My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: California
Hello All,
I got a traffic citation on 03/07/2018 at around 10:28 AM when I was taking a right turn onto Lawrence expressway from Granada Ave in Santa Clara, CA. I was coming from El camino real and was going back to my office. Weather condition was bright and sunny and there was medium traffic. There were 2 signs when I was taking a right - a stop sign and a sign which said "Right Turn Only. Do not cross onto Lawrence". The sign which said "Right Turn Only. Do not cross onto Lawrence" was masked in the shade of the trees nearby and was hidden behind two cars - one which was parked wrongly on a red curb and one which was parked right near the turning just before the stop sign. So my view to this sign was obstructed by these parked cars on the curb and the shadow casted by the trees onto the sign. The red stop sign was visible since it was at a higher elevation and was visible clearly.
So, I stopped at the stop sign and then continued onto the road and since I wanted to get onto Lawrence expressway, I made a lane change and continued onto Lawrence. When I made the lane change onto Lawrence expressway, that is when I realized that I had crossed the double white lines and realized that I should not have done it . I tried to come back to the previous lane but saw 2 cars behind me, one coming in the same wrong path as me and the other going to the right. If I had changed my lane to go to the right direction, it would have caused an accident.
So to ensure my safety and the safety of the other cars behind me, I continued on Lawrence and was caught by the police officer who was standing on a bridge about 100 feet away from the alleged cross over point to Lawrence expressway. He stopped me and issued me the ticket for wrongly crossing over the double white lines. The car who was behind me was also caught by the officer. When I and the car behind me were being issue the citation, there were 2 more cars who crossed the double white lines and went past us which implies that the signs that says "Right Turn Only. Do not cross onto Lawrence" was not visible/legible to many people.
After I got the citation, I went back to my office and came back shortly with my wife to collect photographical evidence of the weather at that location. Out of curiosity, I counted the number of cars who committed the same mistake of crossing over onto Lawrence. I found that at least 4 in 10 cars did the same mistake which clearly implies that the traffic sign was not legible.
Also, the traffic police has misrepresented the weather condition on the citation saying that it was cloudy. I have attached photographic evidence to prove that the weather was sunny and bright (Please refer to the first photo. This photo was taken by my wife from the passenger seat when I came back again to that location shortly)
So how do I go about fighting this citation using "Trial by written declaration". Is there any chance of success in this?

