Fail to yield ticket

[ndcent]

Yesterday on my way to work I got a ticket for "fail to yield" when I pulled West onto a 4-lane street.

Cop said I didn't give enough distance or caution/yield to a car traveling East on this street and "almost" caused an accident.

This is typically a very busy street and you have to be pretty brave to make this left/West turn, but having lived down the street from it for five years I'm pretty used to it.

This was at 5:45, street wasn't busy, there was no Westbound traffic, only the eastbound few cars including the one that I didn't give enough distance to turn in front of.

There's a few mistakes on the ticket such as "heavy traffic" FALSE it was 5:45 in the morning. And that it was "clear" visibility when it was dark outside at this hour, sunrise still 20 min out.

Worth fighting? I can't get through to the clerk/court to see what the fine, which I don't care about money but it's a principle/points issue for me.

Also 500 yards in any direction there are hand to hand drug deals and prostitutes and these two cop turds want to hassle me on some bs? F them.

 

[RunninInGA]

I don't think general inaccuracies on the ticket precludes the enforcement of the offense.

This offense sounds subjective though. If I had the time and wanted to go through the hassle - I would absolutely fight it.

 

[LandCruiser]

A cop can say whatever he wants when he writes you a traffic ticket. It's just a racket for making money--a sort of road tax.

You could try to fight it, but it all depends on whether you will be charged additional court fees if you do, especially if you lose.

 

[IanB]

Every ticket is worth fighting IMO.

 

[westwind77]

Be a man, suck it up. You admitted to being wrong and at fault, you got busted. Deal with it. This what is wrong with our world, people just behave how they want and piss and moan that someone did not use a capital letter so therefor they do not have to follow the rules. Clear means no rain/snow/fog, has nothing to do with day/night. I'm not a cop, nor have any cop friends, just a man who accepts the results of his actions as his own. If you said that you did not do what he said that would be different, but you did not. Just my thoughts.

 

[blue dog]

Its worth fighting, if the cop does not show up, you win.

 

[KCcarguy]

Also 500 yards in any direction there are hand to hand drug deals and prostitutes and these two cop turds want to hassle me on some bs? F them.

Issuing traffic tickets pays much better than arresting thugs who will get slapped on the wrist anyway. It's a hell of a lot safer too.

 

[zopperman]

Every ticket is worth fighting IMO.

Its worth fighting, if the cop does not show up, you win.

Issuing traffic tickets pays much better than arresting thugs who will get slapped on the wrist anyway. It's a hell of a lot safer too.

all this x 2

 

[vipergrhd]

Fight!

I would fight just because you know that you got a chance of getting off or reduce the fine you could also reschedule your court date if i'm not mistaken to drag the process and the chances of the cop not showing up on the day of the hearing.just my 2 pennies.

 

[04rnr]

Be a man, suck it up. You admitted to being wrong and at fault, you got busted. Deal with it. This what is wrong with our world, people just behave how they want and piss and moan that someone did not use a capital letter so therefor they do not have to follow the rules. Clear means no rain/snow/fog, has nothing to do with day/night. I'm not a cop, nor have any cop friends, just a man who accepts the results of his actions as his own. If you said that you did not do what he said that would be different, but you did not. Just my thoughts.

totally agree... you got caught, man up.

 

[JB.]

Caught doing what?

It's wasn't a binary infraction, as in it happened or it didn't (don't blame me for thinking I needed to explain that). It was a judgement call.

You guys think police never err in judgement?

 

[LandCruiser]

Last time I fought a ticket, it was a 206 dollar 14 over the limit ticket in butt**** unincorporated Florida.

I took a day off from work, drove 60 miles, told the Judge the trooper was wrong and I wasn't going 84, but 74--he had clocked the truck that passed me FROM THE RIGHT.

The judge thanked me for wasting his time, said the "ray-darr gun don't lie," slapped me with the 206 fee, plus 1000 for court costs (he probably had 2 hookers on the clock in his chambers at the time), applied points against my license, and made me take a mandatory driver improvement course in his town that I had to attend (most Florida courses are on-line).

Super.

If you fight a ticket, make sure that the municipality issuing it doesn't charge you an arm and a leg if you lose.

At that point I hired an expensive lawyer to appeal and harass the shit out of the trooper and judge--out of sheer spite. I eventually got the charges dropped, but wound up spending 3 grand on a 206 dollar ticket.

 

[RunninInGA]

Be a man, suck it up. You admitted to being wrong and at fault, you got busted. Deal with it. This what is wrong with our world, people just behave how they want and piss and moan that someone did not use a capital letter so therefor they do not have to follow the rules. Clear means no rain/snow/fog, has nothing to do with day/night. I'm not a cop, nor have any cop friends, just a man who accepts the results of his actions as his own. If you said that you did not do what he said that would be different, but you did not. Just my thoughts.

totally agree... you got caught, man up.

