Vehicle Code 21367b driving BEFORE a construction zone?

Question

My husband was given a ticket last night for violating VC21367b. He was driving from Fremont to Livermore on the 84 road and as he came around the corner an orange sign says construction zone ahead. The construction is about a mile down the road. There is NOT a sign that says the reduced speed limit. 4 Alameda Sheriff motorcycles were pulling over groups of people. He was told it is ALWAYS 45 MPH in a construction zone and that he was doing 47 MPH but that is not on the ticket. As he drove back from Livermore on the same road, the END CONSTRUCTION sign is about 1/2 mile on the west side of the CONSTRUCTION. The signs are conflicting. Going one direction it says the ZONE is ended and going the other it says it is ahead. I can not find anything on the DMV website that says 45 IS always the speed limit in a construction zone. My husband wants to take pictures and video and go to court. What do you think?

Answer 1

Because you can not possibly travel in two directions at the same time, the signs by themselves may not get him off the hook.



It is possible they were working on two different areas of the road.



As far as finding a reference to the speed, try the handbook they give to new motorists. That is usually much easier to use than searching law books.

Answer 2

No offense to police officers, but they are not always experts on the law (depending on the situation). Unfortunately, despite this, they are the first ones involved in the process and traffic citations infrequently involve the courts.



IMPLIED speed limits are mostly illegal, by rules of US law. There is nothing in California law that supports this claim either. The beginning and ending of the zone is not so important, as it is related to which side of the road you are on rather than a territorial "zone" in the conventional sense.



Tell your husband to photograph or even take video of the whole stretch of rode, showing the lack of speed limit signs. Judges are pretty smart and may toss it out even without the evidence, especially if the cops tries to tell him about the the "construction zone rule" that the speed limit is always 45 mph. The judge will say "That's not the law. The fines DOUBLE in construction zones, there's no set limit, because some zones are in small rural roads where the speed is less that 45 mph. That would make people speed UP."

Answer 3

Go to the state website or the library and read the actual section that he was issued the citation for. The DMV website is probably not going to cover that. The construction zone is between the two signs. Also unserstand that construction zones are very dynamic, and the zone could have changed. Realically, if there were four motor cops there, it was properly signed. Generally the speed is listed on the citation, but it doesnt have to be. The officer writes notes on the back of the citation, which will include the driving conditions, signage, and speeds. If the bail is not determined by the speed, then it doesnt have to be on the citation.

Answer 4

Let's team up on this - I was pulled over on the same day and the same place. The ticket is probably going to be $700 because "fines are doubled in construction zones". They were pulling over cars as fast as they could, with minimal evidence - it was a show of force because people have been speeding in the area where there is actual construction. We need photos of the signs along 84 in both directions, and of the first point where you can see the signs coming around the curve. Let's contact each other directly to work on this - I found you on google and am not very familiar with yahoo answers.

Answer 5

There was a great big sign there, it said "private property" but on the back side it didn't say nothing.