Garage owner caught at 175 km/h "I wasn't speeding, please acquit me"
The Thurgau cantonal police used a drone to catch a speeding driver who was traveling at 175 km/h on a country road. The speed limit was 80 km/h. In court, the man asked for an acquittal.
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- During a speed check near Mettendorf TG in June 2022, a driver was caught initially traveling at 137 km/h out of town and then at 175 km/h on the way back.
- The man was convicted with the help of video recordings from a drone.
- In court, the defense questioned the procedure - but was unsuccessful. It will now be expensive for the speeding driver.
80 km/h is the speed limit on the country road between Felben-Wellhausen and Mettendorf TG. In June 2022, a 39-year-old garage owner from Thurgau sped along it twice much faster than the speed limit. Traffic police officers filmed the man with a drone: the video analysis revealed that he was driving 137 km/h on the outward journey and 175 km/h on the return journey.
More than two years later, the man stands before the Frauenfeld district court. He admits in court that he was driving the car. He denies that he was speeding. "I wasn't speeding, please acquit me," the Tagblatt newspaper quotes him as saying.
Lawyer doubts the police's actions
The case is not simple. According to the Tagblatt, it is only common in Switzerland for speeding offenses to be investigated using drones by the Thurgau cantonal police. The legality of this is regularly questioned.
The garage owner's lawyer also questions the analysis. What's more, he believes that the police used the drone to monitor traffic over a large area. This is not legal: his client's recordings would therefore not be admissible in court.
In addition, the measuring wheel with which the police had measured the recorded route no longer exists. Furthermore, neither the measuring wheel nor the drone were calibrated. The only option for his client was acquittal.
Drones are legal for traffic monitoring
The court did not follow the defense's argument. On the one hand, several rulings in recent months, including by the Thurgau High Court, had confirmed the legality of using drones to investigate speeding offenses.
Secondly, the public prosecutor pointed out that drones do not have to be calibrated as they are not measuring devices. Last but not least, an expert opinion from the Swiss Federal Institute of Metrology (Metas) confirmed that the police had calculated the speed correctly.
The court ultimately sentenced the garage owner to a conditional prison sentence of 16 months, which was two months less than the prosecution had demanded. He also received a conditional fine and a fine of CHF 2100. The man must also pay CHF 4,780 in investigation costs and just under CHF 8,000 in court costs.
The verdict is not yet final.
