My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: Texas
I was driving on the left lane of highway 35 in Austin, Texas, when the car in front of me suddenly stopped. I didn’t have much time to think, so I slammed on my brakes. When I realized that I didn’t have enough time to stop with the breaks, I performed an evasive maneuver and swerved into the lane to my right. Unfortunately, I had performed the maneuver a bit late, and my left mirror clipped the back right tail light of the car in front of me.
Turns out that there was a 6 car pile-up (if you include me). Someone had stopped abruptly then sped away (Car 1). The car behind that car (Car 2) stopped in time. The next car (car 3) was able to stop and only resulted in only light damage between car 2 and 3. The next car, a truck, pretty much slammed into car 3 and crushed car 3’s trunk. Then an SUV slammed into the truck. Then I swerved out of the way almost (but not quite) avoiding any sort of collision. Car 1 drove away and was not part of the accident. The SUV’s front looked pretty mangled, and the truck, being a truck, was of course hardly damaged. The SUV’s taillight that I hit looked a bit busted, but all together not that bad. I only had damage to my driver’s mirror.
TL;DR: There was a pile up, I was the last person but only damaged my driver’s mirror and the tail light of the car in front of me. Pretty much no way that I am at fault for the pile up.
So someone called the cops. The cops come and help us all get off the highway. They take our statements, etc.. Then, he proceeds to give us ALL citations. The citation was ‘FAILED TO MAINTAIN ASSURED CLEAR DISTANCE-NON COLLISION”
The cop seemed to not be supper happy to be giving everyone citations, but whatever, he still gave them regardless. This is my first accident to ever have police involved, and when I did a bit of googling, I find that it is pretty common to get a citation such as this. I tried to contact the municipal court and ask to get my case dismissed, but the motion to dismiss was denied.
$169 is quite a pretty penny to pay for something that had it only been me and the car in front of me, we would have just exchanged information and been on our way, let the insurance companies fight it out for fault. Is there any way I could go to court and fight this citation, win, and not pay? Or is the Judge pretty much just going to say, “you were driving too fast, hit a car cause you “failed to maintain assured clear distance, pay up.” I really don't want to drive up from Houston to Austin if I know I am going to lose and miss work for nothing. Do I have a case? Or if I go before the Judge am I just wasting my time.
Apologies for the novel.
I was driving on the left lane of highway 35 in Austin, Texas, when the car in front of me suddenly stopped. I didn’t have much time to think, so I slammed on my brakes. When I realized that I didn’t have enough time to stop with the breaks, I performed an evasive maneuver and swerved into the lane to my right. Unfortunately, I had performed the maneuver a bit late, and my left mirror clipped the back right tail light of the car in front of me.
Turns out that there was a 6 car pile-up (if you include me). Someone had stopped abruptly then sped away (Car 1). The car behind that car (Car 2) stopped in time. The next car (car 3) was able to stop and only resulted in only light damage between car 2 and 3. The next car, a truck, pretty much slammed into car 3 and crushed car 3’s trunk. Then an SUV slammed into the truck. Then I swerved out of the way almost (but not quite) avoiding any sort of collision. Car 1 drove away and was not part of the accident. The SUV’s front looked pretty mangled, and the truck, being a truck, was of course hardly damaged. The SUV’s taillight that I hit looked a bit busted, but all together not that bad. I only had damage to my driver’s mirror.
TL;DR: There was a pile up, I was the last person but only damaged my driver’s mirror and the tail light of the car in front of me. Pretty much no way that I am at fault for the pile up.
So someone called the cops. The cops come and help us all get off the highway. They take our statements, etc.. Then, he proceeds to give us ALL citations. The citation was ‘FAILED TO MAINTAIN ASSURED CLEAR DISTANCE-NON COLLISION”
The cop seemed to not be supper happy to be giving everyone citations, but whatever, he still gave them regardless. This is my first accident to ever have police involved, and when I did a bit of googling, I find that it is pretty common to get a citation such as this. I tried to contact the municipal court and ask to get my case dismissed, but the motion to dismiss was denied.
$169 is quite a pretty penny to pay for something that had it only been me and the car in front of me, we would have just exchanged information and been on our way, let the insurance companies fight it out for fault. Is there any way I could go to court and fight this citation, win, and not pay? Or is the Judge pretty much just going to say, “you were driving too fast, hit a car cause you “failed to maintain assured clear distance, pay up.” I really don't want to drive up from Houston to Austin if I know I am going to lose and miss work for nothing. Do I have a case? Or if I go before the Judge am I just wasting my time.
Apologies for the novel.
Following Too Closely: Failed to Maintain Assured Clear Distance, Do I Have a Case
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