Cited for Violation of Double Lines, CVC 21460

[whoadave]

I was crossing an intersection and traffic was moving fine, but stopped right as I was approaching the end. The light turned yellow and then red, and my only options were to stay in the intersection and block crossing traffic, or pass the couple of stopped cars in front of me by driving to the left of the double-yellow. I looked down the road and there was no oncoming traffic at all, nor any streets or driveways close enough to catch me off guard while passing the stopped cars, so I figured that was the best route to take for the convenience and safety of all cars involved. I plan using a similarly worded statement to fight the ticket, but I'm wondering if anyone has any additional advice or can point me to any vehicle codes that could help me out. Many thanks.

[Mr. Knowitall]

The other cars in front of you were doing what? Was there a reason not to stop before entering the intersection and wait for it to clear?

[whoadave]

There was no indication upon entering the intersection that traffic would stop. There was no heavy traffic, actually, it was rather sparse. I was just cruising across the intersection, and when I was coming towards the end, a car two vehicles ahead of me stopped. The vehicle in front of me was too large for me to see what was going on, but when I passed it, I realized that it had been a cop car that was stopped in front of it, which ended up pulling me over, so I guess its reason for stopping wasn't that big of a deal.

[sniper]

Wow...I'd say you are toast. You have no clue what the officer was stopping for. Could have been a little old lady with a walker, could have been a traffic accident, could have been moving a dead dog..could have been could have been...

I mean does it reall make sense to do that in the first place? Pass two cars who can't get through the intersection in the first place? Nothing like drawing attention to yourself in a big way. (I'm not trying to be a jerk). I'm going to assume if you go to trial then the officer is going to say he stopped, blocking the traffic in the intersection from proceeding for a pretty good reason. (We don't do it just to mess with people.)

[bruinPE]

The OP should just consider himself lucky he didn't accidentally run down a little old lady with a walker or some kid crossing the street. I'd rather get a ticket than have that on my conscience.