The truth about excessive speed is that it is way more serious than one may think. Most people believe that because excessive speeding offences are only 3 points, so a conviction is not going to affect them as seriously as other offences.
But what they may not be aware of, and what is not marked down anywhere on the ticket, is that excessive speeding is considered to be a high-risk offence.
Consequences of excessive speed
As a result of an excessive speeding ticket being a high-risk offence, it also carries with it greater consequences than a regular speeding ticket.
In addition to the fine on the face of the ticket, you will be required to pay a Driver’s Risk Premium, which accompanies your first excessive speeding ticket and requires a yearly payment of $320 for 3 years. If you have had more than one excessive speeding ticket, or any other high-risk offence, the cost of the Driver Risk Premium goes up.
Then, you should also expect to see your insurance rates go up, as this is the kind of offence where a single conviction will trigger an increase.
And on top of all of that, an excessive speeding ticket is also the type of offence that will most likely trigger driving prohibitions.
If you are ticketed with a Class 7 N license, then you will most likely be handed a driving prohibition that will usually last about 5 months. And this is only for a single excessive speeding ticket. Even if you have a full class 5 license, you are still at risk of losing your driver’s license if you have any previous similar tickets. This means that if you have a single
speeding ticket from the past five years, and then get an excessive speeding ticket, you’re likely to get a prohibition from driving.
So, the truth is that excessive speed is way more serious and way more expensive than it sounds. It is considered to be a very bad offence by the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles.
Disputing an excessive speeding ticket
Disputing an excessive speeding ticket is also difficult. Unlike other offences where, if the evidence falls short of establishing your guilt the ticket is dismissed, excessive speeding tickets have a “failsafe” for the officer in court.
There is a provision in the Motor Vehicle Act, Section 148.2, that says if you are ticketed for excessive speed and the evidence doesn’t prove that you were speeding excessively, you can still be ticketed for regular speeding. This means that you can still get three points and a speeding conviction unless you successfully challenge the evidence that you were travelling even one kilometre an hour over the speed limit.
Therefore, this makes your options to dispute the ticket way more limited. And it highlights the importance of having good legal representation for the excessive speeding ticket.
Costly Consequences
The consequences of excessive speeding are not only very serious, but they are also very costly.
If you get a ticket for excessive speeding, you will face a mandatory 7-day impoundment. And, there are even some catches that the police don’t tell you.
One of those catches is that if you have a previous impound, even if you were found not guilty of that ticket, you’re current impound will automatically be upped to 30 days. And you won’t even know your car is gone for that long until it has already been taken for the mandatory 7 days. Then, before those seven days are up, you’ll get a letter saying that your car will be impounded for 30 days.
Only impounds that are 30 days or up can be disputed, so you can’t even dispute your 7-day impound. Basically, this means that you lose your car for 7 days even if the officer is wrong.
It’s also important to remember you don’t get reimbursed for the impound or the towing, even if you successfully dispute your ticket.
Just getting the ticket, whether or not you successfully dispute it, whether or not you get a lawyer, whether or not you have a bad driving record, will cost you at least $250 for just receiving the ticket, even if you’re innocent.
And that’s the truth about excessive speeding. It’s a hard truth, but we are hard-working lawyers who fight these tickets in court.
