Quad City Man Fights Speed Camera and Wins

The title of "Hero of the Day" goes to Moline engineer Matt Zebarth. He received a citation from the Kimberly Road / Brady Street traffic camera and beat it in court.

The $65 ticket accused Zebarth of doing 49 mph in a 35 mph zone. After the notice showed up in his mailbox, Zebarth took a few measurements of his car and a vehicle similar to the one that appears next to his in the traffic footage. With this data he went to court to prove that the camera was wrong.

Seventh Judicial District Court Magistrate Richard D. Wells made this statement in court:

"... as the Defendant's vehicle was going over the detection zone ... the vehicle next to Defendant's car was traveling at 41 mph at the same time Defendant's car was traveling 49 mph.
"But the video of the infraction shows the two cars traveling side by side at about the same speed until about the time they reach the middle of Brady Street when Defendant's vehicle slowly starts pulling away. (As Defendant notes, the speed zone changes to 45 mph just after Brady Street.)"
QC Times

This is the footage that Wells watched "over 100 times."

"Those eyes say that the Defendant's car cannot be traveling at 49 mph if the adjacent car is traveling at 41 mph. The Defendant is found NOT GUILTY."