This question is actually pertains to the German Autobahn. I was drving from zürich to leipzig in a horrendous rainstorm, but still on the autobahn going relatively fast. There are some sections where they briefly post speed limits but then it is free-frall again. At any rate I was driving through an area that every 100 m or so the speed limit would reduce but the rain was so incredible that i couldn't see properly, anyways the upshot is that I got a FLASH and I know I'll be recieving my speeding ticket any day soon.

In America it's pretty comon to fight the tickets, and especially here I would probably have a case with the rain and all that --- do they buy that sort of stuff here? Or should I just suck it up and pay whatever the bill is going to be

I know it is stating the obvious, but if the rain was so heavy that you couldn't see, wouldn't it have been an idea to slow down so that you could? Ah perhaps not.

Tschh. So naive...

Fight it because reckless driving in the rain is a universal right that all hold to be self-evident...

no you wouldn't. You would only confess that you were drinving at a speed that wa so inadequate that you weren't even able to read the signs. §3(1) of the German traffic code says that the spped needs to be adjusted to weatehr and road conditions.

It's not common to fight tickets, however once you'll send your "'i'm sorry i was speeding, the visibility was so bad I couldn't even see the road signs" letter you'll totally make some poor German policeman's day. I say go for it, if only for (their) entertainment.

Not to pour salt in the wounds, but I hope now that you've written out your description of what happened you can understand that you were driving recklessly. You were going so fast in bad weather as to not be able to see the signs. Think of what else you may not have been able to see and thank your lucky stars.

If you could not see the signs because you was driving too fast, sorry, but that is crazy dangerous.

The summons will probably be passed from the German to the Swiss police. The rain might have prevented a good photo of your number plate. When you get the fine just pay it. If you fight it you might in this case be charged with reckless driving. Be gratefull, you might have crashed.

It's that way in the US too so I don't know what she's on about apropos fighting the ticket (and it isn't all that common to do so, despite claims to the contrary).

One rule of thumb for driving is that your stopping distance should be less then your visibility.

By your logic, doing matching the 100 speed limit in pea souper fog would be OK,

Something about "speed doesn't kill, inappropriate speed does"

Pay up and STFU.

Fightling is useless, because in rains and bad weather conditions, special speed limits apply (it is all efficiently covered in the basic traffic regulations). You'll probably just end up increasing your costs/fine, through additional processing fees, as ultimately you'll be penalised anyway. (German traffic fines on foreign drivers are generally imposed only if they are 100% certain that you can be penalised; Germans are quite thorough in this regard).

Maybe if you put put your phone down whilst applying mascara you might not make such reckless mistakes...

I'd say driving when the vis is so bad you can't see a sign, but don't slow down... you deserve a very large book to be thrown at you, and surely you are delusional if you think any sane person is with you.

yeah ok it's true i was driving fast, but if any of you know german autobahns everyone was driving fast and it i felt pressure to stay in the flow of things. but at anyrate, I don't think that i was even going THAT fast, maybe 90, but the speed zone dropped from 100 to 90 to 80, etc. anyways thanks for your ernest opinions!

In Germany, the formulation for rain weather is something like "adapting by reducing speed according to weather conditions" (not translated, just formulated freely according to the meaning).
If you had a speeding ticket in rain weather, it is because you did not adapted and reduced your speed, because the flash goes by the normal speed limit. The latter is higher than the one you were supposed to drive in the rain.

Finghting the speeding ticket is pointless. You'd end up with a bill for administration fees and the whole thing would be rejected.

The point is not that you "weren't going THAT fast" or that "everyone else was driving fast". The point is YOU COULDN'T SEE!

I would fight the speedticket with the argument that you are a "Regenmeister". That should convince the Germans.

Is that the German version of "Do you know who I am?!?!?!"

Or rather "Do you know who my dad is?!?"