Court Opinion

ID: 9529047
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:46:58.779967+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:27:38.244181
License: Public Domain

Donworth, J.
(concurring in the result) — I concur in all of the majority opinion except that latter portion which holds that a recent roadside operational test of the electromatic speed meter was not necessary to establish the accuracy of the device at the time and place of appellant’s arrest. Specifically, my objection to that portion of the opinion is that it is susceptible of an inference that law enforcement officers may obtain convictions based solely upon their testimony that the “radar reading” showed the operation of a vehicle at a speed in excess of the legal limit, together with evidence that the instrument was checked for accuracy (in a laboratory) one month before, and again two and one-half months after, the arrest. The necessity of roadside tests of the device is discussed in 33 N. C. L. Rev. 343 (April 1955).
While in my opinion the “radar evidence” in the record does not provide a competent basis for sustaining appellant’s conviction, I nevertheless feel that, because of other competent evidence in the record, the judgment should be affirmed.
Patrolman West, the arresting officer, and Sergeant Giles, operator of the radar car, both testified that, by the use of their senses of sight and hearing, they observed the approach of appellant’s vehicle. Patrolman West testified, “in my opinion the vehicle was traveling, outside of any machine to tell me, I would say it was traveling a good fifty miles per hour.” Sergeant Giles testified, “I knew the vehicle was speeding in excess of the thirty-five miles an hour speed limit before it came into the radar pattern.”
It is my opinion that this testimony of these officers, which the trial court chose to believe, is a sufficient basis *311upon which to sustain a conviction of the misdemeanor with which appellant was charged, and that the judgment should be affirmed upon that ground alone, without reference to the “radar evidence.”