Speed Traps in Fairfax

A speed trap is an area on the road or highway that police officers monitor heavily for speeding violations. Usually, these traps are strategically placed with the officer hidden from view of drivers in areas where speeding tends to be more prevalent.  Below, a Fairfax traffic lawyer discusses the use of speed traps to catch speeding drivers and potential defenses if you are pulled over. To learn more, call and schedule a consultation today.

Types of Speed Traps in Fairfax

There are a variety of different speed traps. Some speed traps involve officers waiting in areas where the speed limit changes from a higher speed limit to a lower speed limit because these places tend to be where drivers don’t necessarily slow down right away or slow down enough, leading to an opportunity for a lot of tickets to be issued. There are also speed traps on roads that happens to have more speeders by default, such as the bottom of a hill, because people naturally increase their speed as they’re going down, or at the end of a long stretch of a straight road because it’s really easy to speed on roads like that.

Purpose of Speed Traps

The purpose of speed traps is a bit debatable. You could definitely argue that they are just to collect revenue, especially in areas where the speeds just don’t seem to make much sense and are much too low for protecting drivers on the road, but sometimes, speed traps are put in place as a response to multiple accidents or a lot of people having a hard time with the traffic conditions there. Without police monitoring for speeders, these areas tend to be more dangerous.  With that said, speed traps are not necessarily always to extract revenue, but they certainly do a good job of that.

Legality of Speed Traps in Virginia

Speed traps are legal in Fairfax and Virginia, which is unusual because most states don’t have speed traps as something that’s legal.  Fairfax is extremely harsh on speeding and law enforcement is very proud of the fact that they have one of the lowest highway death rates per 100 million miles out of all the states. For this reason, you shouldn’t expect speed traps to go anywhere soon as they are currently considered successful in slowing down drivers.

Impact of Speed Traps on Your Speeding Ticket

Due to the fact that speed traps are completely legal in Virginia, this can not be used as a defense for receiving a speeding ticket. With that said, there are other potential defenses that can be built that do not involve the speed trap itself. For specific information on your speeding ticket and some defenses that may be applicable for your specific case, call and schedule a consultation today.

What to Know About Speed Traps in Fairfax

Everyone should know about speed traps in Fairfax that they are all over the place.  They are very prevalent and you should be vigilant at all times because the consequences of excessive speeding are not worth it.