CVC 21650 (pulling into my drive way)

[wangjt]

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

Hi. So today, my wife and I were both issued a CVC 21650 ticket for "driving past a police road block, on the wrong side of the road" into our driveway.

Here's the details. My wife and I rushed home from work because we heard that there was a house on fire very close to ours. They didn't know which house, just told us it was very close to where our house is. Not knowing if it was really our house or not we both rushed home from work hoping everything was okay with the dogs and our property. We drive separate cars but we arrive at about the same time. As we approach, from down the road, we could see that there were two police cars parked on the street in front of our property (no flares set up and no officer(s) directing traffic) There was also about 4 fire trucks behind that. As we get closer to our driveway, the neighbors before our house signals for us to pull into their driveway. A police officer's vehicle was parked right in front of their driveway (partially blocking it) but we pull in anyways. Again, no officers were even on site to direct the flow of traffic and there were no flares on the road.

Here's a picture of where the police office was parked relative to my neighbor's driveway.
Picasa Web Albums - IAccord99I - RoadBlock

So we got out of our cars and I asked them what happened. They told us it wasn't our house, but the 2nd house down from ours had caught on fire. Apparently, there was a huge blaze earlier. By the time we arrived, we barely saw smoke. Nobody was home at the time so nobody was hurt. (Thank God).

So everything is under control, and we now just want to park our cars in our garage and check up on the dogs. My car is 1/2 on the street, 1/2 on my neighbor's driveway (not enough room to fit my neighbor's car, my wife's car and my car on the driveway) so I decided to move my car out of the way so that when the firemen were done, my car wouldn't be blocking the road. My neighbor mentions to me that there was an officer directing traffic earlier and he directed my neighbor to go onto his driveway so it assumed it would also be okay for me.

My wife immediately follows me. We do not see road flares anywhere, no officers directing the flow of traffic traffic and no obvious reason to believe our driveways were considered behind the road block (since an officer had already directed my neighbor to go onto his driveway). There was room for us to safely get into our driveway from my neighbors driveway (about 10 feet away) so we backed out of their driveway and proceeded to drive into ours going about 1 or 2 miles per hr.

Picasa Web Albums - IAccord99I - RoadBlock
(my driveway's on the left, my neighbor's on the right)

Upon pulling into our garage, an officer approached us and told us that we had just driven through a road block on the wrong side of the road. My wife and I are a little shocked and stumped. He asks for both of our license and registration while we're standing on our driveway and issues both of us a ticket for CVC 21650. He tries to play the nice guy card "I don't like writing tickets... I could have wrote you up for more... etc". The tickets states that we were diving on the wrong side of the road, through a police road block going 15 mph. Considering the distance between our two driveways, this 15mph was impossible. I didn't argue as I didn't want him to write anything worse. I asked him if there was any news on what started the fire but he just rudely ignores me and walks away. Then about 5 minutes after he issues us the tickets, he goes and puts up flares on the road about 25 feet in front of his car. Now it's obvious that both my neighbor's driveway and mine were considered behind the road block. We decide to take pictures of the whole incident.

Picasa Web Albums - IAccord99I - RoadBlock
Picasa Web Albums - IAccord99I - RoadBlock

Now we honestly thought that area in front of our driveway was purposely left open so that we could get into our driveway. At the time, there were no officers or flares on the road to indicate this wasn't the case. They had even allowed my neighbor to get onto his driveway so we all thought that this small area in front of our house was not part of the road block and room was purposely left for us to get onto our property. Yes I know... when you read the ticket without all the details, I did cross a road block and drive onto the wrong side of the road. But at the time, it's not clear as to what part of the road was blocked off. The officer directed my neighbor to pull into his driveway, but issues my wife and I a ticket for pulling into ours. If they had a problem with us crossing the road block, shouldn't someone be there to inform us/properly direct traffic, or at least shouldn't some flares be set up if they're going to just walk away?

Is there anything I can do?

Sorry for the long msg. I guess Im venting as well

Thanks for anyone's help in advance.

 

[The Occultist]

I only read the last actual paragraph of your post (I know, I'm lazy), and here are my thoughts: a road block is there to block your travel. You questioned the fact that they left a gap for one to drive through, but then admitted that you had to drive on the WRONG side of the road to take advantage of this gap. *shrug* Pointing that irony out is really the only actual insight I can offer.

 

[I_Got_Banned]

While I am not clear on where the police vehicles were and where you parked the first time and second time, I'll still make a few comments...

Hi. So today, my wife and I were both issued a CVC 21650 ticket for "driving past a police road block, on the wrong side of the road" into our driveway.

