What is the name of your state? Virginia
This incident happened in my neighborhood in the early morning hours of November (about 7am) on my way to work. This happened as I was pulling up from a street (25mph) into a road (35mph) that leads to a highway (the ramp is 25mph). Couple of descriptions of the context - it was dark, enough for people to be using headlights, wet(from a previous day rain), and slightly foggy. The location of the stop is very woody, offers no visibility beyond 400 feet on the left. I stop and seeing there was no car on either side, decide to turn. As I turn, this car comes around the corner of the road ( I am entering) driving about 30mph with headlights off (the car was hard to spot). Anyway, I was committed on making the turn, did spot the car and assessing that the car is about 350-400 feet away, continued with turn. This is a very safe negotiation that allows more than 4 sec distance between the cars after the turn. The car was about 300 feet behind when I saw in my rear view mirror. The car then suddenly accelerates and pulls up right behind my car and tailgates. After a while I realize it is a police car. We negotiate about 3/4 of a mile before I am pulled over.
When I am pulled over, the officer tickets me(46.2-821) citing that I "whooshed" over the stop sign, which, of course I disagree but when the officerinsists, I do not debate and say "I definitely remember braking and slowing down.." and before I can complete, The officer says " that is a stop sign", I say "..and I stopped." Officer says "No you didn't". Finally after ticketing shes says "I am sorry I had to ticket instead of a warning". I am late for work and ticketed, so I don't bother to ask why.
District Court date- the officer testifies that I was five car (40-50ft?) distance away(!!) when I turned, and that it was almost an accident (!!) and selectively narrates about the slowing down portion and makes no mention that I had infact disagreed that I had not stopped.
I was shocked to hear such a different recollection from the officer (as they usually log and keep good records). The courts verdict was obvious. How can I defend that !
So, obviously I have now appealed it in Circuit court. Now, I am seeking some advice :
1. Can I use 46.2-880 as reference for braking distances?
2. Even though I am an engineer, will I be allowed to ask questions that relate to general physics and calculations of movement of a car (no expert assessments) or do I still need an expert witness?
3. Can I call the on-board police video (if available) as evidence?
4. Now the vital question- the weakest link is - the 'yielding' scenario. The code says "Before proceeding, he
shall yield the right-of-way to the driver of any vehicle approaching on such other highway from
either direction. ". The critical portion is "before proceeding" and that there was no car when I had decided to proceed. I understand that is ambiguous to debate, and am looking for advice.
My overall perspective is I made a safe maneuver like in a city street (CA DMV recommends half a block distance which is about the same distance I was, and which is how this road behaves during work hours as it gets very busy). There was no "near miss", but the officer had actually accelerated to come up to me (Again , how do I prove this?) and obviously the turn was safe. Having practised safe driving for 18yrs, I find it discouraging to pay for a crime I did not commit.
All advice and criticism is appreciated.
Thanks
This incident happened in my neighborhood in the early morning hours of November (about 7am) on my way to work. This happened as I was pulling up from a street (25mph) into a road (35mph) that leads to a highway (the ramp is 25mph). Couple of descriptions of the context - it was dark, enough for people to be using headlights, wet(from a previous day rain), and slightly foggy. The location of the stop is very woody, offers no visibility beyond 400 feet on the left. I stop and seeing there was no car on either side, decide to turn. As I turn, this car comes around the corner of the road ( I am entering) driving about 30mph with headlights off (the car was hard to spot). Anyway, I was committed on making the turn, did spot the car and assessing that the car is about 350-400 feet away, continued with turn. This is a very safe negotiation that allows more than 4 sec distance between the cars after the turn. The car was about 300 feet behind when I saw in my rear view mirror. The car then suddenly accelerates and pulls up right behind my car and tailgates. After a while I realize it is a police car. We negotiate about 3/4 of a mile before I am pulled over.
When I am pulled over, the officer tickets me(46.2-821) citing that I "whooshed" over the stop sign, which, of course I disagree but when the officerinsists, I do not debate and say "I definitely remember braking and slowing down.." and before I can complete, The officer says " that is a stop sign", I say "..and I stopped." Officer says "No you didn't". Finally after ticketing shes says "I am sorry I had to ticket instead of a warning". I am late for work and ticketed, so I don't bother to ask why.
District Court date- the officer testifies that I was five car (40-50ft?) distance away(!!) when I turned, and that it was almost an accident (!!) and selectively narrates about the slowing down portion and makes no mention that I had infact disagreed that I had not stopped.
I was shocked to hear such a different recollection from the officer (as they usually log and keep good records). The courts verdict was obvious. How can I defend that !
So, obviously I have now appealed it in Circuit court. Now, I am seeking some advice :
1. Can I use 46.2-880 as reference for braking distances?
2. Even though I am an engineer, will I be allowed to ask questions that relate to general physics and calculations of movement of a car (no expert assessments) or do I still need an expert witness?
3. Can I call the on-board police video (if available) as evidence?
4. Now the vital question- the weakest link is - the 'yielding' scenario. The code says "Before proceeding, he
shall yield the right-of-way to the driver of any vehicle approaching on such other highway from
either direction. ". The critical portion is "before proceeding" and that there was no car when I had decided to proceed. I understand that is ambiguous to debate, and am looking for advice.
My overall perspective is I made a safe maneuver like in a city street (CA DMV recommends half a block distance which is about the same distance I was, and which is how this road behaves during work hours as it gets very busy). There was no "near miss", but the officer had actually accelerated to come up to me (Again , how do I prove this?) and obviously the turn was safe. Having practised safe driving for 18yrs, I find it discouraging to pay for a crime I did not commit.
All advice and criticism is appreciated.
Thanks