Occurred in NYC (NY State)
Flushing Queens
Making left from Main St (South Bound) onto Horace Harding Expressway (East Bound)
Long line of traffic in dedicated left turn lane with little movement for several minutes/traffic light cycles. I move to "regular" left lane and make left turn from there. There was no sign or marking in this lane indicating I could/could not make the left.
I am not claiming ignorance in fighting the ticket but I am only now aware this was an illegal turn/maneuver. I thought you were allowed to make a turn like this if the road you are turning on to had multiple lanes (in other words, left turn lane turns into left lane, next lane over can turn into right lane) and no sign preventing the turn.
Cops were clearly sitting at intersection, waiting for this.
I passed the intersection 10 minutes earlier on my way to a gas station and they had someone else pulled over. It seems like they lie in wait for people like myself to make this turn because the intersection's lights appear to be poorly timed, causing the backup.
Typical governmental BS: rather than fix a problem, give the public violations and create revenue. But I digress...
So, I received a 1163a violation, which through some Googling this morning, seems to normally given to people who failed to signal. I did signal and the officer's comments on the ticket only say "Improper Turn".
As I am not a lawyer, I find the wording of 1163a to be somewhat vague in regards to whether it applies here and not sure why it normally applies to signal tickets.
The ticket itself is written by a cop who has poor handwriting. I know technicalities are unlikely to have the ticket thrown out in NYC but the make of the vehicle (Honda) is completely illegible. Several written numbers and numbers look they they can be more than one number/letter or something else entirely and even his name is confusingly written. I remember it to be "Vega" and at best, it looks like "Vela".
Perhaps the technicality with the most potential is that the officer simply wrote "N/S" for the registration expiration date. My car is new (less than 2 weeks old) and I have a NYS temporary registration sticker. I have to look at my temporary registration later but I assume it should have some sort of expiration date.
I know this is a violation that can have impact on insurance rates and recently had a claim. My insurance hasn't been jacked up yet but I assume it will be during the next renewal.
Is there anything I've stated that gives me hope to fight it or should I suck it up and go the attorney route?
Flushing Queens
Making left from Main St (South Bound) onto Horace Harding Expressway (East Bound)
Long line of traffic in dedicated left turn lane with little movement for several minutes/traffic light cycles. I move to "regular" left lane and make left turn from there. There was no sign or marking in this lane indicating I could/could not make the left.
I am not claiming ignorance in fighting the ticket but I am only now aware this was an illegal turn/maneuver. I thought you were allowed to make a turn like this if the road you are turning on to had multiple lanes (in other words, left turn lane turns into left lane, next lane over can turn into right lane) and no sign preventing the turn.
Cops were clearly sitting at intersection, waiting for this.
I passed the intersection 10 minutes earlier on my way to a gas station and they had someone else pulled over. It seems like they lie in wait for people like myself to make this turn because the intersection's lights appear to be poorly timed, causing the backup.
Typical governmental BS: rather than fix a problem, give the public violations and create revenue. But I digress...
So, I received a 1163a violation, which through some Googling this morning, seems to normally given to people who failed to signal. I did signal and the officer's comments on the ticket only say "Improper Turn".
As I am not a lawyer, I find the wording of 1163a to be somewhat vague in regards to whether it applies here and not sure why it normally applies to signal tickets.
"Proper position" is what I find to be vague."No person shall turn a vehicle at an intersection unless the vehicle is in proper position upon the roadway as required in section eleven hundred sixty"
The ticket itself is written by a cop who has poor handwriting. I know technicalities are unlikely to have the ticket thrown out in NYC but the make of the vehicle (Honda) is completely illegible. Several written numbers and numbers look they they can be more than one number/letter or something else entirely and even his name is confusingly written. I remember it to be "Vega" and at best, it looks like "Vela".
Perhaps the technicality with the most potential is that the officer simply wrote "N/S" for the registration expiration date. My car is new (less than 2 weeks old) and I have a NYS temporary registration sticker. I have to look at my temporary registration later but I assume it should have some sort of expiration date.
I know this is a violation that can have impact on insurance rates and recently had a claim. My insurance hasn't been jacked up yet but I assume it will be during the next renewal.
Is there anything I've stated that gives me hope to fight it or should I suck it up and go the attorney route?