Ticketed in Icy Accident

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio

I was involved in a one vehicle accident today on I-70 in Ohio, travelling eastbound. It was drizzling and I was travelling between 60 and 65 mph (no more than the 65 mph posted speed limit). An 18 wheeler was travelling in the middle lane and I was travelling behind it, but getting water from the roadway thrown up at my windshield. I moved to the left lane to pass the vehicle and when I was alongside the 18 wheeler, my left front tire hit a slick spot and sent me toward the guardrail in the median of the road. I knew better not to overcompensate and steer right, especially with a tractor trailer traveling at the same speed, so I hit the guardrail with my drivers side rear, then again with the front drivers side. I was a mile from the exit and was going to try to drive off the interstate but found as a tried to cross the highway that my alignment was off and it was not safe to do so. So I ended up stopping on the right hand side of the road and calling Highway Patrol.

Highway Patrol arrived on the scene, took pictures of the damage to my car, had me fill out a report, and then presented me with a $200 ticket for failure to control my vehicle while telling me it is standard procedure for any accident they respond to when a medical emergency or animal in the roadway isn't involved.

I personally think that the failure to control my vehicle was caused by the failure by the salt trucks to maintain a safe roadway and that I shouldn't have been ticketed. Should I fight the ticket or just send in the check and be thankful I wasn't hurt?

In potentially icy weather, why would you be traveling at 60-65 MPH? When black ice is possible, one needs to slow down and drive for conditions, and surely staying back from 18 wheelers who could fishtail. Icy roads mean slowing down and being more cautious, not flying along on the interstate at dry weather speeds.

I understand your point, however I wasn't "flying down the interstate" - I was traveling no faster than the flow of traffic, not passing cars left and right. Furthermore, the speed I was traveling wouldn't have mattered because I slid on ice - I would have still slid on the ice when traveling at a slower speed, and would have still had to hit the guardrail to avoid loss of control in the middle of the roadway. Thanks for the lecture, though.

Not a lecture, stating the facts. It is not the salt trucks' fault that you were traveling too fast for conditions or that you failed to control your vehicle. The ONLY person legally responsible for maintaining control of a vehicle is the driver.

acl0707 said:

I personally think that the failure to control my vehicle was caused by the failure by the salt trucks to maintain a safe roadway and that I shouldn't have been ticketed. Should I fight the ticket or just send in the check and be thankful I wasn't hurt?

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Yes, be thankful you or someone else was not hurt.
It would not hurt to go to court to contest this, but do not tell the judge that -"the failure to control my vehicle was caused by the failure by the salt trucks to maintain a safe roadway," if you do not want to see the judge roll his eyes.

Just because, as you say, that you were traveling no faster than the flow of traffic, doesn't mean you were not traveling too fast for conditions. Under the conditions you described, I would have been traveling at around 50-55, and who cares if it seems everyone else is going faster? Apparently the semi driver was going slower.

acl0707 said:

Furthermore, the speed I was traveling wouldn't have mattered because I slid on ice - I would have still slid on the ice when traveling at a slower speed..

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I beg to differ, slower speeds do matter on ice or on patches of ice, and if you were going slower, you would not have been passing the semi in the first place.

I have to agree with the other responders. Apparently, you were traveling too fast for road conditions & too close to the vehicle in front of you.

The correct response to the truck in front of you, given the conditions of wet, dark, icy roads, would have been to SLOW DOWN and put more space between you and the truck, not to try to pass it.

You could have gotten two tickets: too fast for conditions and failure to control.

Deleted - too snarky.

mistoffolees said:

Deleted - too snarky.

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Darn... I like snarky.

I'm confident you wouldn't have been so crass as to include any comments about lack of salt on the roadway being the proximate cause of the accident or salting the roadway might lead some people to sue their county officials for knowingly spreading a corrosive product on icy roads and potentially causing damage to the under-carriage of their vehicles.

Some days there just aren't enough choices....

acl0707 said:

I understand your point, however I wasn't "flying down the interstate" - I was traveling no faster than the flow of traffic, not passing cars left and right.

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That won't work in getting out of a ticket.

I was on the highway before going slower than the flow of traffic during a a snowstorm. I was being passed left and right by people.

Then came to a complete stop for about two hours as there was a 70 car pile up about a mile down the road.

Point of the story is everybody in that instance was traveling with the flow of traffic but was still going way too fast for conditions.

How much less than the speed limit you were going also isn't going to work. Speed limit could be 70 - but road conditions only allow you to be going 15. If you lose control at 30 MPH - 40 under the limit - you're still too fast for conditions.

Speed is relative to your driving ability and handling characteristics of your vehicle. Failure to control sounds correct. If you had not been cited, would you not be claiming a no fault accident, to your insurance, for repair of the vehicle?

That's not exactly true (cops do have a duty - to investigate crime, not prevent it) but close enough. It's not the state's job to prevent accidents, that duty falls on the drivers.

IF and a big IF every single person that traveled that same patch had an accident, they state might be liable.

Thanks to those who have actually offered advice. If I come off as snarky to some, please understand I came to the board for advice and am taken aback by how some choose to come across. Hope you never find yourself in a similar situation.

What I didn't mention in the original post is that the officer never went back to where the accident occured to see the roadway, so she could not have known for certain that the accident would have been avoidable. And the temperature at the time of the accident was above freezing according to my vehicle's indicator, and precip was falling as rain right up until the accident occured. Moments after my accident when I was collecting my bearings, I saw a car in the westbound lanes spin out right in the middle of the roadway after hitting the guardrail as I did. I saw other cars swerving due to the deteriorating conditions as I waited on the side of the road for police for fifteen minutes, and when highway patrol showed up and I got in the vehicle to fill out the report, a car pulled in behind her car to report that a vehicle ran off the roadway into trees a quarter mile back. So while not every single driver had issues that day, many did because the weather conditions were so unpredictable.

I am not a criminal. I don't drive drunk. I don't speed or run red lights or stop signs. I got into an accident where no one was injured, no property was destroyed (other that the side of my car), and I called the highway patrol for help. I don't understand how an accident that no highway patrol officer witnessed or investigated warrants a ticket.