You guys are telling him to man up......by being submissive? Doesn't make sense.

 

[bofa]

I used to get up in arms about tickets, especially if I didn't agree with them. It's been a few years, but now I just hire a traffic attorney to handle it, usually end up paying $100 or so to the attorney, maybe the fine (or no fine and a "court fee"), and get no points.

Fight the ticket but it's probably not worth your time to handle it in person. Plus not many people, at least that I know of, have success winning these things pro se. Your only real hope there is a no-show by the cop.

 

[RandyDaytona]

Just an FYI - "clear" on most citations is used to denote the weather, not the level of darkness. If it wasn't foggy or anything like that, it would likely be "clear" regardless of the time.

As for other criminal activity going on in the area, chances are this officer was specifically assigned to work traffic. Or he was passing through and saw you. In either case, the reason for stopping you was observing what appeared to be a violation. No officer in their right mind is going to accost an individual on a street corner who *may* be selling drugs and actually expect to make a legitimate case out of it, because there's no probable cause (i.e. reason) to do so. That's unless they see a violation which they can articulate in court, like 'subject A was assaulting subject B....'

Personally, I would never write something that is not 100% defensible in court - meaning if I have to go to court, I'm going to win. I'm not going to waste the judge's/court's/my time with something that only could be a violation. And to me, it sounds like this was one of those iffy violations, so if you really feel like you didn't do anything wrong, then I'd go to court. The simple fact that "heavy" traffic was noted at that time of day tells me that the officer may have been looking for more justification for writing it. Just my opinion.

I think what the folks who are saying "man up" are advocating is the opposite of my advice - if you feel you really may have been in the wrong, then it's better to just pay it. That's true, as well. I've had 2 tickets in my lifetime and paid them both because I knew I was speeding. So that's a potential course of action, too.

Whatever you decide, I would not go to court just in the hopes of getting off if the officer can't be there or for some other reason unrelated to whether or not you were at fault. That's part of what bogs the judicial process down so much and wastes taxpayer dollars. The process is set up so that you can have your say if you feel there was an error or that you were in the right.

Given what you've posted here, you don't seem to think you were in error, so I'd go to court. Wear a nice suit and have your ducks in a row, i.e. be ready to explain why you feel you weren't wrong. I am not a huge fan of attorneys, especially at this level of the criminal justice system (where they're usually unnecessary), and I think anyone with a shred of intelligence and common sense can represent themselves more than adequately. However, that's also an option if you choose to take it.

 

[Localmotion]

Also 500 yards in any direction there are hand to hand drug deals and prostitutes and these two cop turds want to hassle me on some bs? F them.

Probably not the right attitude to have if you are trying to get out of a ticket.

As many people said previously, it is a subjective ticket. Look up the Ohio traffic code section and read it. See if what you did matches up to what the officer wrote you for.

If you pulled out in front of a car that was headed East and caused the vehicle to swerve or brake heavily, I would say you may have a greater chance losing the case.

As for the information on the summons such as weather and traffic status, those are generally used for statistical purposes. The officer should have taken his own notes after writing you the summons.

If your driving record is clean, I say go to court and put yourself at the mercy of the court. This may result in you receiving driving school instead of negative points on your driving record. If you feel that you did no wrong, plead not guilty and try to argue your case (not recommended w/o an attorney).

just my .02

 

[westwind77]

You guys are telling him to man up......by being submissive? Doesn't make sense.

How is owning up to your own fault submissive? It is called being an adult. If he was doing 55 in and 55 and got a ticket for 70 then he would be right to fight it. He admitted he was in the wrong, so fighting it is a 'baby' thing to do. Teaching people you do not have to follow the rules, just do what you want, cry enough and someone will get sick of hearing you and let you go.

 

[JB.]

He admitted he was in the wrong...

Perhaps you can point to the thread where this occurred because I sure can't find it in this one.

 

[04rnr]

Caught doing what?

"Failing to yield"... as the OP said himself.
Failing to yield, may be a violation of the law where he lives :shrug:

 

[JB.]

"Failing to yield"... as the OP said himself.
Failing to yield, may be a violation of the law where he lives :shrug:

If the OP was driving on the wrong side of the road, there wouldn't be any meaningful judgement by the officer involved. It happened or it didn't. In that case, barring a zombie emergency, I'd say man up.

In the issue at hand, the officer essentially said he didn't like what he saw. Judgement call. Giving it a name - "Failing to yield" - makes it look crisp on paper but doesn't change the fuzzy reality.

Westwind's interpretation notwithstanding, ndcent seems to have judged the situation differently.