Disregarding a Stop Sign --Officer's view obstructed?

[ellieandy]

South Carolina

I was pulled over around 8:00pm a few weeks ago for disregarding a stop sign. I told the officer that I was confident that I had stopped. He said no, I said ok and shut up.

35 minutes later, I get my ticket and it's 235 dollars.

I realize what happened.

I drive a stick shift car. This means :
1. I am very aware of when I start and stop. I have to start all over when I stop. So if I say that I stopped, its because I know that I just had to start over in gears.
2. I can get back to the speed limit, 30 mph, very quickly, so if the stop sign is obstructed it will look like I did not stop.

The sign was obstructed by a very large and in charge bush. I went back to the scene the next day to take photos from the position the officer would have been .I chose three locations within the space I estimated him to be, including a very closeup(I don't really think he was that close, as he was not close enough for drivers to see him).

These pictures make it nearly impossible to see a white car stopped(shown in pictures). My car is green and blends in.

Do you think this will be dismissed if I plead not guilty?

I don't know if I can post links to pictures but I will try.
http://i901.photobucket.com/albums/ac217/ellieandie/Stop SIgn/Ellenstop002.jpg
You can see the white car approaching the sign.
http://i901.photobucket.com/albums/ac217/ellieandie/Stop SIgn/Ellenstop003.jpg
Here, the white car is stopped(past the sign a bit).
http://i901.photobucket.com/albums/ac217/ellieandie/Stop SIgn/Ellenstop004.jpg
You can really see the bush up close, which is why I included this one.

 

[LSCAP]

I would not include the close up picture.

Get a picture where he really was.

Actually the car, or parts of it, are always visible.

You might get a break from the DA, so it's worth a try.
And don't forget to mention the manual shift, and stopped to go back to first gear.

 

[racer72]

I would not include the close up picture.

Get a picture where he really was.

Actually the car, or parts of it, are always visible.

You might get a break from the DA, so it's worth a try.
And don't forget to mention the manual shift, and stopped to go back to first gear.

Don't mention the type of tranmission your car has, it is irrelevant. Other than a 66 Pontiac Lemans that had no syncro in 1st gear, ever other manual transmission car I have driven and virtually all built in the past 30 plus years have 1st gear syncros, dropping the shifter into 1st at 5 to 10 mph and driving away is not a problem. Experienced judges know this, they likely hear this a number of times each month. I watched one judge (a female judge too) give an obvious gearhead a lesson on clutches when he assumed she would know nothing about them.

 

[I_Got_Banned]

Personally, I don't think the pictures prove or disprove anything... The 'close up" does not help your argument and the two others are from the same location. What if the officer says he was closer? You have no idea where he was!

Also, I agree with racer's analogy. You don't have to be at a dead stop to shift back into 1st nor do you need to be in 1st gear to roll from a dead stop.

So a saying "I know I stopped because I downshifted to first gear" doesn't cast much doubt on the officer's testimony if he says you rolled through...

 

[LSCAP]

I've been driving for over fifty years and am well aware of synchronized first gears.
And in a way, I was trying to bump this up until wiser heads appeared.

And I suppose I should have explained further.
If you are still rolling and drop it into first gear and let up the clutch without matching the engine speed, the car has a tendency to jerk, and you would have definitely noticed it.

But you’re right about not mentioning it because, most people would not know how to explain it.

And as for the pictures, Unfortunately they show parts of the car, which goes against the driver. But if the motorists can’t see him, ‘just how far away was he?”

And why was there a bush that big, (a dangerous condition) at the corner, and the cop hiding?