SPEED LAWS

© 2005 Chuck Klein

Recently, there has been a push to create a "zero tolerance" for exceeding the speed limits. In Ohio, and most other states, the posted speed limits are prima-facie limits - not absolutes. In other words, and in accordance with previous court rulings, unless there are mitigating circumstances, 10 or even more MPH over the limit is not necessarily speeding.

For example, it has been found that if one is going, say 50 MPH in a 40 MPH zone on a clear, dry day with light traffic, it's not speeding. That's why, on all traffic tickets, there are spaces for the road, traffic and weather conditions to be noted. At least that's the way the law reads and is what they taught us when I went through the police academy.

The only time we had absolute speed limits where under the Federal 55 MPH ruling in the late seventies to counter wasting gas. The problem with absolutes, the enforcers found out, was one couldn't be cited for driving "too fast for conditions" when driving 40 in a 40 zone during a blinding snow storm.