So I have a friend here that recently told me this crazy story, and I was hoping to hear you all weigh in on this:
She has just received over 15 traffic tickets in the mail - all from a camera along her new route to work that has been detecting her going ~15 km over the speed limit on her scooter almost every day for around two weeks. She assumed the speeding was pretty innocent – the roads are basically empty during her commute, and there were no immediate indicators she was in the wrong.
Do you all think there is anything she can do to contest these tickets? The argument is not that she wasn’t speeding, but it is that she did not know she was in the wrong until over NTD 20k of tickets were mailed to her basically all at once. This seems exploitative. Was wondering if anyone had experience with this situation, and if it is even contestable.
Coming from the states, getting a ticket by camera is pretty terrifying, not to mention getting a whole stack of them at once before any opportunity to correct yourself from the first violation.
She might have a case if there were no speed limit signs posted? But normally there are always speed limit signs along with the speed camera warning sign.
If she wants to avoid tickets in the future, it’s best if she speeds, runs red lights, etc. in front of a traffic cop, as he will be loath to actually do anything. Speed cameras are diligent, unfortunately.
At the end of the day, she definitely sped and broke the law. I am just surprised there is not a mechanism in place to inform someone sooner that they violated the law – I am sure it would have helped dissuade her from future transgression. You could argue the onus is not on the gov to provide that, but on the other hand, a prompt warning would have curbed the illegal activity much sooner and, assuming the law is in place to do this – put society at less risk, faster.
This is true. I match the speed of the traffic when I drive in Taiwan. I rarely get tickets and I never check the speed limit or see how fast I’m going.
My coworker experienced a similar situation but it was only 3 tickets but he got them in the mail all within 10 days.
I got the same story from a taxi driver while in Singapore about 10 yrs ago. We passed one intersection and he pointed out the camera and said he got 5 tickets on like consecutive days in the mail and his wife went ape-shit crazy
There is an App which gives a timely alert, unfortunately us foreigners cannot use it, and there is also a website where you can manually check.
Does she have a speedometer? It should indicate her speed, if it is above the posted speed limit then she is in the wrong. If that is difficult for her she could consider using a GPS with an auto alarm when exceeding the speed limit.
Hopefully traffic class and their gory photographs are in her near future.
That is crazy.
Not speeding would do that.
65 is 30% over the limit, she’s lucky she’s not losing her plates for 6 months.
Also Did your friend ride the scooter in the wrong line? because you can also get a ticket for riding in the line for cars (the one with yellow words on the road- 禁行機車 )
Likewise in Australia, 15km over will get you 2 points as well as a fine of about AUD250 or so. Accrue 12 points within 2 years and its goodbye licence for 3 months.
One easy way to avoid the pain in the pocket - obey the law.
EDIT, Australia also has a few Average Speed Cameras (outside the cities of course) - spaced say 10km apart, so if you blast away at 50kmh over and then stop for a rest before the second camera you will pass ok, but sit 10km above until 1km before and then drop back to just under the limit wont work as the average is over. There are very visible Signs in the state of NSW that warn of Cameras ahead, but in Victoria they dont.
Thanks for the info, snarkily presented as it was. Personally, my mind is blown that speedometers indicate speed. Learn something new every day, I guess.
She is not a foreigner, so def could benefit from the app/website.
My wife didn’t know what a speed camera looked like. I had to point one out to her. She never speeds, hardly ever drives for that matter, so it wasn’t an issue.
I’ve only ever been caught by the cops with handheld cameras. Missus gave me a right bollicking that time.
