Georgia Speeding Tickets – How Was Your Speed Determined?

When you get a speeding ticket in Georgia, you may wonder how your precise speed, as noted on the traffic citation, was determined. The various methods include radar, laser, pacing, aircraft, and VASCAR. The 3 out of those 5 that are most commonly used by traffic enforcement officers in Georgia and in most other states are laser, radar, and pacing.

Pacing, the most inaccurate method used to determine at what speed a driver is traveling does not use any sort of device/equipment to track your speed but rather, the officer must maintain an exact distance between your vehicle and his and continuously monitor his speedometer during that time. Also, road conditions and the time of day may affect his measurement of your speed. For obvious reasons pacing is not only difficult to do and do right, but is the easiest to fight because it is a manual method and there is no real proof other than the officer’s word vs. your word.

VASCAR is an older system, short for Visual Average Speed Computer and Recorder it basically uses a  calculator together with a stopwatch. Does this sound like an accurate way to measure a vehicle’s speed? Definitely not though potentially a little better than pacing for determining a moving vehicle’s speed. VASCAR results can be imperfect at short distances and depend on the accuracy of the officer’s odometer as well.

Radar and laser are not the same though both are more accurate methods of tracking a vehicle’s speed. Radar waves measure speed by reflecting off the metal of your car. Thus, though the officer claims it was your vehicle he “clocked” using the radar device, there is a chance that the metal that provided the speed was actually another vehicle, especially if the cars in traffic were traveling close together! Laser measurement to determine speed is more accurate as it targets a specific point and the reading is considered to be technically more “spot on” meaning this type of ticket is more difficult to fight if you are going to present evidence that the officer gave you a ticket for an incorrect speed. Despite the targeting, it is still possible that your speed is not your speed but another car instead. There is the issue of proper calibration of a handheld laser device used by an officer, unless you ask you often don’t know if the device was calibrated prior to clocking your speed, calibration is required prior to use for a more accurate reading.

Contact our Ga Speeding ticket attorneys to find out what can be done about your ticket, we have received reductions for speeding tickets in courts across the state of Georgia.