I'll start with CVC 21650:

21650. Upon all highways, a vehicle shall be driven upon the right half of the roadway, except as follows:

(a) When overtaking and passing another vehicle proceeding in the same direction under the rules governing that movement.
(b) When placing a vehicle in a lawful position for, and when the vehicle is lawfully making, a left turn.
(c) When the right half of a roadway is closed to traffic under construction or repair.
(d) Upon a roadway restricted to one-way traffic.
(e) When the roadway is not of sufficient width.
(f) When the vehicle is necessarily traveling so slowly as to impede the normal movement of traffic, that portion of the highway adjacent to the right edge of the roadway may be utilized temporarily when in a condition permitting safe operation.
(g) This section does not prohibit the operation of bicycles on any shoulder of a highway, where the operation is not otherwise prohibited by this code or local ordinance.​

​

​

(no flares set up and no officer(s) directing traffic)
….
Again, no officers were even on site to direct the flow of traffic and there were no flares on the road.

If there were flares on the road, or if there were officers directing traffic to the wrong side of the road and then into your driveway, then that would be an indication that you could pass through the road block either around the flares or in the direction that the officer(s) indicated. The fact that neither were there and yet you still went through (and since your going through does not fall under any of the conditions allowing passage under 21650 might suggest that your “I didn't know” there was nobody there to tell me what to do might not fly.

So everything is under control...

Did you decide that on your own or were you told that "everything was under control"???

so I decided to move my car out of the way so that when the firemen were done, my car wouldn't be blocking the road.

So you do realize that by parking there, your car may have been in the way in case emergency vehicles, equipment or personnel needed to get through... And by you deciding to move it again where it may possibly be in the way again.

Is there anything I can do?

Obviously you can plead not guilty and fight it. But you're going to need a sympathetic judge to get these citations dismissed. Just my view.

 

[wangjt]

"I only read the last actual paragraph of your post (I know, I'm lazy), and here are my thoughts: a road block is there to block your travel. You questioned the fact that they left a gap for one to drive through, but then admitted that you had to drive on the WRONG side of the road to take advantage of this gap. *shrug* Pointing that irony out is really the only actual insight I can offer."

Yes I know. But it was fact that earlier, an officer had already directed my neighbor to do so, driving on the wrong side of the road, around the road block. When my wife and I did it, we were issued a ticket (not sure if it was the same officer or not).

"While I am not clear on where the police vehicles were and where you parked the first time and second time"

We first parked on our neighbor's driveway. (they are also considered behind the road block). There was an officer directing traffic before we arrived and they had allowed my neighbors to go around the road block to get onto their driveway.

"If there were flares on the road, or if there were officers directing traffic to the wrong side of the road and then into your driveway, then that would be an indication that you could pass through the road block either around the flares or in the direction that the officer(s) indicated. The fact that neither were there and yet you still went through (and since your going through does not fall under any of the conditions allowing passage under 21650 might suggest that your “I didn't know” there was nobody there to tell me what to do might not fly."

Yes I see your point. Again, we assumed that because they had already allowed my neighbor's to go around the road block to get onto their property, it would also okay for us to do so. I guess hard lesson learned here that they can allow something for one individual, but not allow the same thing for another.

"Did you decide that on your own or were you told that "everything was under control"???"

I spoke to a firefighter informing them that my neighbors had a pet. He replied to me that everything was already under control and everyone (including pets) were safe.

"So you do realize that by parking there, your car may have been in the way in case emergency vehicles, equipment or personnel needed to get through... And by you deciding to move it again where it may possibly be in the way again."

Yes we do realize that we were in the way. It was one of the reasons that we decided to move off the road and drive our cars into our garage so that we could get out of the way. We were already on our neighbors driveway (which after the flares were set, was obvious we were already behind the road block). We did safely move our cars into our garage. The officer asked for our license/registration immediately after we had parked our cars into our garage.

Quick question about the 15mph ticket issued. That is completely false. There's no way we could have gone that fast looking at how close our driveways were. Does this help in any way or is it irrelevant?

Thanks I_Got_Banned and The Occultist for your responses. If you have anymore information, please let me know.

 

[Zigner]

Yes I know. But it was fact that earlier, an officer had already directed my neighbor to do so, driving on the wrong side of the road, around the road block. When my wife and I did it, we were issued a ticket (not sure if it was the same officer or not).

YOU (and your wife) were NOT directed to do this...

Quick question about the 15mph ticket issued. That is completely false. There's no way we could have gone that fast looking at how close our driveways were. Does this help in any way or is it irrelevant?

