[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

Coming back from a PCA event at Watkins Glen yesterday, my daughter was following about 15 minutes behind in our support vehicle, an Audi A4 Avant. Very large, fast, four- and sometimes six-lane divided highway (Route 17). she was doing about 75 amid half a dozen other cars doing exactly the same speed when an opposite-direction State Trooper did a U-turn, came up and pulled in behind her, and after about a minute hit the roofrack lights and pulled her over.

"You were clocked doing 81 in a 55 about 20 minutes ago," he told her. How did he pick her out? Well, our Audi is a very unusual, albeit factory, color--a vivid red-orange they call "Indian Red." I've never seen another one like it, though it's certainly not a one-of-a-kind color. Now, it's true she was clocked doing 81, because her Valentine briefly went off at that time, though she assumed she'd gotten away with it because nobody chased her. Probably the cop was too lazy to find an official-vehicles-only turning spot across the divider and simply radioed, "Hey, anybody sees an orange Audi wagon, pull it over."

There was no way he could have gotten her license-plate number, since this is a huge, wide highway. I just went out on the local undivided four lane and tried to read front-license numbers on opposite direction traffic doing 55 and couldn't get more than one digit. And ours is not a vanity plate that anybody could read once and remember.

Question: Anybody think we have any recourse short of pleading not guilty and a six-hour round trip to the court in Roscoe, New York? Anybody out there who knows NY vehicle code who coudl say that a letter to the court would be enough in such a blatant case of possible mistaken identity. (I admit that is was _not_ a case of mistaken identity--that's not my gripe--it's that if troopers are going to ticket people based on nothing more than a basic description of a stock automobile--no deer on the fender, no slick tires on the roofrack, no bumper stickers or window placards to set it uniquely apart--the opportunity for mistaken identity is present.

Any advice?

Stephan