I have a hearing set this Thursday evening for a traffic ticket that I got on July 3rd. Now, I normally don't fight tickets and just go to mitigation hearings to have them reduced, but this one is ridiculous. I would have posted here earlier, if I had found it, but any replies before the hearing would be very helpful!
Now, here's the situation. On that night I had just turned onto a county road where the speed limit is 35. I was behind two pickup trucks. The one in the front was full of tools etc. and was traveling approx. 25 and did not speed up after we came out of the curve into a long straightaway. The truck directly in front of me started to pass the first truck as soon as a passing zone started, and I followed him into the other lane. He was going about 45, and since I could only see that there were no cars coming, and not where the passing lane ended, I matched him. As soon as there was sufficient room in front of the slow-moving truck I moved back into the right lane (still in the passing zone) and immediately started slowing back down to the speed limit. Almost the instant I hit my brakes a cop pulled out from the side of the road and flashed his lights. I pulled over and after explaining the same story he wrote me a ticket for going 49 instead of the 50 he supposedly clocked me at. Now, it's possible that I looked away from the speedometer for a second too long and hit 50 without knowing it, but the cop had been traveling in the same direction in the right lane but about half a mile in front of the slow truck when we started to pass, and when he saw us passing he pulled over to the side of the road and pulled back out behind me. I don't see how he could have clocked me while he was going the same direction in a different lane, and he would have been hard pressed to do so in the few seconds he was pulled over and I was still passing - as I said he pulled out right as I moved back and started slowing down, which was obvious right before I passed him.
When he wrote the ticket he said that my speed was excessive to pass a vehicle going 25, but RCW 46.61.425 states "......A person following a vehicle driving at less than the legal maximum speed and desiring to pass such vehicle may exceed the speed limit, subject to the provisions of RCW 46.61.120.......at only such a speed and for only such a distance as is necessary to complete the pass with a reasonable margin of safety. "
It does not mention a specific speed or number of MPH over the speed limit, and I believed that the speed was necessary to complete the pass within the passing zone.
I also know the driver of the truck who passed in front of me, and there's a chance that he will be able to testify to the same thing I said above. With my statement, and possibly his, do I have a reasonable chance of beating this?
I live in the state of Washington and the RCWs quoted above can be found at http://apps.leg.wa.gov/