Getting a speeding ticket can be costly and inconvenient. A speeding ticket can stay in your driving record, increase your insurance rates and result in expensive fines. If you are innocent, facing those penalties would be unfair. However, you have the right to fight your ticket in court and prove your innocence to the authorities.
Traffic laws and defense
In Hawaii, a person can get a speeding ticket if they drive above the speed limit, usually 45 or 55 miles per hour in most freeways. The Department of Transportation sets these limits to avoid serious accidents, so when a person exceeds them, the court can punish them with expensive fines. A driver may also face a license suspension and a term of imprisonment if they exceed the speed limit for more than 30 miles per hour, so it is reasonable that you want to challenge your ticket.
Fortunately, you can fight your speeding ticket in Hawaii. You can request a hearing in court within 21 days after receiving the ticket. In the hearing, you can present your arguments and defend yourself. The court may eliminate your ticket if one of the following is true:
- There was no other alternative: a medical urgency or an attempt to avoid a serious accident are valid reasons to speed.
- There was no posted speed limit: there was no sign informing about the speed limit, or the sign was covered entirely, and you had no way to know that you were speeding.
- The radar gun wasn’t working properly: police officers use radar guns to measure the speed of a vehicle on the road. However, the radar can give out a false result if the officer did not calibrate it before using it.
- You were not speeding: the police identified the wrong car, and now they are blaming you for something you did not do.
If one of those situations applies to you, you can gather evidence to prove your innocence to the court. You can do this by checking your driving history in your GPS, as sometimes these devices can show how fast you were traveling on a specific road.
Fighting back
You should not pay expensive fines if you are not guilty of what you are being accused of. You must remember that you cannot take more than 21 days to request the hearing. If you don’t act within those 21 days, the court will consider you guilty by default. In the hearing, you’ll have the right to prove your innocence, but if you are not happy with its outcome, you can appeal the court’s decision. You don’t have to take no for an answer, and you have the right to fight for justice in court.