Decibel level - Ticket!
 

Has anyone had any luck beating one of these?
I'm going to court in 2 weeks....Trying to get out of the $540.00 fine.
Does any one know the proper Test procedure for the SAE J2005 Decibel test?
I've heard rumor that it can only be given if the winds are less than 13 mph and nobody can be within 15 ft of the meter except the officer and the operator.

Can anyone confirm this????

Any Powerboat attorney's out there????

$540 :eek:
I see the fines fit the crime. Let's see, I think you would have to be going about 100 mph in a 55 mph zone to get that kind of ticket on the highway.:rolleyes:

In my job I set up DB readings all the time. The only way that it can accuratly be done is to put the meter in a stand, and get everyone out of the room except for me and I hide behind a seat so that I can just see the needle on the meter. If the meter is not 100% level, and no human can hold a meter 100% level the reads are wrong. You can manupulate the meter by just turning it ever so slightly at the source of sound. In the matter that you are using they will have their own proceedure and you will have to find out what the rules are and questions if the guy did that correctly to their rules. I can give you 100's of ways that the officer could have manupulated the read in his favor. To close, wrong weight (fast, slow, A, B), angle of the meter, wall anywere near your boat, having thier boat or another behind yours, Swim Platforms, wind as you said, and on and on. I can get a meter to do about anything I want it to do. You will have to get the rules for that area however and see if he did it to thier spec and try and remember if he held the meter as upright as possible.

Jon

Oh ya and if you are above the legal limit then get her below and show the judge that you have taken measures to get your boat legal and they will likely toss the ticket out.

Jon

$540 bucks??? That is absolutely absurd...

I dont know about Texas but I posted a few days back about this topic in Ohio "Question for Lake Erie Boaters" someone posted a link that showed Ohio's law on marine exhaust. The funny thing is that it doesnt say anything anywhere about the details for conducting the db test:rolleyes:

I have heard of a guy here in Ohio doing jail time for his second offense:eek:

Where did you get the ticket? How did they test? If you do a search there was a thread from someone out in West that had problem & it explained how to test correctly.

At LOTO they hand those out all the time, although 540 bucks is painfully steep...funny thing is, the water patrol has thru hull on their challengers...hmmmmm.

I agree though, usually the best thing is to make the effort to quiet it down, prove that you've done it....that should get it tossed or at least reduced?? my .02!

WM

I think second offense here in TEXAS is Capital Punishment!!!!!:confused:

It's capital punishment in Texas for ANY second offense...:D