CHAPTER 497

An Act to amend and reenact § 46.1-198, as amended, of the Code of
Virginia, relating to use of radio microwave and electrical devices
to check motor vehicle speeds; to amend the Code of Virginia by
adding a section numbered 46.1-198.2, relating to the posting of signs
to. indicate such devices may be in use.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 46.1-198, as amended, of the Code of Virginia be amended
and reenacted and that the Code of Virginia be amended by adding a
section numbered 46.1-198.2, as follows:

§ 46.1-198. (a) The speed of any motor vehicle may be checked
by the use of radio microwaves or other electrical device. The results of
such checks shall be accepted as prima facie evidence of the speed of such
motor vehicle in any court or legal proceedings where the speed of the
motor vehicle is at issue.

(a1) In any court or legal proceedings in which any question arises
as to the calibration or accuracy of any such radio microwave or other
electrical device, a certificate, executed and signed by the officers calt-
brating or testing such device as to its accuracy as well as to the accuracy
of the speedometer of any motor vehicle used in such test, and stating the
time of such test, type of test and results of testing, shall be admissible
when attested by one such officer who executed and signed it as evidence
of the facts therein stated and the results of such testing.

The driver of any such motor vehicle may be arrested without
a warrant under this section provided the arresting officer is in uniform
and displays his badge of authority ; provided that such officer has observed
the registration of the speed of such motor vehicle by the radio microwaves
or other electrical device, or has received a radio message from the officer
who observed the speed of the motor vehicle registered by the radio
microwaves or other electrical device; provided in case of an arrest based
on such a message that such radio message has been dispatched immedi-
ately after the speed of the motor vehicle was registered and furnished the
license number or other positive identification of the vehicle and the
registered speed to the arresting officer.

(d) Nothing herein shall affect the powers of cities or towns to
adopt a and use such radio microwaves or other electrical devices to measure
spee

§ 46.1-198.2. Signs to indicate the legal rate of speed and that
the speed of motor vehicles may be measured by radio microwaves or other
electrical devices shall be placed at or near the State boundary on those
interstate and primary highways which connect the State to other jurts-
dictions at such locations as the State Highway Commissioner, in his
discretion, may select. There shall be a prima facie presumption that such
signs were in place at the time of the commission of the offense of exceed-
ing the legal rate of speed, and a certificate by the State Highway Com-
missioner as to the placing of such signs shall be admissible in evidence to
support or rebut the presumption. Such legal rate of speed and notice of
measurement of speed by radio microwaves or other electrical devices may
be posted on different signs and need not be posted on the same sign.