Avins v Garvey

[2001] WASCA 415

Western Australia Court of Appeal

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For Australian Law.

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Evidence
2. › Presumptions
3. › Presumption of accuracy of scientific instruments
4. › Speedometers in police vehicles
5. › Whether common law presumption of accuracy applies to speedometer readings
1. Evidence
2. › Admissibility
3. › Evidence of system or practice
4. › Police speedometer accuracy checks
5. › Whether officer entitled to give evidence of method used to check speedometer accuracy
1. Criminal Law
2. › Summary offences
3. › Traffic offences
4. › Speeding
5. › No case to answer submission
6. › Whether prosecution evidence taken at its highest capable of establishing guilt beyond reasonable doubt
7. › Road Traffic Code 1975 (WA), reg 1001(1)(a)
1. Evidence
2. › Judicial notice
3. › Local topography
4. › Whether magistrate entitled to take judicial notice that a metropolitan street is in a built-up area
5. › Road Traffic Code 1975 (WA), reg 103

Quick Take

A police officer's speedometer reading is prima facie evidence of the speed of a vehicle being followed, by virtue of the common law presumption of accuracy applying to speedometers as notorious scientific instruments, without the need for evidence that the speedometer's accuracy has been tested. A magistrate in a metropolitan court may take judicial notice that a street in a well-known metropolitan suburb is in a built-up area for the purposes of the Road Traffic Code 1975 (WA).