mercredi 8 février 2017

Following Too Closely: Preparing to Fight a "Fail to Stop W/in Assured Clear. Dist.- Accident" Ticket

My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: Michigan

I was recently involved in an accident with a semi-truck and trailer. From the entrance ramp of the highway, the right lane out of three lanes only continues for a mile or so, then it is an exit only lane and the highway goes down to two lanes. So, I enter the highway and make my way to the center lane- lane 2. I am driving and next thing I know there is a semi-truck completely in front of me in my line cutting me off with it's trailer swinging towards my front end about to hit me. I probably stomped the brake and definitely swerved left taking me into lane three. I began to fishtail and tried to correct and I ended up swerving back to the right and smashing myself underneath his trailer. I was then pinned and dragged for a length of time. He noticed me under his bumper and pulled off. We ended up being stopped in the V-split where lane 1 veers off as the exit only ramp to another highway, so on our left are the two remaining lanes- lanes 2 and 3- and our right is the third lane-lane 1- which is separated. We are parked in the non-driving separation zone between lanes 1 and 2. The MSP show up an hour later and hear both sides of the story and issue me a "FAIL TO STOP W/IN ASSURED CLEAR. DIST.- ACCIDENT" ticket and, I assume, issue the truck driver nothing, allowing him to drive away from the scene about 10 minutes after the cops arriving on scene.

From my perspective, I was legally driving when a semi cut me off. I reacted as best I could and could not have avoided what happened. I am astounded that I have been given the guilt as is just about everyone I've told including all the tow people at the scene and that I've worked with since the accident. I don't understand how I could have done anything to avoid the accident. I believe that the truck driver was unaware that the lane was an exit only lane until the last moment and then tried to merge from lane 1 to lane 2 without checking properly due to urgency from being unaware of lane's ending. He didn't properly check around him and was in too big of a hurry to notice me. As a result, I was almost killed and am now being deemed responsible.

I want to get my ducks in a row before I go into court and have to plead my case. I'll be doing some further research on my own but thought this forum would be useful. If you have any information on how I can be better prepared, please provide it. I already plan to go back to the scene to take pictures of the road signs and traffic lanes to show the judge. I plan on writing down my story in a more detailed version of what I've written above and then I hope to find some more things to help me out online, but I'm not quite sure what I'm looking for.

Side note: I've been told that it's federal law for a truck driver involved in a collision to be sent out for toxicology. The driver was obviously not sent out and was allowed to drive his rig from the scene alone. What does this mean for me? For my ticket? Do I have a civil case? If so, where do I go from here?

Thanks for any help guys.


Following Too Closely: Preparing to Fight a "Fail to Stop W/in Assured Clear. Dist.- Accident" Ticket

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