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Originally Posted by fmc351
So wait, if youre travelling at say 140, and a car 200 meters ahead is doing 180, you cant tell its pulling away from you over say 1/2 km of road? My eyesight isnt supermans but it is 20/20, I can tell its pulling away even if I cant tell exactly how fast. I see it often at 110 with cars ahead pulling away on fwy's, its obvious they going quicker. If I was a cop sitting on 140, and that happened, its a pretty safe bet he is well past the point of a simple fine and demerits.
Dangerous driving or Reckless driving does not depend on an exact speed. Speeding might.
As a comparisson, look what happens if you refuse a bretho. If it were that easy, no one would ever be done for DUI.
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Exactly right, it seems the speed differential and the fact that he appeared to be pulling away suggests very strongly that he was dangerously over the speed limit. Anyone would have been able to see that they either were not catching or he was pulling away at the distance of 100-200 m. I would not be surprised if the cop discontinued the pursuit as at his speed of 160 and not gaining he considered it unsafe and he had already made vehicle identification. Anyway, kind of guessing there and I am going to be interested in the outcome.
The message to the public here is not one that we want. Now we are basically told that you can do any speed you like, just as long as you can go at a speed that a standard car (Falcon XT, Commodore Omega) can not accelerate to in a short time. Therefore theoretically I could go out and do 200 on the freeway, don't have to worry about cop cars as they are not allowed to estimate speed, only have to worry about radar.
By the way, don't put too much faith in automatic vehicle locators (AVL), we have AVL's on our vehicles so I am very experienced with their use. We very often have issues with AVL not tracking properly. Just last night I heard a vehicle that was a considerable distance away being dispatched on a code 1 (lights and siren) case that I was much closer to. I called through to comms and offered to respond because I was much closer. Comms asked our current location and it was found that on their screen our location was incorrect by about 3 km and not tracking properly. The AVL is not always correct, it all depends on satellite reception. AVL data is not hard evidence and should not be considered as such.
The magistrate also discounted this argument as a factor by saying that he does not doubt the cops account of his own speed. If the cops speed was a factor in his decision he would have had to say he did not believe he was doing 160.