, and wasted time, on top of attorney fees? Do i have a valid gripe that he bumped the speed infraction to 86 from his quoted 83 gun reading? My court date is mid April is there anyway to push it back or postpone it so i can aquire adequate council as i am a little strapped for cash at the moment, and wont have proper funds till early may.
 


Comcastlu

Junior Member
The 86 vs 83 is purely based on the fines and punishment, from reading the law violations articles for SC it said that there was a difference.

In MD their guns do something like print out a reading or Log the reading on the in cruiser computers, all cruisers have laptops in MD, and they usually document the reading number on a given ticket. I will have to get exacts on that from my trooper friends. I know they get some sort of documentation evertime they pull the trigger. Maybe every state doesnt have this but i have seen people have their cases thrown out purely on the fact that years ago some police officers said "Your honor i was driving next to him or X amount of cars behind him for X miles and im a positive it was 75/80/85/90 mph" Maybe MD doesnt trust their cops or there was an abuse of it i dunno, i dont get speeding tickets often enough to know or care.
 

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