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  #1  
Old 10-20-2003, 12:13 PM
ClueKeeper
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Angry

Ticket for wrong lane, gravel road


What is the name of your state? Missouri.

I received a ticket for "failure to drive on right half of roadway when road of sufficient width resulting in an accident". The road is a county road, gravel. No marked lanes. Both sides of the road had piles of gravel on each edge. We were traveling in center of road to keep from being pulled into the ditch. Met another vehicle around a blind curve, also in center of road. My car skidded when I went to slow down (did not apply brake as we would have skidded worse). Gravel pulled us off the right side of the road, flipping our car.
We did not hit the other car. We did not damage any property (except for our own vehicle). The only injury was my husband's right arm (needed stitches for being drug in the gravel when his window broke as we skidded on our right side for 15 feet.) Our car was a 2002 Mitsubishi Galant, very light weight.
What can I do to fight this ticket and win? The other driver was not cited for driving in the center. The road is gravel and it is very hard to drive on the right with a large amount of gravel piled on the sides. We also met on a sharp curve that slanted out towards the ditch we ended up in. There was no way to contain the skid because the road was also very dry and all of the gravel was loose.
How can I find a copy of a proceeding that references similar problem? Found one in MO statutes that said it is okay to drive on left if part of road is in fact impassable and unavailable for tavel (there was no way I was taking the far right side of that road that day). Case cites Tiner v. Hill (A.), 394 S.W.2d 425. Another I want is Hadley v. Smith (A.), 268 S.W.2d.444 (similar response)
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Old 10-20-2003, 03:50 PM
BillyBG
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"What can I do to fight this ticket and win?"

Bring a copy of the statute you mentioned and explain your case and see if the judge agrees with you. You should have gotten a failure to control speed ticket instead.
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Old 10-27-2003, 02:26 PM
ClueKeeper
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Went to court. I plea bargained. Turns out the prosecuting attorney is got his law degree from the college I work at. I didn't know that until after we struck a deal.

I told him what I really didn't want was points on my license. After much debate, I got the ticket reduced from "Failure to maintain right half of roadway" (A class C Misdemeanor) to "Defective Muffler" (of all things). Also got him to go down on the fine to only $100 (would have been $85 if it were really just a defective muffler but he originally wanted $150 for the fine). Plus, I won't have anything on my record and I don't have to take more time from work to go back. Not bad.

Also helped another lady in court that day and the judge even thanked me for my good citizenship (gave her a ride over to the Public Defenders office as she was from out of town and had been left at the courthouse by her friends).
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