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Filing a Trial by Written Declaration for a Ticket Issued Under the Wrong VC Section

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  • 11-29-2018, 05:36 PM
    tonylefebre
    Filing a Trial by Written Declaration for a Ticket Issued Under the Wrong VC Section
    My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: California.
    I was cited by a CHP officer under vc 22349(b), which forbids driving over 55 MPH on a two-lane, undivided highway. However, I was stopped on a 4-lane, divided highway by an officer using radar. He was parked in the median strip between the north-bound and south-bound lanes as I passed him.
    What is your advice for me, regarding a TBD?
  • 11-30-2018, 06:48 AM
    Jim Kozlovich
    Re: Trial by Written Declaration - 22349(B)
    1) It makes no difference where the officer stopped you only where he observed you commit the alleged violation.

    2) Can you provide a location of where this took place?

    2) What speed where you cited for?
  • 11-30-2018, 02:41 PM
    tonylefebre
    Re: Trial by Written Declaration - 22349(B)
    1) Both the observation and the stop took place on the same stretch of 4-lane highway. The officer was parked in the median strip, between the N/B and S/B sets of lanes, while he made his radar observations. All along this stretch there are 4 lanes of traffic divided by a wide (I estimate at least 20 yards) median strip.
    2) According to the ticket "N/B US HWY 395 N/of Bootleg". This is in eastern California, somewhere south of Walker, CA.
    3) I was cited for going 77 MPH. Most of this section of highway is posted at 65, but on this stretch the limit was reduced to 55 (due to possibility of deer or bear
    on the hwy, according to the officer). He was parked just north of a hill, aiming his radar at northbound traffic as they came over the hill.
    Thanks for your help.
  • 11-30-2018, 02:54 PM
    pg1067
    Re: Trial by Written Declaration - 22349(B)
    Quote:

    Quoting tonylefebre
    View Post
    1) Both the observation and the stop took place on the same stretch of 4-lane highway. The officer was parked in the median strip, between the N/B and S/B sets of lanes, while he made his radar observations. All along this stretch there are 4 lanes of traffic divided by a wide (I estimate at least 20 yards) median strip.
    2) According to the ticket "N/B US HWY 395 N/of Bootleg". This is in eastern California, somewhere south of Walker, CA.

    Are you saying you don't know where this happened beyond what the ticket says? There is a "Bootleg Campground" off the 395 about 10 miles south of Walker, and the 395 is a two-lane highway for most of that area. However, if you believe that it was not a two-lane highway, you're free to challenge the ticket. However...

    Quote:

    Quoting tonylefebre
    View Post
    I was cited for going 77 MPH. Most of this section of highway is posted at 65, but on this stretch the limit was reduced to 55 (due to possibility of deer or bear
    on the hwy, according to the officer).

    You were admittedly driving 22 mph over the posted speed limit. What do you think you might accomplish by fighting this?

    I suggest you take care of this with traffic school if that is an option.
  • 11-30-2018, 03:12 PM
    adjusterjack
    Re: Trial by Written Declaration - 22349(B)
    Quote:

    Quoting tonylefebre
    View Post

    3) I was cited for going 77 MPH. Most of this section of highway is posted at 65, but on this stretch the limit was reduced to 55 (due to possibility of deer or bear
    on the hwy, according to the officer). He was parked just north of a hill, aiming his radar at northbound traffic as they came over the hill.

    You do realize, don't you, that the officer can amend the citation to the proper statute and testify that you were doing 77 in a 55.

    I don't see you winning this.
  • 11-30-2018, 04:00 PM
    cdwjava
    Re: Trial by Written Declaration - 22349(B)
    Looking on Google maps, 395 north of Bootleg is pretty much all a 2-lane undivided highway for as far as I tracked it. As such, what sort of defense do you think you can mount? There does not appear to be a median until Eastside Ln. (and that would have been a crappy and unsafe place to run radar!), and if that was where the stop was made, there'd be no reason to put down that the offense was north of Bootleg which is miles to the south.
  • 12-01-2018, 05:52 AM
    flyingron
    Re: Trial by Written Declaration - 22349(B)
    Don't even see a median there. It's just a chicken lane which doesn't create a divided highway.
  • 12-01-2018, 10:20 AM
    Bbonez
    Re: Trial by Written Declaration - 22349(B)
    Quote:

    Quoting pg1067
    View Post

    You were admittedly driving 22 mph over the posted speed limit. What do you think you might accomplish by fighting this?

    I suggest you take care of this with traffic school if that is an option.

    I dont see the part where he admitted to going 77. I say you fight it, you have nothing to lose. If the officer doesn't show up you should have the case dismissed.
  • 12-01-2018, 03:39 PM
    tonylefebre
    Re: Trial by Written Declaration - 22349(B)
    It is true that I only know of the location due to what the officer wrote on the ticket. I was driving home to the Sacramento area from Bishop that day. I'd been on 395 for a while, and there are few landmarks that I would have taken note of while driving. All I can be certain of is that I was at least an hour or more out of Bishop. And I am absolutely certain that, wherever it happened, there were 4 lanes of traffic, two each way, separated by a wide median strip, and the officer was parked in the median strip, perpendicular to traffic, while he made his observation. I clearly recall seeing him, parked on my left, facing more or less east (tail to the S/B lanes, toward the N/B lanes), perpendicular to traffic, as I went past him, and he turned on his lights and pulled out a minute or two after I passed. It seems clear to me that I did not commit the violation I was cited for.

    Checking out the area in question, I agree that Google Maps seems to show this stretch as being only 2 lanes. As I mentioned before, I had been driving from Bishop that day (2nd day of a trip from southern Utah), and 395 has few landmarks that I would've taken note of while driving. I only have the info from the ticket to indicate where the stop took place. But I am positive that, wherever it was, 395 at that point was a divided 4-lane highway. The officer was parked in the wide median, on a sort of dirt lane that crossed the median, perpendicular to the lanes of traffic, and he was facing the N/B lanes. I saw him parked there as soon as I crested the hill, his car in the median to my left, and saw him turn on his lights and pull out in my rear-view mirror. I am sure the officer knows that he was parked in the median strip, using his radar gun. As to the question (from someone else) about what I hope to accomplish by fighting this, the answer should be obvious -- I am trying to avoid having to pay over $350, as well as the conviction.
  • 12-03-2018, 10:10 AM
    pg1067
    Re: Trial by Written Declaration - 22349(B)
    Quote:

    Quoting Bbonez
    View Post
    I dont see the part where he admitted to going 77.

    You're right, but the failure to deny it is conspicuous.

    Quote:

    Quoting Bbonez
    View Post
    I say you fight it, you have nothing to lose. If the officer doesn't show up you should have the case dismissed.

    Nothing to lose except the opportunity to keep this off the OP's driving record by taking traffic school. Also, CHP officers don't fail to appear, and a failure to appear would more likely result in continuance than dismissal.

    Quote:

    Quoting tonylefebre
    View Post
    As to the question (from someone else) about what I hope to accomplish by fighting this, the answer should be obvious -- I am trying to avoid having to pay over $350, as well as the conviction.

    Unless you deny that you were doing 77, you were speeding regardless of whether VC 22349(b) is used or the law for exceeding the posted speed limit is used.
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