My question involves a reckless driving ticket from the State of: NJ
Friday night at about 2 AM I was driving a friends car with him present. I took a left hand turn too fast and the sport tires slid on a cold road and I collided with a telephone pole on the side of the road. The collision was not head on, but more of a side swipe. Thankfully, neither of us were hurt at all, the car fared worse, it will most likely be totaled as almost every airbag went off and there is a good amount of damage to the front right axle/suspension.
The police arrived and asked if I had been drinking, which I had, but literally only 3-4 beers over several hours. I knew that I wasn't drunk and had no reason to lie. I was given a field sobriety test and passed without issue. The officer said he did not believe that my ability was impaired and that he appreciated how upfront and co-operative I had been. He himself said he thought it was just a case of going to fast around a sharp/blind corner. He even drove my friend and I back to my place.
No ticket was issued at the time, but I received a reckless driving ticket in the mail 5 days later, issued by the other responding officer, not the one I had primarily dealt with. The statute in NJ is 39:4-96. This is the only ticket I received.
My question is how seriously do I need to consider getting an attorney? I've done some research and I see that the penalties for reckless driving can be quite severe. I've never been in an accident before and haven't received a ticket in over 5 years, and even those were just speeding tickets, never more than 14 MPH over and never in a residential area. My goal would be to get the charge reduced to careless driving or less and obviously not loose my driving privilege or serve and time in jail. Please offer any advice that you can as far as defending myself if the consensus is that an attorney will not be necessary. Thank you all in advance.

