Careless Driving in Florida

[riemck]

My court date is this Friday and I'm very nervous. I wish I would have found this site first. Sorry this is so long - I don't know how else to tell the story...

The situation occurred while leaving my son's preschool. The driveway of the school is on Road "A", and approximately 200 feet from the intersection with "Hwy B" (a 4 lane highway w/ 50 MPH speed limit). Visibility is very poor due to the angle of the roads, and for that reason, all of us are very careful when leaving, especially when making a left (towards the direction of the intersection). It's impossible to see when the traffic light is a "green arrow" for traffic turning onto Road "A", and the right-turning traffic only has a yield. (All of this is relevant, I promise.) To get back home, I have to turn left, go across the on-coming lane, two turn lanes , and then get in my right-turn lane to procede down the hwy. It's a lot easier if you can see a photo of the intersection.

So one morning in May after waiting for a period of time for traffic to clear, and looking in both directions several times, I started to turn left. Before I had completely gotten across the on-coming lane, I was shocked when a marked officer was just feet from t-boning me on the driver side. She came out of no-where - I have no idea which direction she came from. Most people are very careful in this tricky intersection but she was like a bat ouf ot hell. I was terrified and shaky, but luckily she didn't go ahead and decide to hit me. I went on my way, and then much to my surprise about 2 miles down the road I was being pulled over!

She told me that I had failed to make sure I could cross the road carefully. Due to the visibility restrictions, I would have to be able to predict the future to know whether someone would be coming around the corner that quickly. I asked her what I should have done differently, and she said that I should not turn left there if I don't think I can do it safely. (Note, there is a left-turn lane in the school's driveway so it is a legal move). She never really could tell me what I did wrong, even though I asked several times. Her most telling answer was that I was "in her way".

I thought a lot about just doing traffic school and sucking it up, but I really don't think I deserve to have this ticket on my driving record. I don't know if should plead "No Contest" or "Not Guilty". Assuming she is still in such a bad mood after 3 months and she does show up, what should I do? I have printed out a satellite photo of that intersection w/ a diagram of the directions each of us were going. I'm not comfortable in accusing the officer of doing anything wrong, but I certainly don't think I did anything wrong either. How do I PROVE that I was being "careful and prudent"??

Any advice you all can give me would be greatly appreciated!!

[blewis]

If your court date is Friday, you might have to go, in person, to the traffic engineer's office for whatever city or county this intersection is in. Ask for information about accidents at that intersection (it would help if you had a few weeks to go).

If there are a plethora (or even just a few), that information might be usable in your defense. Sometimes intersections are to blame, causing accidents regardless of how carefully you drive. Furthermore, had the officer actually hit you, your insurance company would have held her at least 50% at fault -- since SHE hit YOU.

Good luck,
Barry