Accident With a Police Vehicle That Was Making a Traffic Stop
My question involves a traffic accident in the State of: GA
Monday I was driving south to Macon, GA in the interstate 75. I was in the middle lane when I saw two police car in the median checking the speed of car. I have car behind me, car to my right and in front of me everyone slow down. When i passed the police car I checked on my rear mirror and I was one police car coming in the left lane. In a considerable distance in front of me there was a ford truck, then in front of it a blue car and in front of it a chevrolet caprice. The police car with the lights on pulled behind the caprice the blue car and the truck hit the breaks. The caprice and the car and the truck move to the left lane leaving the police car in the middle lane. At this time I am approaching the police car which has the stop lights one in order to avoid hitting him from behind I put my left signal and look thru the mirror to see if the lane was clean to emerge to the left (I did this because the blue car and the truck did it). The police had the time to emerge to the left lane but it didn't instead it stops int he middle lane (not completely but I notice the red lights). Know I am in the left lane the front side of my car was at the hight of the front door of the police when the police merged over me and hit the front right side where the lights are. (When I merged to the left lane the caprice was almost fully in the median). We pulled over, the police car in front of me and behind me far away was the caprice in the median. The police caws polite to masking me if I was okay. and told me not to worry about it, that he saw the lane clear, he also told me that if I had seen what that idiot did referring to the driver of the caprice. The other police came and asked for my drivers license and insurance car he gave my case number and told me I could leave. Yesterday I got my police report and I am listed as unit 1 and it says I failed to yield but there is not citations listed and I didn't get anyone when I was in the scene of the accident. The witness and the police officer said that I move to the left lane and I struck the police car.
After reading over and over the report and doing some research I think that moving to the left lane was a mistake , but didn't the police failed to move quickly behind the caprice and why in the remarks they don't mentioned the two other vehicles?
Re: Accident With a Police Vehicle That Was Making a Traffic Stop
Based upon your description of events, I can see why you would be found to have failed to yield. The events happened over a long enough period of time that you could have backed off, and you collided not with the vehicle that was being stopped but with the police vehicle that presumably had its lights and perhaps its siren activated. However, it would appear that the officer considered there to be enough extenuating circumstances that he did not issue you a ticket.
To the extent that other people were involved, whether mentioned or not, it would appear that the officer took that into consideration when deciding not to issue a ticket. The number of people who collide with police vehicles and aren't ticketed is vanishingly small.