17 Year Old Son Charged with Careless Driving

[theresa]

My question involves a careless driving ticket from the State of: Michigan

hi
my son started a new school in september. the sudent parking lot exits a side street in very very bad conditon. on september 29 after a lot of rain. he left the parking lot and started down the street. 5 miles per hour.

because of the large and many pot holes on this road people must go around these pot holes there is no shoulder to the road and the road was filled with water and when my son went around a few large pot holds it put him on the oppoiste side of the street. (Side street with houses on it) but with no shoulder on the road one off his tires hit a mud patch (i think he missed judged the side of the road due to the water holes) and he said the car just slid into the small ditch and he could not get out.

he was give a careless driving ticket yet while he was there he tried to point out to the cop that the car that just passed both of them was doing the same thing he had been to avoid the big holes. in fact the car that passed ended up making a right turn from the left side of the road. cop told my son he saw nothing.

i took pictures of this road when i got home from work and can't tell you how many times i bottomed out just triying to get down it. i found myself zig zagging to get down the road.
the ticket said traffic crash he slid did not crash he was going no more than 5 miles per hour
we are unsure what to do. the cop told him he would loose his license for this.

he was not speeding he was not trying to spin he was just trying to go around a big mess.

thanks for any help you can give

theresa

[Mr. Knowitall]

It's not at all unusual for drivers to be ticketed for careless driving when they lose control and go off the road, even if they go off on their own side of the road. Your son can dispute the ticket at an informal hearing and see what the hearing officer concludes. If he doesn't want to do that, or on appeal from a ruling he doesn't like, he can take the ticket to a formal hearing and try to negotiate with a prosecutor for a reduction in the ticket based upon the full facts.