QuestionI was traveling on a 3 lane interstate highway during a rainy day. I was in the right lane and moved to center lane to allow another vehicle to enter from the ramp. Another vehicle came up behind the person entering traffic and shot between us. I taped my brakes and started to skid. I ended up crashing into the retaining wall. No injuries of other vehicles involved. I was traveling 50 mph in a 60 mph zone. When the officer arrived he wrote me a ticket for unsafe speed. What can I do.
AnswerHi Steve and welcome to AllExperts!
I am sorry to hear about your situation and understand the difficulty of suffering an accident and then being cited as well.
It sounds like you car didn't have Anti-Lock Brakes, or that system was faulty, as you should not have encountered a skid. You might have this system checked if your car does have ABS.
Keep in mind that the maximum posted speed limit is based on best conditions, and we must adjust our speed according to one that is safe to operate our vehicle. Depending on the amount of rain, standing water on the roadway, debris such as oil, gravel and other things that prevent good adhesion with the roadway, traveling 50mph may have been unsafe for the conditions. It sounds like this is what the officer had cited you for.
If the citation was solely based on loss of control, and the officer felt this was due to an unsafe speed, then you might be able to argue that speed wasn't the causal factor due to malfunctioning ABS brakes, assuming you have ABS brakes.
If the citation was based solely on traveling 50mph under conditions that made this speed unsafe, regardless of the loss of control, then there probably isn't much you can do.
I hope this helps, and again, I'm sorry to hear about your situation. If you need further help, please email me back. Please keep in mind that tomorrow, I leave on vacation for a week.
Terry