Absolutely irrelevant

 

[CdwJava]

All you can do is go to court and explain the situation and hope that the court has sympathy on your plight.

As a note, this is a pet peeve of officers. We establish barricades, block off parts of roads, and try to control traffic yet people often decide that the controls are not meant for them. "I just live right there," is a statement we hear a lot. I recall one night at a flood in San Diego County when I had dozens of people point to a hill on the other side of a 50' swath of 3'deep water and tell me that they lived "right there" and insist they could make it (this was after they had slalomed the cone pattern and edged around two patrol cars).

The reason we tend to leave the outgoing lane open is that, essentially, people are not supposed to ravel IN TO the area that way, so we assume people will obey the law as to the right side of the roadway. We also leave it open so that people can LEAVE the area should they feel the need. And, finally, it is open to facilitate the movement of emergency vehicles in to and out of the area. Blocking off the entire road would require the positioning of an officer at the scene for the entire time so that he or she could move cones, flares, or barricades and guide the necessary traffic.

As I said, you can make your case before a judge, and that is about all you can do.

- Carl

 

[ElvinMelvin]

Yes I know... when you read the ticket without all the details, I did cross a road block and drive onto the wrong side of the road.

That's actually the only detail that matters.

If the cop was so close by as to be able to walk over and hand you a ticket, why didn't you just ask him if it was cool to go past the roadblock?

 

[Jim_bo]

All you can do is go to court and explain the situation and hope that the court has sympathy on your plight.

Sympathy or common sense?

As a note, this is a pet peeve of officers.

Now we are getting to it... the officer was not operating on rational thought... he was acting on emotion!

We establish barricades, block off parts of roads, and try to control traffic yet people often decide that the controls are not meant for them. "I just live right there," is a statement we hear a lot. I recall one night at a flood in San Diego County when I had dozens of people point to a hill on the other side of a 50' swath of 3'deep water and tell me that they lived "right there" and insist they could make it (this was after they had slalomed the cone pattern and edged around two patrol cars).

Carl, the situation you described is absolutely unrelated and irrelevant to the point of being silly. Pretending that the two incidents are synonymous is borderline insulting. The OP didn't cross a river of water, nor did he "slalom" cones and two patrol cars. The OP pulled into his garage. A reasonable person might conclude that putting his car in his garage was safer than leaving it on the street since it did not block any street access.

This is just stupid. The only thing dumber than the cop writing these tickets is the responders here who act like it was a reasonable ticket. I can imagine that if there was a large piece of debris in the road, this same cop might give me a similar ticket for driving around it since there is no exception in 21650 for debris. If that happened, I would also imagine that people would line up here telling me how the cop was right to cite me as I did travel in the left side of the road. People here love to look at the hyper-technicalities to defend the actions of the infalible cops, but when it is suggested that a defendant actually hold the state accountable for adhering to the law or present a defense based on the law, that is declared as a "loophole" and "irresponsible"!!

So, to be accurate, and accepting that Carl's perspective is correct in that the cop had his car parked in such a manner as to restrict traffic to one direction... then subsection (d) clearly provides an exception to the 21650 requirement of driving on the right hand side of the road.

So, I'm sure someone will be quick to follow up with a post of how I am suggesting that the OP avoid responsibility and how my interpretation is not reasonable. But, the truth is clear... the OP did not endanger anyone; he was concerned about his property and pets; he did clear his car from the roadway allowing greater access for emergency vehicles and he did adhere to the black letter reading of the statute.

 

[ElvinMelvin]

he did adhere to the black letter reading of the statute.

Ummmm.....no.

The statute has 7 exceptions for vehicles to be traveling on other than the right side of the road. The only one that even comes close here is "(c) When the right half of a roadway is closed to traffic under construction or repair."

But the road was not closed due to construction or repair, so it does not apply.

To which black letter reading are you referring?

 

[CdwJava]

Sympathy or common sense?

A little of both, I suppose. It might depend on why the police had the road blocked off.

Now we are getting to it... the officer was not operating on rational thought... he was acting on emotion!

Again, a little of both. You can't expect the officer to continuously be standing in one stationary spot to address the questions of passersby. Very often, he or she has a half dozen things to do and there is a reason for the blockage. It could be safety, or it could be that there is a hose stretched across the road. Who knows? Either way, we expect people to obey the rules of the road which generally preclude people from traveling in the wrong lane or going around barricades.

Carl, the situation you described is absolutely unrelated and irrelevant to the point of being silly. Pretending that the two incidents are synonymous is borderline insulting.

