Advice Regarding Traffic Infraction: Running A Stop Sign (California)

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Hi parents, I hope you are not too sick of topics like these. I would like to ask for some advice, since I am not very familiar with the system.</p>

<p>First of all, I did not run the stop sign. I know just about everyone says that they are not guilty, but I really did not run it…</p>

<p>You do not have to read this part, but if you are interested, this is what happened:
-I pulled up to a stop sign, with a car in front of me.
-The car in front of me goes through the intersection.
-When I’m right behind the line, an elderly couple crosses the street in front of me, on the other side of the intersection.
-As the couple reaches the other side of the sidewalk, I saw two girls at the corner, and they started to cross.
-While all these people are crossing, the cars on the other sides went through, since I was unable to go anywhere.
-After the two girls are done, it seemed like it was my turn. I had stopped for a while (since the people were crossing), plus the other cars that had newly approached the stop signs were not moving, so I went. I did not zoom across right away, though.
-Shortly after I made it through the intersection, a police car came out of nowhere and was close behind me… its lights started flashing so I pulled over.</p>

<p>The police officer said that I ran the stop sign. I did not try to argue with him, but I thought it was really weird since I actually stopped for longer than usual. I am trying to figure out why exactly I got the infraction… Anyway, my question is, what do I do now? I plan to go to the court on the specified date. What will happen then? And is there anything I could do now? Would going to traffic school help, and how do I arrange that?</p>

<p>One more thing: I recognize one of the girls that was crossing the street. She definitely looked at me, but I am not positive she recognized me. Would it help at all to contact her? Having a witness for something like this seems odd to me. The only thing she would be able to testify is that I stopped at the stop sign, though. What if the officer thought that I did not wait long enough after the people crossed, or that it was not my turn? But honestly, that seems strange to me, because I was obviously stopped for a long time, while waiting for the people. Even if he thought that, is it really “running a stop sign?”</p>

<p>This is my first ticket (and hopefully I will not be getting another soon…), so I am just nervous. Thank you for your help!</p>

<p>Sorry, I meant to post this in Parent Cafe. Could a mod please move this thread?</p>

2

<p>If you know the girl who was crossing the street – it would be a good idea to contact her now. (If you wait, she is likely to forget the incident). Ask her if she remembers seeing you – and if she does, ask her if she would sign a statement saying that. The statement is not admissible in court, but having her sign a statement early on will help her remember later on – and your trial date is likely to be at least 2 or 3 months from now. </p>

<p>If you want to fight the ticket, there will be two court appearances. The first one will be to enter your not guilty plea and set a trial date, and the second one will be for a trial. The trial will consist of an appearance before a judge or traffic commisioner; the police officer will also appear to give testimony. If the police officer doesn’t show up, then the case will be dismissed. </p>

<p>Anything you can do to help prepare your case will be helpful – for example, you can take some photos of the intersection and all the signs, and print out a map so that you can have the officer clearly identify where he was observing from and what he claims he saw. </p>

<p>You really should fight the case; there is nothing to lose but the time & energy involved in fighting it – which really only comes down to a few hours. If the girl who saw you does remember, then of course you will want to try to get her to come to court for you on the trial day. There really is no way that I can see that you violated the law – since you were clearly stopped at the intersection for quite awhile. </p>

<p>Traffic school is something you do if you are convicted of the infraction, or if you want to avoid going to court. It will get the infraction off your record, but it is the same as pleading guilty. So again… you are no worse off for fighting the case. </p>

<p>At least if you go to court you will be able to find out what the police officer claims to have seen.</p>

3

<p>From your description you should fight the ticket. As calmom said, you go to court, plead ‘not guilty’ and will have to show up at court again at some other date. On that date the officer will have to come in and it’s your story against the officer’s. If the officer doesn’t show then you win. I don’t know if you can use witnesses or not but if the girl recognized you and is willing to go as well, then great. Plan on spending at least half a day in court unless you get lucky and are called up near the beginning of the day. </p>

<p>Do you know where you were relative to the stop line? It’s possible the officer saw you stop but thought it was past the stop line or something. Be prepared for this point just in case. The officer might also have thought that even though you stopped you didn’t yield adequately - i.e. there were pedestrians or cars still needing to be yielded to. Be prepared for this also. While it’s fairly fresh in your mind, write down exactly what you thought the officer said to you, your responses, and exactly what was happening in the intersection while you were stopped. Remember the time of day. </p>

<p>Next time you get stopped I suggest getting as much info as you can out of the officer and politely stating your side of the story. They might just let you go, especially if they figure you’ll fight it in court and probably win - they don’t want to waste their time. ‘Polite’ is the key word here.</p>

<p>calmom’s correct on the traffic school part as well - you go after being convicted.</p>

<p>Actually, calmom’s spot on regarding all her points. I’m just reinforcing what she said.</p>

4

<p>The girl and I have never talked to each other, but we have had a class before, and if I saw correctly, she did look my way, so it is very possible that she recognized me. I honestly would feel very bad dragging someone, whether I know him/her or not, into something like this, but I just sent her a message on Facebook.</p>

<p>Thank you to both of you for clearing things up. And thank you ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad for offering the possible reasons why I got pulled over. I am still thinking that it might be what happened after the pedestrians crossed. I do not know where the cop was hiding, but it is hard to miss seeing people cross the street, so it would be weird for him to think that I did not stop at all. Thinking about it from another perspective still perplexes me, however.</p>

<p>Neither the officer nor I said much, actually… I was thinking that that was not the time to argue my case or to explain too much if he was to give me the citation anyway, so I just immediately planned to go to court. His words seemed pretty straightforward at the time, but after reading what you stated, maybe I should have asked him what “running the stop sign” exactly meant… haha.</p>

5

<p>Just one more point of clarification: you definitely CAN have witnesses at a traffic court trial. You actually have all the legal rights of any other trial – to put on your own witnesses, to cross-examine all the witnesses against you, etc.</p>

6

<p>Years ago I went to court to fight a “running a red light citation” and got the judge to reduce the fine in half and not putting the infraction in record.</p>

<p>I was crossing an intersection that was quite wider than usual (thus take a long time to cross) and the green light lasted only about 7 seconds (also shorter than usual). I contended that I was a little late in response to the change of light (I was the only car late at night) and by the time I moved my car the light changed. I video taped the intersection and brought along my friend who was sitting in the passenger seat.</p>

<p>The officer was upset about the judge’s decision while I was happy about the part not going on the record.</p>

7

<p>Ah, congratulations about that, morningbird.</p>

<p>I think I will go back later day to take some pictures of the intersection, though I am not sure what that would do. Also, the girl has not replied to my message yet, and she really is the most direct witness as she actually crossed right in front of me, but at one of the corners of the intersection is the high school’s basketball courts, which is open to the public. People go there to play all the time, and since the police car basically appeared behind me right after I crossed the intersection, it is also possible that someone in the courts might have seen it. This seems more like a long shot, but if having a witness would make a great difference, I plan to also go around the courts and ask tonight.</p>

8

<p>I would actually recommend fighting the ticket by requesting a trial by written declaration. I don’t necessarily agree with the POV of this site but they give some good information about trial in absentia: <a href=“http://www.ticketassassin.com/whyfight.html[/url]”>http://www.ticketassassin.com/whyfight.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;