My question involves a careless driving ticket from the State of: WA
I just received a negligent driving 2nd degree for spinning my tires pulling onto a highway on WET pavement. It was not intentional and the police officer told me i was a liar and tried to intimidate me (which he didn't) I am 17 and drive a jeep wrangler. Here is a rough copy of the letter that i wrote depicting the events that took place
Dear to Whom It May Concern;
My name is Zach. I am writing this letter because I received a negligent driving 2nd degree ticket on State Route 410 near Whistlin’ Jacks Lodge on Sunday November 2nd, 2008. I was parked at the lodge at about 12:00 pm while I was waiting for my cousin (Kevin ) to finish filling up his tank with gas. The lot was congested and I was parked parallel to state route 410 facing East. I was heading home to my home in Puyallup, Washington and needed to go the opposite direction. I pulled forward to look to see if there was any traffic. There was no traffic heading east, but there was a few cars heading west. As I pulled out on the wet pavement, I stepped on the gas to get some momentum up and my tires spun as I was making the turn. As soon as I realized that my tires were spinning and it was safe to do so I shifted down into second gear and regained traction. I did not try to spin my tires nor did I spin them excessively.
About a mile down the road, I realized there was a police officer in an unmarked truck with his lights on. I pulled over to the side of the road to see what was wrong. The officer came up to my window and asked me what that “show” was for. I told him that I was trying to pull out into traffic and my tires spun on the slick pavement. It had just finished pouring rain and the roads were slick. The next thing that the officer said to me shocked me. He told me that I was lying to him and asked me who I was trying to show off to. I told him I was not showing off to anyone and that I was just trying to pull out onto the highway. He told me that it was a bad way to start off by lying and that I had just lost my chances of getting warning. He took my license and registration back to his truck. When he came back he told me that I was getting $550 dollar ticket for negligent driving. My jaw dropped when I heard this. He said that the reason that I was getting this ticket was because he saw smoke coming from my tires and that my jeep went sideways into the lane, almost entering oncoming traffic.
My cousin (Kevin ) witnessed the whole thing and said that the officers’ reasoning was wrong. The officer said that he saw smoke from my tires. I find that hard to believe because the pavement was so wet that it had standing water on it. The officer also claimed that I went sideways in my lane and almost entered the oncoming traffic. This is also not true. As soon as I got into my lane I shifted into 2nd to get my traction back. I was not even going fast enough to go sideways. According to my cousin, the officer was getting out of his truck at Whistlin’ Jacks Lodge when I pulled out. He then saw the officer get back into his truck and pull out to pull me over. My cousin saw the whole thing and said that I was nowhere near going sideways nor entering the other lane.
In conclusion, I admit to my tires losing traction for a brief period. I contest that I was likely to endanger any persons or property. I do not think that I deserve this negligent driving 2nd degree ticket. The officer claimed that I looked like I was “showing off” to someone when it was none of the sort. I was just trying to pull out onto the highway going west when my tires lost traction on the soaked pavement.
Thank You,
Zachary Orum

