How to Fight a Failure to Yield Ticket

I received a failure to yield in: California

I would like to know if it is worth it for me to fight it.

My account of what happened is as follows:
I came to an intersection to turn right, in the middle of the intersection there was a police officer waiting to turn left. I waited for all oncoming traffic before i proceeded to turn right. As soon as i started to turn the police officer suddenly started doing a U-turn and we basically met head to head and he gave me a ticket for failing to yield to him. If he was turning left into the street i was coming out of this would not have happened. Am i at fault here? Can i argue my case in court? Whats the likelihood that I can come out on top here.


Any advice on the matter is much appreciated.
I added a link for a visual of what happened.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/PC...ce1421da0be509

What code section was cited?

Section 21802A

Here is the offense:

21802. (a) The driver of any vehicle approaching a stop sign at the entrance to, or within, an intersection shall stop as required by Section 22450. The driver shall then yield the right-of-way to any vehicles which have approached from another highway, or which are approaching so closely as to constitute an immediate hazard, and shall continue to yield the right-of-way to those vehicles until he or she can proceed with reasonable safety.

Without knowing why the officer thought you proceeded without properly yielding, I can't say if you have a good argument or not. If there were any approaching vehicle that had to brake or otherwise were impacted by your pulling into traffic from the stop sign, then you may lose. You may have to seek the officer's notes through discovery to see if you can get an idea what he might say if you go to trial.

Was the intersection controlled by a stop sign or by a light?

Quote:

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Quoting jeff1970

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Was the intersection controlled by a stop sign or by a light?

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I only see stops signs in the link he provided.

The police officer was in the center lane waiting to turn left. I had waited until all cars cleared the area and assumed the officer would be turning left into residential. As soon as i started to turn the police officer made a u-turn and we met head to head, I braked and so did he, it was almost as if he was going to turn left but purposely made a u-turn to cause the incident.

You need to explain which direction and street you were on to be sure, but frankly if the cop was making a non-prohibited U-turn, your assumption was wrong. You had a duty to yield to him.

The image you posted appears that one highway has stop signs and the other one does not. Which one were you on? Did you have a stop sign? Did the cop have a stop sign? Important questions.

I was turning right on to pacific coast high way from park street with a stop sign, he was turning left into park street with no stop sign as he was in the middle of the intersection.

You assumed he was turning left when he was making a U-turn on PCH (or was he turning into the service road, essentially, two lefts). Either way you failed to yield to someone with the right of way.

Remember, two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.