PITTSBURGH -- A Team 4 investigation finds you're free to speed on Pennsylvania highways -- at least, to a point.
The state vehicle code says police cannot issue speeding tickets unless drivers are going a certain rate over the speed limit.
How fast is fast enough to get a ticket?
The following is Team 4 investigator Paul Van Osdol's report that first aired Oct. 30, 2009, on WTAE Channel 4 Action News at 5 p.m.
How many of us have experienced something like this -- "the reason you're being stopped is you were clocked doing 49 mph in a 35 mph zone?"
That's actually about as fast you need to go to get a ticket in western Pennsylvania.
Team 4 analyzed a year's worth of traffic tickets in our area. Records show the average speed ranges from 15 to 21 miles over the limit, depending on the speed limit.
- The average speed for a ticket in a 25 mph zone is 43.
- In a 35 mph zone, it's 53.
- For a 55 mph limit, it's 72.
- And a 65 mph limit -- the average is 80.
That's no surprise to state Trooper Robin Mungo.
Mungo: "You want to get everybody, but especially the people who are going extremely fast."
District Judge Mary Murray, of Coraopolis, has one of the busiest traffic courts.
Murray: "If it's a 55, it's usually around 70, 75 miles an hour."
Why? Perhaps because Pennsylvania law says you can legally speed. Yes, legally speed.
If you're on a highway where the limit is 55 or more, you have to be at least six miles over the limit to get a ticket.
If the speed limit is below 55, you have to be going at least 10 over to get ticketed. That's right, 10 over.
Van Osdol: "A lot of people don't know that, do they?"
Murray: "No."
And that includes one of her fellow judges.
Van Osdol: "They have to be at least 10 miles over the limit, from what I'm reading in the vehicle code."
District Judge Robert Wyda, of Bethel Park: "Paul, I'd have to review the law again."
In fact, it is the law. But the judges say they see very few cases where people are stopped at the minimum speeds.
Van Osdol: "How many officers do you see who are writing people up for six over or 10 over?"
Murray: "None. Really, none. They're looking more at -- I am going to say 20 to 25 over, before they start stopping people."
If you're one of those people who does get stopped for speeding, we have some tips on what to say and what not to say, courtesy of police and traffic court judges.
First, what does not work?
Mungo: "I have to go to the bathroom."
Van Osdol: "Get that one a lot?"
Mungo: "Get that one a lot -- 'I have to go to the bathroom.'"
Wyda: "You need to take care of your business before you get behind the wheel of a car, especially if you're going to speed and perhaps put other people's lives at risk."
Judge Murray often hears drivers try to challenge the accuracy of speed timing devices.
Murray: "They'll come up with this formula they've gotten somewhere on the Internet and they'll try to prove it's mathematically incorrect and it could never be that number."
Van Osdol: "And that just doesn't work?"
Murray: "No."
What does work? Cooperation.
Murray: "I would say, the more cooperative you are with the officer, the better the odds are that you're not having the points. I mean, if you start arguing at the scene, you're going to have a problem."
Wyda: "Honesty is always the best policy."
We saw evidence of that in Judge Wyda's court. Tina Marie Willis was caught going 45 in a 25 mph zone, but the officer said she was cooperative. Wyda convicted her of going 5 over, which meant no points on her record.
Willis: "I should have been more careful, and I told him that. I told him it kind of goes downhill there, and I wasn't really paying attention."
Tracy Stewart was caught going 18 over. She, too, was cooperative, and she, too, got away with no points.
Stewart: "I wasn't trying to make any excuses. I was trying to get my kids to their different practices. They were doing their job."
Just in case you think the law gives you a license to speed, consider this: Police tell me they will stop someone even if they're going 6 over, if they are driving erratically. Also, the 6 and 10 mph cushions do not apply in construction zones or school zones.
One other interesting tidbit from the ticket records: Sixty-two percent of all speeding tickets are given to men. Does that mean men are worse drivers than women? The judges and police would not touch that one.
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