My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: Washington
I received an infraction notice in the mail citing SMC 11.50.140. This is following an incident at an intersection where I collided with another vehicle crossing my intersection at NE 75th and Lake City Way. I have a few questions.
1) I am wondering how "intersection control area" can be known, or how it is defined.
2) I am wondering how or what laws allow a responding officer to cite a driver for running a red light if the officer was not at the scene when it happened, i.e. not a witness.
3) Does it matter that the officer marked the box 'NO' for "accident" when there was an accident? Would I be making it worse for myself by bringing this up if I were to attempt to fight this?
The truth is, I do not know if I ran a red light myself. I think there is reasonable doubt (though I'm not sure if reasonable doubt applies for traffic infractions); But i cannot afford to have this on my driving record if I am not guilty.
Would RCW 46.61.050 apply if I can make an argument that this particular light is not sufficiently visible to a normally observant driver? To this question, I have posted some pictures of the intersection. I had just turned left onto 75th Street from Roosevelt Way travelling southbound. As you can see from the pictures, the intersection with Lake City Way comes up immediatly after the intersection with Roosevelt, so if I'm travelling at normal speed from Roosevelt onto 75th, and the weather conditions were poor (which they were--it was raining...which also meant neither of us could stop as fast as we could have in dry conditions), is it reasonable that I could not have had enough time to observe a red light coming that fast after my green light at Roosevelt?
Additional questions:
Does the very worn white line constitute ambiguity of the "intersection control area", especially if the road were covered in water.
Also since it's not safe for me to go out in the street and measure the distance between those two intersections, and might not be admissible evidence anyway, is there a place where such data is kept, or can you call an appropriate city employee as a witness for that?
And is there documentation or precedence for safe stopping distance?
Thank you so much for any insight into any of these questions.
I received an infraction notice in the mail citing SMC 11.50.140. This is following an incident at an intersection where I collided with another vehicle crossing my intersection at NE 75th and Lake City Way. I have a few questions.
1) I am wondering how "intersection control area" can be known, or how it is defined.
2) I am wondering how or what laws allow a responding officer to cite a driver for running a red light if the officer was not at the scene when it happened, i.e. not a witness.
3) Does it matter that the officer marked the box 'NO' for "accident" when there was an accident? Would I be making it worse for myself by bringing this up if I were to attempt to fight this?
The truth is, I do not know if I ran a red light myself. I think there is reasonable doubt (though I'm not sure if reasonable doubt applies for traffic infractions); But i cannot afford to have this on my driving record if I am not guilty.
Would RCW 46.61.050 apply if I can make an argument that this particular light is not sufficiently visible to a normally observant driver? To this question, I have posted some pictures of the intersection. I had just turned left onto 75th Street from Roosevelt Way travelling southbound. As you can see from the pictures, the intersection with Lake City Way comes up immediatly after the intersection with Roosevelt, so if I'm travelling at normal speed from Roosevelt onto 75th, and the weather conditions were poor (which they were--it was raining...which also meant neither of us could stop as fast as we could have in dry conditions), is it reasonable that I could not have had enough time to observe a red light coming that fast after my green light at Roosevelt?
Additional questions:
Does the very worn white line constitute ambiguity of the "intersection control area", especially if the road were covered in water.
Also since it's not safe for me to go out in the street and measure the distance between those two intersections, and might not be admissible evidence anyway, is there a place where such data is kept, or can you call an appropriate city employee as a witness for that?
And is there documentation or precedence for safe stopping distance?
Thank you so much for any insight into any of these questions.
Traffic Lights, Signs and Controls: Regarding Smc11.50.140 - Steady Circular Red Signal
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