It's Not FairThe other day while my wife was driving home from work she had a car wreck! Thank God, nobody in either car was injured. Here is what happened, please leave a comment and tell me if it seems fair to you.
She came to a full stop at an intersection where she had a stop sign. There were no cars coming so she pulled out and then crash! A van had suddenly come speeding over the top of the hill and she hit the van broadside as she was pulling out!
In my opinion, the driver of the van was at fault because he was travelling at a high rate of speed coming up on a blind intersection. The State Trooper did not agree, he issued a ticket to my wife. His explanation was that she failed to yield. I argued that there was nothing to yield to when she pulled out there were no cars coming. The driver of the van was speeding and should get a ticket also. The Trooper said it didn't matter how fast the other guy was going, the person at the stop sign has to yield to oncoming traffic. (In other words it is okay to speed while you are coming over a hill and approaching a blind intersection.)
Does this seem fair to you? Please leave a comment. We are not paying the ticket, but will go to court and talk to the District Attorney about this. It is a 3-point penalty on your driver's license and God only knows how much the car insurance will go up!
12 comments:
Mike,
I came to thank you for your comments on my post and agree that my mention of disagreement about politics had everything to do with the Bush bashing. I give each blog one shot at my president and if they keep it up I won't vote for them EVER! I guess that isn't right of me but it does get old.
Ok about your wife's ticket. First I hope she's ok. And no it isn't FAIR, but the cop is right. The car that doens't have to stop will always have the right of way and it will never matter if they are speeding. I was in a similar incident in college but on the other end of the stick. The guys said I was speeding (I wasn't) but the cop told him as long as he has the stop sign it wouldn't matter if I was going 100 mph. However, as someone with cops in my family, I would definitely take the route you are taking, get a lawyer. 90% of the time a half decent lawyer is going to get the thing thrown out or the cop won't show up in court and they'll dismiss it. A lawyer is worth the fees when you figur the 3 pts on her record. Poor dear. You might also start a roil with the city on the placement of the sign and possibly putting in a 4 way stop. If the judge or jury sees that in the works they might be willing to side with you knowing that is a dangerous intersection. Use your government! You're paying for it!
God bless, tell your wife I've said a prayer for her!
~Mary
I don't think it's fair and I thought the rule was you always had to be in control of your car. Therefore, if the car T-boned your wife, he's at fault because regardless of the signs, he was out of control.
Take it to court and stick it to the man! Give us an update!
I have no idea... but I'm sure she can contest it.
Unfortunately I believe that contesting the fine will result in a higher fine. The real problem is that the traffic control division which identifies dangerous intersections probably has overlooked this area.
I would go after that division even though it will most likely be a mute point.
I came here via blog explosion and I must say great layout! Did you design it?
I've been to court for other tickets (speeding) and I've never seen a fine raised, so I'd go to court if I were you (and your wife).
Do some basic physics calculations. If you can establish a minimum speed that the fellow was going at time of impact by the damage done, then you can calculate how much time elapsed between when he became visible to your wife and when he hit her. If you have facts and figures to show the judge, I think you might get somewhere. If your wife only had one second of clear time before the fellow hit her, and a car going the limit would have allowed her twenty seconds, I think there'd be a good case that the other fellow was driving to endanger.
I'm not a lawyer, but that would be my argument.
Thanks for all the comments on my wife's ticket. I will keep you posted. Court date is in July.
Blog design is by www.blogfrocks.com
Fair or not, frankly I duno.
If I am that truck driver, it is;
If I am the wife, it is not.
Not much of a help erh.
Still go court to fight it out; we never know unless we try.
Good luck.
In the state that I live in, the cop is right. Would you have seen the van if it were a speeding cop car or some other emergency vehicle? The van had the right of way, speeding or not. Even if they did fine the other driver for speeding, the action of your wife failing to yield right of way caused the accident. The only way you would have chance here is if they hit the other driver up for wreckless driving.
The beauty of traffic court is that it isn't usually that hard to get things dropped. I don't know about tickets involving accidents though. Bring pictures of the location if you are going to try to fight it from the standpoint that the location needs better signage for the blind intersection. I don't know if any of this will help or not, but I figured I'd share.
How honorable of you to defend your wife. If it was just a 2 way stop, I'm sorry, but I'd have to agree with the trooper.
I hope this isn't a place your wife drives by often as it doesn't sound safe at all. I also hope she was alright.
Gonna have to side with the Trooper, but I understand you must fight the good fight as I would for my wife. The important thing is no one was hurt.
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