A driver caught with over 100 km/h at the entrance to Sibiu canceled all his sanctions in court. How he convinced the judges
The driver had been caught on radar in 2023 while driving at 102 km/h on a street with a 50 km/h speed limit. After receiving a fine and license suspension, the man went to court. The judges recently issued a final decision in the case, cited by The Counseling Tower.
It all started on May 11, 2023, when the driver of a BMW was stopped by the police after they recorded him with a radar device on Podului street in Sibiu, driving 52 km/h over the legal limit, at the exit from the A1 highway.
The police fined him 1,305 lei and ordered the suspension of his driver's license for 90 days. The driver signed the report without objection at the time of the stop, according to the Advice Tower.
Later, contesting the sanction, the man lost in the first instance at the Sibiu Court.
By a sentence of May 7, 2025, the judges held that the speed was correctly recorded, that the act received a correct legal framework and that there is an entrance sign to the town located at the entrance to the municipality.
The turn of events
On appeal, the driver came to court with more evidence that changed the course of the trial: he included photos from Google Maps and footage of the route he followed after exiting the AI.
The driver explained that on that day he was coming from the highway and was turning towards the Gușterita neighborhood, without realizing that he had entered the city area. He also claimed that there was no speed limit or entry sign in the locality.
Importantly, however, the file also included an address from February 2026 of the Public Sanitation, Environmental Protection and Public Domain Administration Service within Sibiu City Hall, from which it emerged that on May 11, 2023, there was no entrance sign to the locality on the road sector between the A1 Highway exit and DJ106, in the direction of the driver's travel.
The conclusion reached by the judges
The court of appeal ruled in favor of the driver, noting that although the legality of the report cannot be contested, its validity is questionable given that the road infrastructure was not complete at the time of the incident.
“As long as the petitioner showed that he did not see, when he got off the A1, the entrance sign to the locality and did not realize what the speed limit was, as long as it is certain that at the time of the act the sign had not yet been installed, probably due to the non-completion of the modernization of Podului Street, and as long as the petitioner does not have a residence in Sibiu to be able to claim that he should have known that he was driving on a street in the inner city, so with the speed limit of 50 km/h, the court considers that there is a doubt regarding the petitioner's guilt in committing the act, a doubt that obviously benefits him”, according to the decision published on ReJust.ro.
Thus, the Sibiu Court admitted the appeal, canceled the report in its entirety and ordered the restitution of the fine of 1,305 lei. The decision is final.
