Failure to Obey a Traffic Control Device by Crossing Double Yellow Line

[Delasangre4231]

My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: OR

I was in some traffic, there was an accident around the corner and up the hill so everyone was stopped as there was a cop across the road straight ahead. There were 2 stop lights between me and the cop, every single car was dead stopped waiting to go straight, the road the cop was blocking. Since nobody was coming the opposite direction and everyone was stopped I went through my green light (I waited 4 cycles of my light) and I went to the left of the stopped traffic, over a double yellow for 25 feet, into the left turn lane at the next light (the intersection the cop was at). The left turn light was also green and I would have kept going but the cop walked over and waved me to stop. I stopped and he asked what I was doing. I told him I was turning left. Anyways long story short he said I had to wait like everyone else even though I was the only one going left. So he wrote me a ticket for failure to obey traffic control device, in other words the double yellow line.

That out of the way, I look up the law ORS 811.265 and it says
"811.265
Driver failure to obey traffic control device
penalty
(1) A person commits the offense of driver failure to obey a traffic control device if the person drives a vehicle and the person does any of the following:
(a) Fails to obey the directions of any traffic control device.
(b) Fails to obey any specific traffic control device described in ORS 811.260 (Appropriate driver responses to traffic control devices) in the manner required by that section."

Now 811.260 says nothing about yellow lines let alone double yellows.

Also I found that 811.310, which I realize is for a different offense, but I think it applies.

I was stopped at the top intersection and crossed the little bit of line to turn left at the intersection at the bottom of the pic.


- - - Updated - - -

Also a direct quote from the Oregon drivers manual
"You may cross the center line in a no-passing zone only if the right
side of the road is blocked or if you are turning left into or from an alley,
driveway, intersection, or private road."

It was most definitely blocked. Does this count?

[flyingron]

Lines are traffic control devices. Oregon pretty much defers to the MUTCD on what constitutes a valid traffic control device. I see nothing wrong with the devices here.

Presuming you were charged with 860.265, I don't see any justification. You can't drive over a double yellow to pass other vehicles no matter how much it's going to delay you.

[Delasangre4231]

What about the two bits I found about saying you can?

Definition of road block includes this

"4) an action, condition, etc., that obstructs progress toward an objective:
Nationalism is a roadblock to European unity."

Traffic is a condition...

[adjusterjack]

Try that argument in court and see how far you get.

[Delasangre4231]

You honestly don't think it'll work? That seems rather straight forward.

[adjusterjack]

You honestly don't think it'll work?

Yes.

[flyingron]

The road wasn't blocked, it was just full of traffic. Impatience is not a factor.
The handbook is not regulatory. The actual statute says "obstruction or condition." The standard isn't something you imagine or weasel, but what a reasonable person would consider.