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NEWS
Laser Speed Monitor Controversy to Reach High Court
by S. Fried
The next -- and perhaps the final -- step in the controversy over the
reliability of the laser speed-distance device will be a deliberation in
the High Court. After Judge Amnon Strashnov of the Tel Aviv District Court
charged three drivers with speeding, basing the charges on data from the
laser monitor and thus overturning the innocent verdict of the Ramleh and
Petach Tikvah courts, the case is going to the High Court.
The three drivers had appealed the verdict of guilty and the judge acceded
to their request, arguing that this was a case involving an important
issue. "An undesirable, unseemly situation has resulted, according to which
all traffic courts do not follow the same policies, but issue diverse and
contradictory verdicts," Strashnov writes.
Meanwhile, doubts have been raised about the accuracy of the laser monitor
in gauging the speed of motorcycles. A Haifa Traffic Court judge overturned
a decision regarding a motorcycle driver who had been charged with speeding
at night. The laser had clocked his speed at 89 kilometers per hour (kph),
while the speed limit is 50 kph. An expert witness called by the defendant
explained to the court that, "Because the motorcycle is such a thin
vehicle, it is possible that the laser ray would pick up something other
than the motorcycle itself, in which case the speed picked up by the
machine may be that of a different vehicle."
The policeman who issued the traffic ticket admitted that it was possible
that there had been other vehicles in the area and that the laser may have
picked up one of them. He claimed that there are no clear directives about
how to measure the speed of motorcycles. The judge accepted his claim and
determined that because of the contour of the motorcycle, it is possible
that the laser ray readings were unreliable and had picked up the speed of
another passing vehicle.
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