I'll be going to traffic school in a few weeks. You can imagine my excitement! I just can't shake the feeling that my ticket was inspired by a quota-reaching motive and not necessarily because I broke a traffic code. But I really don't know, so I'm asking for your help in the comments and also in the blog-poll.
This is the story. I came upon a four-way stop that was adjacent to a school (I was headed north by the way, that'll be important in a bit here). There was a crossing guard working the intersection, and lots of kids were being assisted by her. As I pulled up to the stop sign I noticed the crossing guard motioning for someone who was in the west-bound lane to go before she stopped the east-west traffic, but that individual apparently wasn't watching or didn't understand her repeated and exaggerated arm motions. Anyway, after failing to convince that driver (who had the right-of-way for the four-way stop) to go, she went ahead and stepped out into the crosswalk to stop the aforementioned east-west traffic.
Now I assumed that this meant that I was at liberty to go, inasmuch as she was not stopping north-south bound traffic and I was going parallel with the kids in the crosswalk. I also thought I was not in the wrong because the crossing guard did not seem to mind in the least that I was doing this (I figured she'd probably at least give me a dirty look if she didn't think I should be going, if not something more severe like stick out her tongue). However, I did notice a police officer who was in the south-bound lane turning right. I thought to myself as I pushed the gas, "I'm going to find out right now if this is legal or not." And indeed, according to the friendly police officer who then pulled me over, I was doing something very illegal.
But I'm a little suspicious of the event now in retrospect. He asked me if I knew why he pulled me over. I ventured to guess that it wasn't OK to drive through an intersection with a crossing guard, even if you're going parallel to the flow of pedestrian traffic. He didn't exactly confirm my suspicions but said something really vague about, "Did you notice how the kids started running into the road?" I figured I should say that I did even though I didn't see any kids running into the road, because he had a gun and I don't like guns. That seemed to be his reasoning for pulling me over, and who am I to argue? But even if kids were running into the street when the crossing guard entered the crosswalk, wouldn't it stand to reason that they would be running the same direction that I was driving? Are we really expected to stop all four directions when the crossing guard is in any crosswalk? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of the crossing guard using two separate crosswalks to stop two different flows of traffic? If that was the case, shouldn't the crossing guard just walk into the middle of the intersection and let the kids run wild diagonally or north, south, east, or west? I'm just sayin'.
Oh yeah. When the officer ticketed me he made it sound as if he was being very magnanimous and said, "I'm citing you, but I'm not putting that it was in a school zone, which would be an automatic $165 fine (the amount could be off)." I'm thinking that could have been a little bit of a threat. In other words he was saying, "You might be tempted to argue this ticket in court, but if you do and you happen to lose, you'll be paying more because it was in a school zone." So I'm stuck filing a plea in abeyance and going to traffic school for three hours some Tuesday evening later this month.
So my question is, Was I really in the wrong? Please help me understand.
8 years ago
5 comments:
I'm not that familiar with the law really (I had my first traffic ticket a year ago, didn't argue it, went to traffic school, learned a lot). Regardless, you could look at it as a great opportunity to attend traffic school. I don't know how yours will be, but when I went I came away thinking everyone should be required to go through that at some point.
Anyway, that situation still doesn't sound right. Now I'm thinking you should research the law on that before conceding.
I think I'm too late. Once I signed the plea of abeyance I pretty much admitted guilt.
Brian did you already sign up for traffic school? If not then when you go to sign up (you have to do it in person) tell them you want to talk to the judge.
Just becuase you signed the ticket doenst mean you admit guilt. I recently went through this with a VERY rediculous ticket.
that is my suggestion
I already signed up.
I suppose I could still go talk to a judge though.
That sounds pretty silly. He should have just given you a warning, since you obviously didn't know what you were doing wrong. You only ventured a guess. Magnanimous my eye. Maybe you should have issued him a ticket because I'm sure when he turned around to pull you over he probably cut through all sorts of lanes of traffic, and the crossing guard was probably still in the street...
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