Defenses to Failure to Yield to an Emergency Vehicle, VC 21806(A)

[kimchi]

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for helping me. This post has to do with me receiving a ticket for CV 21806 (a) Failure to Yield to Emergency Vehicle.

Here's the story:

I was in downtown LA the other day in the afternoon driving on Main St. where all the stores are, I had my windows up and I had some light music on. All my lights were green so I continued to drive at the speed limit. As I was entering an intersection I noticed that a firetruck was coming at me perpendicular to my street. It was probably 30-40 feet away from the intersection and I have no clue how I didn't hear it. I assume it's probably the downtown LA noise or tall buildings that might have caused it. In any case, once I saw the firetruck I braked, but then I noticed that since I was already entering the intersection, braking would cause me to stop in the intersection and block the firetruck. So I decided to let go of the brake and roll through the intersection letting the firetruck pass. This all happened very quickly and once I saw that the truck had passed I continued on the way.

I told the officer this, but he just kept saying I didn't stop. After I got through the intersection and proceeded to stop (I never fully came to a stop) the firetruck was already through the intersection, so I just continued on. Is this illegal? Because isn't stopping in an intersection illegal too? Is not hearing the sirens really cause for a ticket, my intentions were to stop as I braked once I saw it, but will this even hold up in a TBWD or in court?

Thanks in advance for all your help in this! I've been reading these forums like crazy the past couple of hours! Good stuff!

[Mr. Knowitall]

I guess it's theoretically possible that you would have received a ticket had you stopped in the intersection and yielded to the fire truck, depending upon the full facts and officer's interpretation, but that's not what happened and is thus irrelevant. You didn't stop and drove in front of the fire truck.

If your radio is up so high and you're paying insufficient attention to your surroundings such that you have no awareness of approaching emergency vehicles, you're setting yourself up for tickets. Neither "My music was so loud that I didn't hear the siren," or "Even though I was blasting my radio such that I couldn't hear sirens, I didn't keep a vigilant lookout for lights or other indications of approaching emergency vehicles" is going to get you out of a failure to yield ticket.