Violation 39:4 56.5 Abandonment of Vehicle

[tubeman59]

What is the name of your state? NJ

My son ran out of gas on February 14th and moved his car to the side of the road. He called his friend who picked him up, drove to my house 2 miles away to pick up a gas can already filled with gas and went back to the car, round trip less than 10 minutes. He arrived to his car and a police car was behind his car, my son knocked on the window to show he has the gas can and the police officer yelled to him, go inside your car. I called a tow truck to get your car off the road and writing a ticket (39:4 56.5) for abandonment.

My son knew the tow truck driver so his car was not towed, at about that time I arrived to help my son with the gas as I was in the neighborhood. The police officer came out and said to me how do I know your son didn't abandon the car, he then proceeded to say a person came out of his house and saw my son jump into another car. That is true, to get gas!

Looking at the statute, it says the car has to be abandoned 48 hours or no plates on the car. Car was abandoned 10 minutes with registered plates on the car.

Maybe the police officer wrote the wrong ticket, he was a young cop. The worst part was the police officer wrote the ticket when my son was filling the car. My son saw him open the ticket book. Does my son deserve this ticket?

Thanks in advanced.

[AlanShore]

No, go to court and explain what happened.

[wirry1422]

I would say that the citation was undeserved. Although this type of situation can be dependant on the type of roadway the stall occurred on, interstate highway/limited access highway, as opposed to a secondary/local roadway that simply prohibits parking. And it is also dependant on whether the vehicle was left abandoned in a lane of traffic or on the shoulder/ or curbside lane. So a vehicle left abandoned in a lane of live traffic on an interstate highway for any length of time would deserve a citation for causing an imminent traffic hazard. However, it sounds as if the vehicle was abandoned on a local roadway and was cited under the long-term abandonement statute, which does not apply to this case. Attend the citation hearing date with your son, as a witness, and have him tell the story the way you described, and have him call you as a witness, and you will probably be successful in having the charge dismissed.

[tubeman59]

Thanks for the information. The car was stalled on a county road, pulled to the right and not in traffics way. It had snowed (more like ice storm) in the evening prior and morning of the day so traffic was almost non existent. The police officer also checked the box saying it was in a business district but it was in a residential district, closest store at least 1.5 miles away. We will go to court and explain this to the prosecutor and see where this goes.

[tubeman59]

UPDATE

My son went to court today and the prosecutor had the judge dismiss the abandonment ticket as clearly the car was not abandoned. My son only had to pay a $33 court fee.

Thanks,
Sal Brisindi

[xylene]

Yay.

Wee.

33 dollars for the state.

Write a letter of complaint.