You try to follow the speed limit whenever you can, but it’s hard to do so perfectly. Even when you’re using cruise control, your car could speed up a bit going down a hill. They are going to be times when you drift over the posted limit.
But what if you’re just going 1 mile an hour too fast, such as driving 56 MPH in a 55-MPH zone? Technically, you’re breaking the law, but can the police pull you over?
They can, but they rarely do
In the strictest sense, yes, the police could pull you over for going 1 mile an hour too fast. Any time that you break the limit, you’ve created a traffic violation that could lead to a stop.
That said, police officers claim that they never do this. For one thing, it’s such a small violation that they don’t consider it worth their time. For another, it would probably be fairly easy for a driver to fight such a ticket. The rule of thumb that a lot of officers use is that they only pull people over once they get to about 5 miles an hour over the limit or higher.
An officer who stops you for going 1 mile an hour too fast may be using it as an excuse for something else. For instance, maybe it’s 2:00 in the morning, and so the police are trying to check and see if they can find drunk drivers. They can use your speeding as an excuse to stop you, and then they can determine if they think you are intoxicated.
If you do end up facing any traffic tickets for speeding violations, make sure you know about all of your legal options.
