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Weird Traffic Ticket Assistance please

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tegguy

Junior Member
Ok so my wife and I got back from our Honeymoon cruise and picked up our rental car in Ft Lauderdale FL. We were given a dark grey 2014 Mazda 5 sedan with Virginia plates on the front and back. We were driving up the turnpike when I noticed a thumping noise coming from the passenger front tire. I pulled over and checked it out and did not notice anything obvious (I work on cars in my spare time). So we got back on the road and at 70 MPH (The speed limit) we noticed it again especially when pressure it put on the right side suspension. I had my wife dial the emergency road side assistance number for the rental company and hand me the phone (Legal in Florida). As we were waiting for someone to answer I pulled over in to the Port St. Lucie service plaza and checked it out again and once again didn't notice anything and the vehicle was not handling weird in any way so we did not feel we were in danger of something breaking or loosing control. The rental company asked if we were able to drive it to a nearby location and swap it out for another one. Since there were no handling issues I didn't feel this was a risk and decided I wouldn't pass 70 MPH for safety and not to hold up traffic and stay in the right lane as much as possible.

Now this is where it gets interesting
As we are leaving the service plaza to merge back onto the turnpike we are #3 in line with a Red Mazda 2 in front of us and a Highway patrol ahead of him. As we get to the Turnpike the Mazda 2 is only doing 45-50 as we begin to merge so I jump into the lane to my right (fast lane) wait about 5 second and then go over one more and accelerate to 70 MPH and pass the Mazda 2. We never got within 4 car lengths of the Highway patrol vehicle.

As we are driving down the road we come upon some traffic doing 60 MPH so I get in the left lane behind a Toyota Tundra pickup who is behind the cop and we are doing 70 MPH. A little ways up the road ~1 mile the left lane has slowed to 65 MPH and there is no traffic in the right lane near us so I got over and sped up to 70 MPH. As I get even with the Toyota truck the cop throws on his lights and jumps into the right lane in front of me and behind a van and slows to 50 MPH. He sits in this lane with his lights on for about 15 seconds and then turns them off and jumps back in the left lane and gets behind us. He then pulls us over and claims we were doing 84 in a 70 MPH and we tried to pass him.

The ticket says he PACE under speed measurement device but then under the comments he wrote "Unlawful speed/ 70 interstate (requires speeds). Passing, outside; approached rear (2x's); 2nd time he he (Not my typo) attempted to pass me; on cell-phone the whole time"

I was on the phone with the emergency road side assistance just incase we broke down prior to our exit and was not distracted in anyway and used a turn signal the entire time.

If I was speeding I'd have no problem admitting it but there is no way I went from 65 to 84 within 4-6 car lengths (Distance from where I was to where he jumped a lane over). Also I was never directly behind him there was either a car between us or he was a lane next to me. Furthermore he didn't say which time the speed was clocked (although i never tried to pass him twice).

Please help me I am not guilty on this one and I believe I can prove this with math given the acceleration capability of the vehicle and distance.

Thank You in advance.
 


TigerD

Senior Member
Get the black box data from the car.

The 2014 Mazda 5s are equipped with an event data recorder. Get the information ASAP from the rental company.

DC
 

tegguy

Junior Member
Get the black box data from the car.

The 2014 Mazda 5s are equipped with an event data recorder. Get the information ASAP from the rental company.

DC
Calling now hope they help....They refereed me to the agency they have that handles tickets. I will try them tomorrow.
 
Last edited:

FlyingRon

Senior Member
How on earth will the EDR be useful. The data that might have helped him was gone 15 seconds after it happened.
 

TigerD

Senior Member
How on earth will the EDR be useful. The data that might have helped him was gone 15 seconds after it happened.
Not necessarily. Rental car companies and some fleets use the EDR collected data for other purposes; maintenance, law violations, up charges ... and others. There is no way to know how the car is equipped and if the rental agency in question is collecting that data without asking -- and hoping they tell the OP.

In a modern car, everything is recordable. The cars really are mostly fly-by-wire.

DC
 

FlyingRon

Senior Member
Not necessarily. Rental car companies and some fleets use the EDR collected data for other purposes; maintenance, law violations, up charges ... and others. There is no way to know how the car is equipped and if the rental agency in question is collecting that data without asking -- and hoping they tell the OP.

In a modern car, everything is recordable. The cars really are mostly fly-by-wire.

DC
Your statement was the Mazda 5 has an EDR. The one that COMES with the car will provide none of that.

If your statement is that there might be another data logger installed by the rental car company, I might agree with that.
 

Dave1952

Senior Member
This service area is between the Florida turnpike. Entrance to the turnpike is from the right so pulling to the right would put him into the passing lane.
I think he is relying on the front end issue to prove that he wasn't driving faster than 70 mph. I doubt that anyone will believe this so he needs to focus on challenging the pacing.
 

tegguy

Junior Member
How is any lane to your right the "fast lane"??? Were you driving on the left shoulder?
Merging lane created a 3 lane road so I jumped one to the right which was the fast lane with one more to my right.

This service area is between the Florida turnpike. Entrance to the turnpike is from the right so pulling to the right would put him into the passing lane.
I think he is relying on the front end issue to prove that he wasn't driving faster than 70 mph. I doubt that anyone will believe this so he needs to focus on challenging the pacing.
I'm not relying on the front end issue to prove anything. I'm relying on the fact that I never passed (was never even within 1.5 car lengths of him nor was I directly behind him until he pulled me over) the officer who was doing 65 (call it 70) and there was not adequate time for him to pace me since there was a vehicle in-between us. If he claims he used PACE for the speed detection and I was trying to pass him the only speed he has for reference is his speed. So unless he was doing 84 MPH and I was trying to pass him (meaning I was doing 90+) he can't definitively say I was doing 84 MPH (Which I was doing no where near).

If traffic would have allowed for 84 MPH to be done why would I only attempt to pass him twice? Why wouldn't I have been able to fully pass him and then he could pace me from behind.
 

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