My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: CA
This is my first post here, so please forgive me if I'm making any obvious mistakes.
I'm in my forties, and prior to 2012 I had only had one moving violation in my life (speeding ticket over ten years ago). Never had an accident. Late last year I got a speeding ticket in Mono County, California. I paid it and completed traffic school a few days ago. On Friday night I was driving on the same road for the second time ever, paying attention to all posted signs because I didn't want to get another ticket. It was very dark (no moon), sub-zero temperatures, and quite a bit of snow on the ground. Clear skies, no wind. Quite a bit of traffic because it was the beginning of a long weekend. Many trucks on the road.
I was driving southbound on a stretch of US 395 where the default speed limit is 65. As I approached the town of Bridgeport, CA, I saw a sign for 55 and shortly after one for 45, so I slowed down accordingly. As I was leaving town I saw the lights of a police officer behind me, so I pulled over. The officer said that I was over the speed limit, which was a complete surprise to me. He also said that I appeared to have slammed on the brakes when I saw him, which was not true; I was completely unaware of him until he lit up behind me. He pulled me over between a 45 and a 55 sign leaving town.
It turns out there is a stretch of 1/2 mile where the speed limit is 30. I measured it with my odometer several times on my way back yesterday. There are two signs related to the speed limit coming into town, none in town:
On the half-mile stretch of 30 there are no stop signs or traffic lights, no speed bumps or rumble strips, no flashing lights, etc. The crosswalks are very faint, hard to see at night. The impression I get is that they don't want to slow people down, instead they want people to go over the speed limit so they can issue tickets. The second sign above is not even properly pointed towards the road in my opinion, and it would be really easy to miss (for example if you were driving three seconds behind a truck).
The officer said he clocked me at 44 coming into town (whatever that means for a 1/2 mile town) and when he pulled me over near the 55 sign he said I had sped up to 48. I don't even think I was going that fast, and there were other cars and trucks on the road. Is it possible he got the wrong car? I drive a relatively nice car, if that means anything. He wrote me up for 40 on a 30 zone.
During the same night and on my way back I saw an unusual number of patrol cars looking for people speeding. When I was driving 55 on a 55 zone earlier that night a car tailgated me for a while, then passed me brusquely over a double yellow line and tailed the car in front of me. I saw it was a police SUV. It seemed like it was trying to get the car ahead to speed. After a minute or so the car hadn't accelerated, and the police SUV made an unsignaled u-turn and went back on its way.
I really want to fight this ticket on a matter of principle. I try really hard to keep a clean record, and I'm afraid of getting a speeding ticket every time I drive on that road (I'm 2 for 2 in two months). The problem is I don't want to have to show up in court at Mono County during a weekday. What can I do? I'm willing to spend some money on this.
Thanks in advance.



