Negligent Driving Second Degree for Speeding

My question involves a careless driving ticket from the State of: WA

I was driving in the left lane, going westbound on wa-512 in our company vehicle. It was around 2:30 am. The passenger in my vehicle was my coworker. We were having a discussion about what CD to put in the radio.

I see a car in the right lane pull off to the side of the road and come to a complete stop. As I pass the vehicle I notice it’s a patrol car. It proceeds to follow me. I notice I am going 69 so I proceed to slow down. At this point I get over to the right lane and the cop proceeds to put on his lights and pull me over.

I pull over immediately and the officer comes up to the passenger side door asking for license, registration and proof of insurance. I hand him everything explaining it’s a company vehicle. He asks if I know how fast I was going and I explain “I was going a little fast officer; I think I was going around 70 when you pulled me over”. The officer sternly replies “70? Try 90. You are lucky I don't take you to jail right now.”

I was taken aback by this information as it is company policy to avoid going above 75 in the vans due to safety concerns. I took half a second to think about whether I could have physically been going 90, perhaps during our discussion over what music we should put in the CD player. I tried to wrap my head around it and couldn’t make sense of it. “90?” I asked. “I don’t think that’s possible officer.”

The officer replied “I was going 75, and I saw you pass by a ton of people (this was 2:30AM btw) coming up here. Our radars are very accurate, they can track people while we are moving, stopped, from all directions, etc”. At this point I could see he wasn’t really open to hearing any explanation as to why my coworker and I couldn’t have possibly been going as fast as he had said we had been going. It seemed to the both of us that he was on a mission to give out a ticket, and that the ticket was going to be an expensive one.

“Have you had a few drinks tonight” the officer asked me. I pondered to myself, “Is this just something all officers ask everyone they stop, or was he pre-judging me based on how fast he believes me to have been driving at such a late hour?” I replied “No. It would be really stupid for me to drink on the job, wouldn’t it?” and he replied “Yes, it would”.

The officer returned to his vehicle for 3-5 minutes to process the paperwork. He brought the citation to me explaining I was being cited for “Negligent driving”.

I proceeded to ask a few questions pertaining to what “Negligent driving” entailed only to receive an explanation that, due to weather and road conditions of ice on the pavement, combined with the fact that even though nobody is on the road at night, I can’t be driving fast. This was a sunny, nice day by the way. No patches of ice where I was... However, now wasn’t really the time and place to do research, I figured.

I asked the officer if he could go easier on us, explaining we were just trying to be punctual for our appointments at work, not alluding to the fact that I wasn’t doing the speed he claimed. His reply was “This is the consequence for your actions.”



-----------------


A COUPLE OF QUESTIONS:

There is NOTHING marked on the ticket in terms of SMD/Pace/etc or VEH SPEED / IN A / ZONE ---- Does this mean the Officer doesn't have any ACTUAL proof that I was speeding?

Also, the definition of negligent driving is very "grey" in my opinion.

"the failure to exercise ordinary care, and is the doing of some act that a reasonably careful person would not do under the same or similar circumstances or the failure to do something that a reasonably careful person would do under the same or similar circumstance"

What does this actually mean? What was I doing that was negligent? As far as I could tell, I may have been speeding a little bit, but nothing close to what the officer said I was doing. In addition to this, he doesn't have any proof on the ticket...

In my discovery request, should I ask for information detailing the calibration and certification log for the SMD used, or avoid it since it's not on the ticket? He SAID verbally that he used it there's just nothing on the ticket to prove that he did, so I imagine this could come down to a "he said she said" sort of thing which I would love to avoid.

DO I HAVE A CHANCE AT BEATING THIS TICKET?

I am requesting a CONTESTED HEARING immediately and I don't know what I should do for the next step.

I've printed off the discovery request forms that Barry put up (thank you) and I have been reading similar stories for the past few days trying to get a sense of what to expect. This forum has SO MUCH great information! Thanks guys.

If the officer didn't indicate that he measured your speed with a speed measuring device, odds are he estimated your speed. He may well end up testifying that his estimate was aided by his own speedometer and the fact that he had measured the speed of one or more of the vehicles you were passing, but I can only guess as to what his eventual testimony might be.

Failure to exercise due care can be by act or omission.

Post the discovery docs & we'll have more information for you --plenty of good WA ticket resources here