Speeding Ticket While Following A Friend

[Evergreen1]

In west Washington state, I was following a friend from a distance and my friend got pulled over by a cop saying he was detected at 60mile in a 50mile zone. I just pulled onto a side path to wait for them then the cop decided to give me also a ticket citing as "following" after he asked whether I am with my friend. Honestly I wasn't paying close attention to the odor meter so I didn't know at what exact speed I was droving at the particular time.

The cop insisted he clocked my speed upon my inquiry and checked the SMD box on the ticket. The fine was $101.00. As this is the first ticket i have ever got (I consider myself a safe driver), I didn't know what to say. But after giving some thoughts I feel this officer is probably taking me as a low hanging fruit and wanted to trick me in. Am I wrong that his radar detector has no way to actually clock my speed (the cop was driving from opposite direction)? Can he still check SMD even though he didn't have direct evidence?

Another interesting thing is, he wrote down "60+" on my ticket even though he said he clocked my friends' speed at 61, saying he is giving me a "break", in a very nice tone. That really gave me a bad taste in mouth and made me feel he was trying to trick me in.

Do I have a case to contest myself?

[Mr. Knowitall]

What do you mean by "citing as 'following'" - he made a note on the ticket? What was the offense cited (statute or ordinance number - and if an ordinance, identify the locality.)

[Evergreen1]

Statute code was "46.61.400 speed", with a note as "following".

[cdwjava]

I'm thinking that "following" was refering to the officer's method of obtaining the speed ... by "following" you. In other words, it would seem he paced you.

And, what is "SMD"? (Must be a WA thing ...)

EDIT: Okay ... found a link to Speed Measuring Device ... I still think he paced you.

- Carl

[Evergreen1]

Yes, SMD (Speed Measure Device) is a WA thing. My understanding is, they only check this box if they detected the speed through such a device (speed measure device). The cop was driving from opposite direction. Supposedly he clocked my friend's speed with radar detector only, but he insisted that I am driving at same speed since I am "following" my friends' car at same pace. The fact is, although I am trying to keep up with my friend, we were not always driving at the exact same speed, and that location is at a very short 50mile zone on a 60mile high way. And there isn't an open view (or we will at least see the cop car a lot earlier) for the cop to really confirm that I am driving at the same speed.

The point here is, he was issuing me a ticket based on his assumption, and checked SMD even though he didn't really clock my speed.

Thanks