I ask this here because I know there are a lot of people that are rather verbal on the "You know you're guilty, why fight it?" wagon. I myself being one of them. However I have a situation that is slightly different from the norm and am seeking some feedback.
This morning I wasn't feeling well, left the house later than usual and went a different route to work so that I could stop at the grocery story and pick up some medicine on the way to work. When pulling out of the grocery store on the street perpindicular to the one I pulled in on (there is a picture below to better understand this) there is a sign saying "35mph". I was already going about 15mph when coming out of the driveway, so I sped up to about 35mph, a bit less because I wasn't feeling well anyhow and saw a cop coming the opposite direction and didn't feel like pushing my luck.
About 250ft after the 35mph sign is a sign stating "SCHOOL: 20mph Between flashing signs". Note that this sign also had no posted hours that the limit is enforced on it either as the signs often do for just this very reason. It's right about this sign where the cop and I passed one another. I looked around, saw no flashing lights, so I kept on going. The traffic around me (2 cars in each lane in front of me) were going about the same speed as I was, maybe 2-3mph slower, and the oncoming traffic didn't appear to be going slow, so I thought nothing of it. People around here don't tend to play around with school zones, so if people weren't crawling through incredibly slowly I figured I was alright too.
Turns out I was in the middle of a school zone, had pulled into one from the grocery store. Of course I found this out only after being pulled over by the cop (who U-turned a bit after passing me). So I got a ticket for 32 in a 20, when I
thought I had been going
under the limit, not 12 over it. The cop told me that he clocked me at 32 in a 20 as he approached me, and he was approaching me long before I could have possibly seen any sign saying that I was in a School Zone when I pulled onto the road, let alone that the speed was currently enforced.
This isn't so much a "Should I fight it post", but rather a "Am I guilty?" post. And perhaps that's not even the best question either, because I'm obviously guilty of speeding, but is it my
fault that I was speeding? I agree that ignorance of the law isn't an excuse either, but it's absolutely impossible that I could have known I was in a School Zone. It's not so much that I didn't know but that I
couldn't have known.
Personally I'm torn on fighting it. While I do feel that I was guilty of speeding, and guilty of speeding in a School Zone at that, I don't feel that it was my fault. The only sign that I could see from where I pulled onto the road is a sign stating that the speed limit is 35mph -- which I was following.
Here's a little visual aid. It's not to scale at all, but perhaps it makes it easier to understand.
