traffic court

[Anni]

Just came back from traffic court here in Indiana. I appealed a speeding ticket, and not only did the judge rule against me, but he raised the fine to a workzone violation. The date of the alleged violation was Labor Day, so I don't believe workzone violations are in effect when there are no workers present. Can I appeal this? How do I do that? Thanks!

 

[cyjeff]

I recommend the services of an attorney.

 

[racer72]

Workers do not need to be present for a construction area to be considered a work zone.

 

[cyjeff]

I will say that workers MAY be there at unusual times... here in Atlanta, it is not unusual for work crews to work weekends and nights because it limits the amount of traffic they have to dodge and the jams that are the normal result.

I will also say that the number of road workers killed annually is a surprisingly high number.

 

[I_Got_Banned]

Workers do not need to be present for a construction area to be considered a work zone.

Moreover, there are many times where highway work is done on a holiday so as to avoid adding to the heavy traffic congestion that is associated with a work day/non-holiday!!!

 

[Maestro64]

You need to check your states laws on the work zone violation, everyone is speculating, some state require worker to be present to have the increase fine and other say fines increase in the work zone no matter if workers are present or not. Some are even more specific that it has to be an active work zone with blinking warning beacons to let you know it is active.

You have to see what your state's law says about this, and if it say it can be anytime as long as it is a posted work zone the judge can change the fine if he feel so inclined. If it is one of the other requirements for a work zone then the state has to prove the zone was active at the time.

However in your present situation you will have to appeal the decision on the grounds the judge miss applied the law and get a new hearing which usually takes a lawyer.

 

[FlyingRon]

The rules are set forth in INDIANA CODE 9-21-5-11.

The rules require that the work zone have signs posted and either that there are workers present in the vicinity OR (and this is the catchall) ", the establishing authority determines that the safety of the traveling public requires enforcement of the worksite speed limit."

So you might be able to argue that if there were in fact no workers around that such a determination has not been made.

The "charge" wasn't ammended. The charge is still speeding. The workzone violation is just an enhancement raising the fine on the underlying speeding charge.