Carpool lane violation.. avoiding accident and had turn signal on

What is the name of your state? California

During rush hour traffic, the flow started moving again, so I accelerated to a decent speed. Suddenly, the guy in front of me brakes hard, and I'm not sure if I can stop soon enough. I quickly check the car pool lane, which is empty as usual, and switch lanes onto it to avoid hitting the person in front of me.

During rush hour traffic, it's hard to get back into the fast lane from the carpool lane, since people assume you're an ******* just trying to get ahead. So I go along for about 3/4 of a mile until the traffic starts breaking up somewhat. Then I see, oh joy, a highway patrol car. My turn signal has been on almost the entire time, but people won't let me in since they figure I am only trying to get back into the regular lanes since the officer is right there. So I have to speed up and get behind the officer.

He gets behind me and pulls me over. I try to tell him why I was in the carpool lane, but he won't even let me explain, so instead of arguing I take the ticket hoping I can contest it in court.

Now, what can I do to get out of a ticket that I don't feel I rightfully deserved? I was only in the carpool lane for about 3/4 of a mile, and I was only in it to avoid a potential accident. Do you think a judge will believe me?

Thanks..

If you want to confess your guilt to a judge go right ahead.

You had no business being in the car pool lane.

If you found yourself forced to leave your lane to avoid plowing into the car in front of you then you were following too closely.

Cops hear excuses like your's all day long, so do judges.

[CdwJava]

I was curious how the CHP officer managed to get out of the carpool lane to get behind you when you came up on him ... but, you were not able to get over for more than 3/4 of a mile.

Anyway, you can tell the story to a judge, but my guess is that he's not going to buy it. True or not, you still violated the law. And! If you were that close to the person in front of you, you had already been guilty of following too closely. You just got hit with a different citation.

Carl