My First Accident!

[Dave M]

Won't know for at least 5 days...not in the system yet. Betting it's $150-$200 bucks. DeKalb is notorious for hitting big fines.



I never fought a ticket before...won't their be fees and stuff assested if I don't win? I should get a copy of the cop's report and see if anything favors me. I think this is crap...

I don't know about GA, but in PA the court costs are already figured into the ticket when you pay it. If you don't take it to court you're just paying the court costs for nothing! Did you get the names/numbers of any witnesses to the accident? If you can show the lane change was neccessary to avoid a worse collision, you could have a case. Also, if you could show the illegal lane change on the other driver's part started everything, that would help. There should be information on the ticket as to your court date or how to take the case to court, a phone number, etc. Again, I don't know how GA runs things. The worst that could happen is you take it to court and lose, and you end up paying the fine and court costs anyway. You're going to do that if you don't fight it.

[Dave M]

Here's a site with some tips for fighting tickets. One question I would ask is this: if the cop wasn't there to see you "not maintain your lane" how can he write a ticket for it, and how can he prove you didn't? Is it because your car was on the shoulder when he arrived? You could have pulled off.

Did the other driver get a ticket? If not, why not? If you hit him on the side and not the back, how does he know who hit who? Did he have witnesses? If so, they must have seen the other car cut you off, if events happened like you said they did. These are just a few of the questions that first popped into my head.

http://www.nolopress.org/article.cfm...E/104/263/ART/


Here's an exerpt from number four and five on their list:

"4. Prove Your Conduct Was "Legally Justified"


You may also successfully argue that your actions were "legally justified" considering the circumstances of your alleged violation. For example, if you were charged with driving too slowly in the left lane, it is a legal defense in all states that you had to slow down to make a lawful left turn. In this situation you do not have to deny that you were driving significantly below the speed limit and causing vehicles behind you to slow down, but you can offer the additional fact that legally justifies your otherwise unlawful action. Such defenses can be very successful because they raise an additional fact or legal point, rather than simply contradicting the officer's testimony.

Here are a couple of examples of situations in which this defense might work:

You are forced to stop on a freeway because your car has begun to make a loud and dangerous-sounding noise and you fear you would put other drivers in danger if you continued to drive without checking it out.

You swerved into the right lane without signaling a lane change to pull over because a hornet flew into your car through your open window.

You had sudden and severe chest pain and safely exceeded the posted speed limit to get to the doctor, whose office was only one half-mile away. "


5. Prove Your Conduct Was Necessary to Avoid Harm
Emergencies not of your own making are often another legal "necessity" defense, recognized in all 50 states. To take an extreme example, you should be able to beat a charge of speeding if you can prove you sped up to avoid an out-of-control truck. The key here is to convincingly argue that you were forced to violate the exact wording of a traffic law in order to avoid a serious and immediate danger to yourself or others. Here are some examples:

Driving in the right, or slow, lane, you are boxed in from the back and the left side by speeding cars. To avoid colliding with a car entering the highway from the right, you accelerate well beyond the posted limit.
Because there is a car just to your right, you briefly speed up to avoid being rear-ended by a super-aggressive big rig that is tailgating you. Once you are in the clear, you move to the right and resume a legal speed.
You swerve across a double yellow line to avoid hitting another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, or other unexpected obstacle. If you had failed to take an evasive action, you would have been at high risk of being involved in an accident.
But it's important to realize that there is a big difference between presenting a necessity defense based on road conditions and coming up with an excuse for breaking the law based on your own inattention or personal need. Excuses that are born to lose include:

My mind wandered and I didn't realize I was speeding.

I was arguing on my cell phone and I didn't see the stop sign.

I couldn't fasten my seatbelt because my stomach was uncomfortably full from lunch.

[Wild Willy]

There are some legalities as to whether a lane change is legal or not. I'm not sure what they are but he might be in violation of them which caused your accident.

disclaimer- I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on T.V.

Typically, you can't change lanes if it would cause an accident- if the driver cuts you off, much better for you to hit his side rather than rear- if you hit his side when he changes lanes, he ran into you by swerving- if you hit his rear, you are automatically at fault- you had time to react, you were following too close, you weren't in control of your vehicle

If you had a witness that saw the lane-changer run you off the road to avoid a collision, and then go out of control, you might be able to show him liable-otherwise, this will become "he said/they said", his word against yours-

[Christopherrr]

Well after 4 hours of tearing things down, pushing and pulling...I got everything lined up. So well actually, that I have to make time to adjust the passenger side now. Washed her really well through the 1 am hour.

Hit the area with Zaino fusion, buffed and sealed the area with Z2/ZPC and it's like new...well sorta. The cracks aren't that visible and well...I'm happy with the results. Scuff are barely visible and I'll deal with the paint chips later.



Matter of fact, had to compliments driving to work...one from a Z06 and another from two guys in a work truck..."looks good, it's clean, what year is it?"

Can't complain...