Speeding is usually a civil offense that results in a fine but not jail time. A ticket will be on your driver's record for several years, but it won't appear on your criminal record as a conviction. Yes, speeding is a criminal offence, and you're not going to be able to defend yourself by saying it was just speeding and nothing big. He broke the law (assuming he was actually accelerating), and he will have to work from that point of view while trying to get the fine dismissed.
You can think of defenses as proving that you were going at the same speed as everyone else or that you had an emergency to resolve, but the court may not accept them. If you plan to challenge the ticket, you really need to consult with a criminal law attorney who has handled traffic cases before. He wants to make sure that his defense is something that will be taken seriously. The concept of the basic law of speed is even more complicated.
Basic speed laws require drivers to always drive at a safe speed. Therefore, you can be charged with speeding in violation of a basic speed law, even if you were driving below the published speed limit. The ticketing officer simply must decide that you were going faster than reasonably safe, taking into account the driving conditions at that time. In all states, a traffic ticket can be issued to drivers who violate laws that restrict the speed at which a vehicle can travel.
However, motorists sometimes face license suspension or other serious penalties for a speeding ticket, including increases in insurance rates, particularly if the violation is considered excessive or if the motorist has had previous traffic violations. For example, if you drive in the left lane while complying with the speed limit, but everyone else on the road tends to go several miles per hour faster than that, you could be breaking laws that prohibit blocking traffic. For the vast majority of traffic violations in New York State, a lawyer can reduce a speeding ticket to a non-moving violation, such as a parking ticket, or declare it reduced to a lower point fine, such as not obeying a traffic control device (a two-point violation without excess of speed).
