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CA- Illegal Lane Change

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gmcelroy

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? CA

My wife got a ticket for an illegal lane change in CA....According to the cop, she pulled into the right lane too fast causing a big rig behind her to brake suddenly & hard. The speed limit on this road is only 30 MPH

Any advise and council would be appreciated.

PS - The cop witnessed this from behind
 


Y

ylen13

Guest
you said "The cop witnessed this from behind" are you desputing that your wife "pulled into the right lane too fast causing a big rig behind her to brake suddenly & hard"

Is this your wife first ticket? have her do driving school to keep this ticket of her record
 

CdwJava

Senior Member
And if she does NOT receive a courtesy notice, she should check with the court prior to her first appearance date to see what options might be available to her.

NEVER rely solely on an expectation of the courtesy notice. And NEVER miss that court date.

- Carl
 

CdwJava

Senior Member
gmcelroy said:
What is the name of your state? CA

My wife got a ticket for an illegal lane change in CA....According to the cop, she pulled into the right lane too fast causing a big rig behind her to brake suddenly & hard. The speed limit on this road is only 30 MPH

Any advise and council would be appreciated.

PS - The cop witnessed this from behind
What vehicle code section was she cited for?

From what you write, it sounds like she could be guilty of a couple different infractions.

- Carl
 

lwpat

Senior Member
Hey Carl

Move to Washington State and you can get an 18 wheeler for a cruiser. They are putting troopers with video cameras in eighteen wheelers along I-5 and I-405. Chase cars are writing the tickets.

It takes the length of a football field to stop a fully loaded truck. I can't understand why people think they can just pull in front of a truck going 60mph. or even 30mph. Might as well go park on the tracks.

He should be glad that a trooper stopped her. It might save her life next time. 4wheelers cause 75% of the accidents involving a truck.

This is a Federally funded pilot program running thru October and hopefully will spread to other states.
 

gmcelroy

Junior Member
No no no,

My wife gave the rig plenty of room when she pulled in.....The cop is full of sh*t......This was a local police officer in my town and he give tickets for anything & everything.....She is pleading not-guilty.....Any thoughts on how to defend would be appreciated.
 
Y

ylen13

Guest
gmcelroy said:
One last thing, she was written up for 21658 Carl....Thanks
21658. Whenever any roadway has been divided into two or more
clearly marked lanes for traffic in one direction, the following
rules apply:
(a) A vehicle shall be driven as nearly as practical entirely
within a single lane and shall not be moved from the lane until such
movement can be made with reasonable safety.
(b) Official signs may be erected directing slow-moving traffic to
use a designated lane or allocating specified lanes to traffic
moving in the same direction, and drivers of vehicles shall obey the
directions of the traffic device.


I do not see any defense that would get her from being guilty. Most you can do is get a lawyer and have him have it reduced to non moving violation. Been as this's seem to be her first ticket, it will cheaper to pay the fine and do driving school to get the ticket off her record.
 

CdwJava

Senior Member
gmcelroy said:
One last thing, she was written up for 21658 Carl....Thanks
Thanks.

Okay, a "safe" lane change would have preferably consisted of approximately 60 feet of cushion between the front of the semi and the moving vehicle. For practical purposes, we rarely cite this for an unsafe change unless the vehicle that has been encroached upon has to brake.

For court purposes, her only real defense would be that there was sufficient braking distance ... this would be roughly 10' per 10 MPH being traveled. I am assuming that this was at least a 55 MPH highway, hence my assumption that 60' would be safe. If the distance was less than 60', her chance of prevailing diminishes greatly.

EDIT: Okay ... dih ... I just read the original post again and found that it was 30 MPH. That drops the "safe" distance to about 30'. But, it can still be unsafe if the semi had to brake to avoid a collision. Keep in mind that the stopping distance for a big rig is MUCH greater than that for a passenger car, so not only is it dangerous to use the 10' per 10 MPH rule for semis, it can be fatal. I have seen 4 such fatal collisions near here in the past couple of months and ALL of them have been the fault of the vehicle and not the truck.

The semi will always win.



- Carl
 
Last edited:

lwpat

Senior Member
ALL of them have been the fault of the vehicle and not the truck.
Why don't you go ride with an officer or work in the ER for awhile. Body bags are so much fun and with a truck they usually have to break them out. You were not there. It is very likely the officer also had to stand on his brakes or he would not have issued the ticket.

Go ahead and fight the system. Your wife is guilty as charged and you need to realize that she is not an objective witness. Instead of defending her you need to talk to her about her driving habits before you really are in the ER.
 

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