My question involves a speeding ticket from the State of: Orange County, California
Hi everyone. I seek all your advice and wisdom.
I received a 22350 speeding ticket back in August in Ladera Ranch, CA which is an unincorporated planned community. I am going to court for arraignment next Monday.
I was on O'Neill Drive heading towards Crown Valley Parkway around 9:45AM in the morning. I was the first car in the right lane at a traffic light (at Cecil Pasture) of 2 lane road (4 lanes total with a median in between). There were cars next to me and behind me. When the light turned green, I shot ahead in order to pass the car on the left and change lanes. I went approximately 0.3 miles before coming to a complete stop behind other cars that were waiting at the next traffic light to turn left. The car which was behind me at the last traffic light pulled up behind me and stopped. Moments later, the chp patrol car arrived and had to wait for cars to move forward so that he could get behind me and turn on his lights.
He said he paced me going 58mph in a 45mph zone ("22340 v.c. Exceed 45 MPH Posted Limit")
The conditions at that time were the following:
Visibility was clear - bright
Traffic was light
The roads were dry
It is a four lane road with a large median dividing it in half with trees
There are no driveways
The Chp ticket does not include the officer's details of the conditions at that time.
If I was first off at the traffic light, and there were cars beside me and cars behind me and the distance is 0.3 miles to where I stopped - I am trying to figure out how he managed to pace me in such a short distance if everyone else was going the speed limit. Like I said before, the car behind me at the traffic light pulled up behind me before the police car arrived and he was definitely going slower than I was. I believe that the officer said he paced me at 58mph but I wonder whether that speed was him trying to catch up to me or not.
edit: the speed survey turns out to be on the other side of Crown Valley and not on the side I was on. I am trying to get the right speed survey but I recall the Public Works person saying they did not have a survey on file for the other side (I am hoping this is the case).
On the ticket, the officer placed the location of the violation: N/B O'Neill @ Roanoke, #1LN. Please see this google map of the location and the distance to where I stopped. The distance is 0.2miles. That would mean he would have to 0.1miles to pace from the traffic light with other cars infront of him. Take a look at the cool google photos. Even though google maps says it takes 47 seconds, I can assure that it much quicker even when driving @45mph.
Sorry this is a long post, I was trying to be as detailed as possible.
I would pay the ticket but my wife and I are expecting our first baby in December and we could sure use the funds to go to buying baby stuff instead.
Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you all in advance.

