Paying off traffic tickets is a nuisance for Dmitri Krioukov, who recently went above and beyond the typical methods of flirtation or flattery to get out of paying his.

Krioukov, a University of California San Diego physicist, wrote a four-page paper titled ‘The Proof of Innocence,’ using mathematical and scientific evidence to get out of paying a $400 ticket for not stopping at a stop sign.

His paper worked. After 10 minutes in front of a judge, Krioukov was ruled no longer responsible for the ticket, according to an April 18 article in the Los Angeles Times.

The paper is now posted online in hopes that other drivers will be able to use his work to get out of paying their own tickets for rolling stops, according to the article.

Police issued Krioukov a ticket for failing to come to a complete stop at a stop sign, otherwise known as a ‘California Stop.’ Krioukov claimed in court that a car moving at a constant speed looks the same as a car that moves quickly, briefly stops and then accelerates again, according to an April 20 article on Examiner.com.

Krioukov said the police officer who issued him the ticket was about 100 feet away from the incident, facing Krioukov’s car perpendicularly, which distorted his sense of Krioukov’s speed before he stopped the vehicle. Krioukov said he had actually stopped at the stop sign, but a passing car briefly blocked the officer’s view, according to an April 14 Examiner.com article.

By the time the officer saw Krioukov’s vehicle again, it had started moving, but the officer’s sense of the car’s speed made it seem like Krioukov had never stopped at all, according to the article.

In his paper, Krioukov used an example of a train coming toward a platform to justify his case. From afar, Krioukov said, it looks as if the train is not moving at all. However, as it comes closer, it moves rather fast.

Krioukov examined many details of the incident in his paper, including the fact that he sneezed as he approached the stop sign, causing him to press harder on the brake pedal than he normally would have.

In addition, Krioukov said a UCSD academic building obstructed the officer’s vision of the incident, according to the LA Times article.

‘As a result of this unfortunate coincidence, the (police officer’s) perception of reality did not properly reflect reality,’ Krioukov wrote in his paper.

Krioukov’s success at beating the ticket is rare. A spokesperson for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department said a ticket given to someone who doesn’t come to a complete stop at a stop sign is usually difficult to beat in court, according to the April 20 Examiner.com article.

Krioukov claimed the math and science used in the paper are fairly elementary and only took about five to 10 minutes to calculate.

‘(This is) particular physics and math that you can study in high school,’ Krioukov said in the LA Times article. ‘All you need to know is classical mechanics and a little bit of geometry.’

dspearl@syr.edu 

Published on April 25, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Diana: dspearl@syr.edu | @dianapearl_