State: Michigan
Similarly to all of the other posts on this forum, I'm going to state "I have an absolutely clean driving record... this was a completely unique event," and it will be a total lie. Truth is, I have a few tickets (speeding and the likes), but the last of them is just over 3 years old. Since then I've become a better driver (both in the sense of not doing dumb stuff and not getting caught).
Earlier this afternoon, I was leaving a gas station onto a semi-busy road at about 5:30 PM (busy time). I turned onto the road and the back end slid out (high-torque rear-wheel drive sports car... it happens). I made sure that I had plenty of room between myself and other cars before turning, I didn't cross into the other lane, I wasn't very close to any cars and I posed no real threat to any person or property. This was just a regular, coming out of a parking lot, slightly down hill slide... again, it happens.
Traveling the opposite direction was a local police car (the fuzz, if you will). He pulled a U-Turn, and I knew it was for me, so I quickly pulled off into a parking lot. He came up to the car, made some smart ass comment about how it was raining and I should have known the car was going to slide. I kept my opinions to myself, said ok and handed him my license, registration and insurance. He came back with a ticket for Careless Driving.
I have read over the ticket, all of the info is accurrate and legibile (this guy isn't joking around). However, there are no details whatsoever written on the ticket. It says simply "Careless Driving" under description.
Under the state code (257.626B), it says that careless driving includes the endangerment of persons and / or property, which was not the case here. Is a defense under the premise that no persons or propery were in danger and that I was not subjectively negligent enough to warrant this infraction? If not, do I have any other defense given the subjectivity of this incident / infraction?
That aside, should I just hope to make the date for informal hearing, hope the cop doesn't show and request that the magistrate dismiss the ticket?
Thank You,
Andrew Madonna
Similarly to all of the other posts on this forum, I'm going to state "I have an absolutely clean driving record... this was a completely unique event," and it will be a total lie. Truth is, I have a few tickets (speeding and the likes), but the last of them is just over 3 years old. Since then I've become a better driver (both in the sense of not doing dumb stuff and not getting caught).
Earlier this afternoon, I was leaving a gas station onto a semi-busy road at about 5:30 PM (busy time). I turned onto the road and the back end slid out (high-torque rear-wheel drive sports car... it happens). I made sure that I had plenty of room between myself and other cars before turning, I didn't cross into the other lane, I wasn't very close to any cars and I posed no real threat to any person or property. This was just a regular, coming out of a parking lot, slightly down hill slide... again, it happens.
Traveling the opposite direction was a local police car (the fuzz, if you will). He pulled a U-Turn, and I knew it was for me, so I quickly pulled off into a parking lot. He came up to the car, made some smart ass comment about how it was raining and I should have known the car was going to slide. I kept my opinions to myself, said ok and handed him my license, registration and insurance. He came back with a ticket for Careless Driving.
I have read over the ticket, all of the info is accurrate and legibile (this guy isn't joking around). However, there are no details whatsoever written on the ticket. It says simply "Careless Driving" under description.
Under the state code (257.626B), it says that careless driving includes the endangerment of persons and / or property, which was not the case here. Is a defense under the premise that no persons or propery were in danger and that I was not subjectively negligent enough to warrant this infraction? If not, do I have any other defense given the subjectivity of this incident / infraction?
That aside, should I just hope to make the date for informal hearing, hope the cop doesn't show and request that the magistrate dismiss the ticket?
Thank You,
Andrew Madonna