I think he needs a better defense strategy.

Police say the driver they pulled over on a Twin Cities interstate readily admitted that he was going 100 miles per hour. However, he blamed it on being Canadian.

Dalmar A. Ali, 22, of Toronto, was ticketed for speeding on southbound Interstate 35W near 66th Street in Richfield on a dark and rainy July 12 night.

Ali was stopped and acknowledged “passing other traffic like he was standing still,” the citation filed last week read.

He went on to explain that he’s from Canada, where vehicle speedometers reading 100 are measuring kilometers per hour, not miles per hour. A speed of 100 kph converts to about 62 mph.

Metric mix-up or not, Ali is due in court on Sept. 13 for his arraignment. Any fine, if there is one, will have to be paid in U.S. dollars.

Can I use that defense when traversing my local byways in my kph equipped delica? Probably not a worry with this slug.

That excuse is as old as the metric system - but usually it's Americans in Canada. This guy must have rented a car to make the story even remotely plausible.

Haha, I should have used that one when I got bagged doing 100 in my Volvo.

"Well officer, it's a European car and they use all that crazy metric system crap over there."

That was almost me in Ontario. Man, I'm passing Canucks like they're standing still. The limit is 80...oh Hell, that's KPH!

How does this even work? If the speed limit is posted in mph and you're driving that number in km/h you're a rolling roadblock. I fail to see how he could even come up with this argument for a speeding ticket. Unless he's just hoping the judge is a moron and is wanting to get off by the power of hopes and dreams.

...Yeah it's probably that, isn't it?

The only thing i can see is if he was driving an mph speedometer car, when he was used to doing kph. How the hell you don't notice you're going nearly double what you're used to is beyond me.

^^ But he would have to be converting the units in his head already, then looking at the speedo and not realizing he didn't need to do the conversion for that to work. Never mind, I'm gonna hurt my brain if I keep trying to rationalize this.

Jay wrote: ^^ But he would have to be converting the units in his head already, then looking at the speedo and *not realizing he didn't need to do the conversion* for that to work. Never mind, I'm gonna hurt my brain if I keep trying to rationalize this.

My only thought was he would have autopiloted and assumed the number was kph, not mph, because that's what he's used to. Ive made similar mistakes in regards to how vehicles handle, and that was how i discovered my old 100$ taurus did not handle like my modified Mazdaspeed 3.

"Ignorance of the law excuses no man. Not that all men know the law, but because 'tis an excuse every man will plead, and no man can tell how to refute him, eh?"

-John Seldon, 1689

Jay wrote: ^^ But he would have to be converting the units in his head already, then looking at the speedo and *not realizing he didn't need to do the conversion* for that to work. Never mind, I'm gonna hurt my brain if I keep trying to rationalize this.

That is why this is the lamest excuse ever.

My last ticket was because I was driving my Canadian salesman's car in Detroit. The speedometer was reading well over 100 kph on I-94 and the MPH was so small in the speedo that I stopped paying attention to it and started talking with my passenger. Grrr. 87 in a 70, and the out-of-state-just-pay-the-tax penalty was called "impeding traffic." Say what????

He's a moron and wants to record that fact in a public record.

In reply to glueguy:

They pull that "impeding traffic" bullE36 M3 on the locals too.

mndsm wrote:

Jay wrote: ^^ But he would have to be converting the units in his head already, then looking at the speedo and *not realizing he didn't need to do the conversion* for that to work. Never mind, I'm gonna hurt my brain if I keep trying to rationalize this.

My only thought was he would have autopiloted and assumed the number was kph, not mph, because that's what he's used to. Ive made similar mistakes in regards to how vehicles handle, and that was how i discovered my old 100$ taurus did not handle like my modified Mazdaspeed 3.

I also found out the hard way that my 1989 Chevy C1500 with furniture in the bed does not brake as well as my e46. Who woulda thunk that?