I told a story, Jim ... you're being both far too sensitive and far too literal. I twas not meant to infer the incidents as similar only to illustrate the type of things we have to deal with at the scene of traffic control and the argument that people make concerning, "I only live right there." For some reason many people think that their resident's proximity exempts them from heeding the law.

Relax.

And the section does not require that anyone be endangered, only that the driver ignore the barricade and drive on the wrong side of the road. Would I care if the judge dismissed it? No. Would I have issued the citation? Maybe not. Does it appear to be valid and lawful? Yeah.

- Carl

 

[wangjt]

Thanks everyone for your replies. It's been very helpful and insightful and I will take everything that's said in here to do what's right. If the courts determine that I did break the law, I am prepared and responsible enough to bear the consequences (regardless of how much I believe otherwise).

CdwJava, thanks for the insight from an officer's point of view. This is really helpful to me. I fully understand the reasons for barricades, and why parts of roads are blocked and I truly respect the work of firemen/police officers. I would never do anything intentionally to get in the way of their job. I want to assure everyone, I did not have the mentality "oh my house is right there... I can make it there by going around." If it was made obvious at the time that the space we drove through was not meant for us, we definitely would not have drove through it. I can't imagine anyone purposely crossing flares/ignoring roadblocks, etc with police officers in the vicinity.

The point I'm really emphasizing is that when I was 1/2 parked on my neighbor's driveway, I was already in this "restricted space". To even get onto my neighbor's driveway, we had to drive through the cleared path which is on the wrong side of the road . I'm positive an officers saw it since we were there for a good 20+ min on my neighbor's driveway. No one said anything then and we thought at the time that since they had previously allowed my neighbor to use that space to get onto his driveway, getting to my driveway would also be allowed. I decided to move my car because where my car was currently parked, it was obviously in their way. The mentality I had when I moved my car was more of a "I shouldn't be blocking this space. They may need to use this space at anytime. I should move my car and stay clear out of their way so that they can do their job".

And Yes, I totally agree with you that they are busy and I can't expect them to dedicate someone to stand there the whole time directing traffic. I don't know if this is a valid argument, but shouldn't there be signs or signals set up indicating where the road block starts if the officers were to go off to do another task? If you agree they don't need to set up signs and make it obvious, does this mean that I can also be written up for not stopping at a stop sign if there were no stop sign?

I wasn't ignoring the barricades. I was under the impression that the space I drove on was not part of the barricade and was made available to allow cars to pass (support vehicles to enter/exit, access to our driveways, etc).

I'm lead to believe the officer could also see how the road block could be confusing because about 5 minutes after he issues us tickets, road flares were put up. Isn't that like saying, I know there were no stop signs but you were suppose to stop there. I'm going to give you a ticket right now. I'll put up that stop sign up afterward so you can see that you were suppose to stop back there. To me, it seems almost like an ex-post-facto case but I don't know how that will hold up if I try to explain this in court. Really, if road flares and other signs were set up before hand and I just drove through ignoring it because "oh my house is right there"... I would gladly accept that I did something wrong. But that wasn't the case.

"That's actually the only detail that matters.
If the cop was so close by as to be able to walk over and hand you a ticket, why didn't you just ask him if it was cool to go past the roadblock?"

ElvinMelvin, I want to mention that there were no officers anywhere near the front of the road block. I would definitely have asked if they were close by. They where gathered around the fire trucks near the house that caught on fire. One of them happened to see us move our cars into our garage and came over from wherever he was. I did not go to ask for permission beforehand because when I talked to the firemen earlier, he asked me to stay off to the side and give them their space. I did not want to disrespect his request and the main reason I moved my car was really to give them more space/stay out of their way.

 

[demurringdude]

Ummmm.....no.
To which black letter reading are you referring?

He said right there in his post that it was (d).

 

[ElvinMelvin]

He said right there in his post that it was (d).

My bad.

He's still wrong.

(d) means that you do not have to drive on the right side of the road if it is a one-way street. It does not apply if the police have put up a barricade closing traffic to one direction in an emergency.

 

[demurringdude]

My bad.

He's still wrong.

(d) means that you do not have to drive on the right side of the road if it is a one-way street. It does not apply if the police have put up a barricade closing traffic to one direction in an emergency.

I don't see where it says any of that in the Code. Is there some case law?

 

[Zigner]

I don't see where it says any of that in the Code. Is there some case law?

What are you smoking? A temporary barrier doesn't magically turn a two-way street in to a one-way street.