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Re: Repeal of the National Speed Limit Law
In article <gmandelDAJJn0.FI4@netcom.com> gmandel@netcom.com (Glenn Mandelkern) writes:
>In article <3s9ndl$dq1@news.service.uci.edu>,
>Balaji Ramanathan <raman@ganymede.its.uci.edu> wrote:
>>Hi all,
>> So, the senate has repealed the 55mph law and the house
>>is expected to follow. However, I haven't read anything positive
>>about it in any newspaper. Every newspaper has paragraph after
>>paragraph of lies and damn lies from "consumer safety" advocates
>>who bitch and moan about the "carnage that will result".
>>
>
<snip..>
>So my guess is that certain agencies here in California would be strongly
>opposed to seeing the speed limit repealed. Otherwise, where else could
>they turn to for more money? In the case of Alameda County, some programs
>related to education were cut to make up part of their missing balance.
>You can only cut so much.
>
>--
But the California Motor Vehicle code is based upon safe and sane speed
plus prima facia speed limits. There is a paragraph in it that refers to
the Federally Mandated Speed Limit, and that if such limit is repealled the
a return to the safe and sane speed will once againg prevail.
This law works both ways, you can be going under the limit but too fast for
conditions and you can be flying on the I5, SR99, I40, I15, I10, I8, HWY101
if you convince a judge that you were driving the vehicle in a responsible
manner, you will not be fined.
My belief in th matter is that tickets written under the safe and sane laws
will be tougher to fight as cops will write less and will tend to remember
to who. Oh the other hand, if in some counties the locals start willy nilly
writing tickets, then it ought to be far easier to beat them in court.
In my experience, the CHP always quotes the Federal Law when breaking the
55/65 limits 'cause all they have to prove is that they paced you for over
a 16th or so of a mile to make the charges stick. I have had two tickets
_greatly_ reduced by judges by arguing that the Federal Law is an abomination
foisted upon the state by a rapacious federal establishment. This kind of
thing seems to work in Orange County, _not_ LA. Unfortunatedly, the judges
still stuck me with the points thanks to some jerk politicians from the
East Coast (ie: New Jersey...).
Repeal of the 55/65 is similar to the repeal of prohibition, no one follows
it. It only serves to make criminal of citizens who just happen to have
more common sense than politicians.
Good Riddance
tony
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