West Virginia - Should I challenge this citation?

[DooWahDitty3]

I have an Ohio Driver's License, living in Morgantown WV, going to Grad School at WVU. Offense occurred in Morgantown.

I only have a few days left to respond to this citation, so if you could reply quickly I would appreciate it greatly.

I was driving in normal, daylight driving conditions when the vehicle 4 cars in front of me slammed on his brakes in an emergency stop. Through the course of dealing with the accident and talking to everyone involved, I still have no information as to why he slammed on his brakes, other than that the person in front of him did too. We were all traveling about 40+ mph (in a 50mph zone, I believe) and still accelerating after turning onto the road at a light. Car 2 ran into Car 1, after which Car 3 ran into Car 2. Car 4 (directly in front of mine) narrowly avoided running into the back of Car 3 (even after I hit him) but I was unable to stop in time and hit the back of Car 4. Car 6 ran into the back of me as well, but caused little damage.

Since Car 4 stopped before hitting Car 3, the officers treated it as two separate accidents. I was cited with "failure to maintain control of the vehicle" - I don't know if anyone else was cited (I know Car 4 was NOT, but that makes sense), but I would assume they were. Regardless, I feel like I was paying attention and reacted quickly to the situation... as soon as I saw his brakelights I hit my brakes, as soon as I realized how hard he was stopping, I went into an emergency stop myself. I was following what I believed was a safe distance behind him... I guess just not safe enough for an all-out stop plus reaction time. Cutting over onto the shoulder was not an option because a trash pick-up vehicle was going right down beside me as the accident happened. I looked up road test data on my vehicle versus the vehicle in front of me, and his car has a much better 60-0 stop distance than my vehicle, but I doubt that helps.

Do I have any chance in court, or does the fact that I ran into the guy in front of me - regardless of what was going on in front of him - mean that I definitely should be cited? The ticket will be $180 (plus the extra charge to my insurance, I assume), but when I looked into trying to contest the ticket, I was informed that there would be a court charge of $165 to do so. Does that make sense? I thought it was free to appeal a citation... I can hardly afford to pay the $180, much less almost $350 (plus the cost of trying to get my car fixed), so I'm very nervous about challenging the citation unless I'm sure I have a decent argument! I kind of feel like I am being kept from being fairly tried because I can't afford the court fees...What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[FlyingRon]

You are expected to leave responsible stopping distance between you and the preceding car so that if he needs to "slam on the brakes" you can stop without hitting him.

 

[DooWahDitty3]

I kind of figured it might be as cut-and-dried as that. Thanks for the response. Does anybody disagree? When I spoke to my insurance company, they strongly recommended I challenge the citation...

 

[Zigner]

You should challenge the citation in the hopes that you can get it lowered or dismissed outright thus saving you money on insurance.

However, the citation WAS proper. You did not allow sufficient space between you and the vehicle in front of you.

 

[Maestro64]

You already pointed on what I was going to say about different cars have different stopping distance these days.

My car can go from 60 to 0 in 114 ft (non-emergency stop) compared to most cars on the roads with stopping distance of 150 and 200 ft for the same speed.

Even if you were following my car and were maintaining the recommended following distance and I did an emergence stop you would hit me if your car stopping distance was closer to 200 ft. For most drivers there is no way to know if the car in front of you has the higher performance stopping than average. Also if the person in front of you was not paying attention and did not hit their brakes in time and hit the car in front of them, your ability to stop even following at a safe distance could have been cut in half.

It is easy for people to say you were following to close, but unless you know car has better brakes, how do you know to double your following distance. If you are following a BMW beware they have one of the best stopping distances of all cars on the roads.

I personally never worry about my ability to stop fast enough, I always worry about the person behind me since I know they can not stop as quick as my car. This is also the reason I tend to watch the cars that is couple of cars ahead, when I see their brake lights I am already on my brakes. I do not wait for the car in front of me to hit his brakes.

You could present these facts to the judge and maybe win, because even doing everything right on your part still could have cause you to hit the person in front of you. So the state will penalize you for having a cheaper less performing car then the person in front of you. However, as you pointed out it looks like WV does not want people contesting tickets especially when the cost to do so is greater then the ticket itself.