Email

By Greg Bartlett

The benefits of having GPS vehicle tracking devices installed have been outlined many times. These vehicle tracking devices allow the owners of vehicles to locate their car, even if it is stolen, and call the authorities in time to make a safe recovery of the vehicle and usually arrest the thief. Businesses are using the technology to track their vehicle fleets and are finding many money saving benefits because of their implementation of the GPS tracking system. Parents are able to track the movements of their inexperienced teen drivers and maintain some sort of control over the vehicle even while at home.

You have probably also heard about the fact that many courts are admitting GPS tracking logs and reports as evidence in trials where the GPS data proves the persons guilt, or at least helps to prove it. In a landmark case in California, parents are going to court with their son to fight a speeding ticket. According to the ticket, he was clocked at 62 mph in a 45 mph zone. The tracking device in the vehicle he was driving was set to transmit an alarm if his speed exceeded a certain amount. That alarm never came, and the data from the GPS log indicates that the boy was driving the speed limit at the time the officer says he clocked him on radar.

If the judge in the case allows the GPS log to be admitted as evidence of the boy’s innocence, and dismisses the case, this will prove to be a pivotal point in the history of using GPS technology to track vehicle movements. If this one case goes in favor of the boy, the court will have provided professional drivers, whose vehicles are often equipped with GPS tracking devices, with a powerful tool to use to fight tickets they feel are unjustly issued. When the ticket says speeding and the GPS log says otherwise, someone is going to be wrong. With so many cases already decided with GPS evidence entered for the prosecution, it is going to be difficult to rule that the data is not accurate in this case.

Many parents have GPS vehicle tracking installed in the vehicles they allow their teens to drive. This allows the parents to know if their children are speeding or driving in areas they are supposed to avoid. The goal is for parents to still protect their kids as much as possible. In this new twist, parents may very well be protecting their son from an unjust speeding ticket by using the data from their GPS tracking device.