Exceeding Maximum Speed by 31 or more MPH

If you got a speeding ticket, you are not alone. Speeding is the most common moving violation in Pennsylvania. But a speeding ticket – or two or three — can lead to escalating difficulties like points on your driving record, costly fines, rising insurance premiums and even suspension of your driver’s license. A defense attorney can help you minimize or avoid these problems.

What You Need To Know About Speeding

In Pennsylvania, it is unlawful to drive over the posted speed limit.

If a street or expressway does not have a posted limit, you should use the following guidelines:

• 25 MPH on residential streets
• 35 MPH on non-residential streets
• 55 MPH on expressways

Depending on the device used to calculate your speed, you can be convicted of speeding only if you are driving 6 or more miles over the speed limit.

However if the police calculated your speed using a VASCAR device, and you were driving in a 55 MPH or under zone, you need to have been going 10 MPH over the speed limit to be convicted.

In an active work zone or an active school zone, you can be convicted of speeding if you are going as little as 1 MPH over the speed limit.

31 MPH Over The Speed Limit

If the police charge you with exceeding the speed limit by 31 MPH or more, you have been charged with excessive speeding. You will be notified to attend a mandatory PennDOT hearing. If you do not go to the hearing, your license will be suspended immediately for 60 days.

At the hearing, a PennDOT examiner will make a recommendation for you to either take a driving road test or to have your license suspended for 15 days. The suspension has larger implications because you will also receive five points on your record. Having an experienced attorney by your side at the hearing will give you a better chance to avoid the harsher punishment.

How The Police Measure Your Speed

• Following your car. The police officer will usually pace your speed against the police car speedometer. In Pennsylvania, the officer needs to follow you for at least 3/8ths of a mile before they can get a good enough reading of your speed to legitimately pull you over.

• Manual speed traps. Police use a manual device similar to a stopwatch to clock your car over a pre-measured, pre-determined distance. Sometimes aircraft are used to detect your speed, than their report is radioed in to a police officer on the ground who will pull you over.
  Frequently, the stopwatch-type devices used in manual speed traps by both ground and air officers are VASCAR devices, and their reliability has been called into question in Pennsylvania, especially when they are used in short distances (less than 500 feet). Pennsylvania law singles out the questionability of VASCAR device results by stipulating that you can’t be convicted for speeding in a zone that is 55 MPH or under, unless you were going 10 MPH or more, if the reading was done by a VASCAR.

• Automatic speed traps. These traps are technology-driven and as a result there is less room for human error. The police set up transmitters on either side of the road that calculate your speed automatically and send the readings to a computer in the officer’s car.

• Radar. In Pennsylvania, only the state police can use radar guns to measure your speed.

What To Do If The Police Pull You Over

• Turn the ignition off but don’t get out of the car.
• Don’t argue with the police officer or get angry.
• Be polite.

How A Philadelphia Criminal Defense Lawyer Will Help

When you are up against a traffic violation, you need a Philadelphia criminal defense lawyer who will stand by you every step of the way, work hard to discredit any evidence – and work with you to determine your best course of action.

Pennsylvania Traffic Violation Law

Traffic violation is described and defined under The Pennsylvania Code under Title 75. Read the code here.