ROCHESTER, Pa. -- A New Brighton man is using a global positioning device in his company vehicle to fight a speeding ticket in Rochester, Beaver County.
David Riesmeyer told Channel 4 Action News reporter Shannon Perrine that he was ticketed on June 15 for allegedly driving 64.5 mph in a 50 mph zone near the ramp from the Beaver-Rochester Bridge that goes to Route 65.
"The vehicle that I was in has a fleet-tracking GPS that tracks both our time, our location, our direction," Riesmeyer said.
The officer who ticketed Riesmeyer used a stopwatch-like device to calculate his speed between two painted lines on a roadway. But Riesmeyer said the GPS recorded his speed every three seconds and shows he was driving only 57 mph.
The difference is relevant because state law says a motorist must exceed the speed limit by at least 10 mph to get a ticket, if police aren't using radar on a road with a speed limit less than 55 mph.
"I think it's going to help a lot," Riesmeyer said. "Whether we'll actually win the case just on the GPS evidence alone, I'm hoping it does."
Only state police are allowed to use radar for tracking speeders and issuing tickets in Pennsylvania.
"I think that, certainly, letting locals use radar is the right thing. Our chiefs of police organizations have argued for years and years," said assistant Monroeville Police Chief Doug Cole, whose department uses the ENRADD system for speed enforcement.
WTAE Channel 4's Shannon Perrine reported that Pennsylvania is the only state in which local police departments can't use radar.
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