tomorrow i go in front of the judge

Biggy · 09-26-2005

hey voodoo - you don't even want to know the penalties for this. this is considered pretty serious, at least from an auto-insurance perspective.

an explanation of the diagram: i was pulling a left as a bus was approaching a regular street stop sign (i had no stop sign). it was at the regular street stop sign that the school bus stop was also at. the only way I could have known from a realistic perspective that she was stopping to let children off would be the red lights on top of the bus. The stop sign was completely obstructed from my angle, and her red lights weren't on when I started making my turn, as if they were, I would have stopped. I think she's stopping at the regular street stop sign. She also was not pulled over to the right of the street, she stopped as a regular car would stop at that sign. I would've also had a full frontal view of the schoolbus door, to be able to see kids crossing, but there were no kids anywhere. There were no kids even remotely close to the intersection. About 75% thru my turn, the bus driver starts honking like crazy and yelling (at the same time - that is called rage). A honk is an indication.. honking and yelling simultaneously is rage. This occured on Sept 16. Tuesday, Sept 20th, I received a ticket in my mail - improperly passing a school bus. 5 points, plus the penalty also can carry a jailterm of no more than 15 days and/or 15 days of community service. She caught my license plate because I was going slow, I don't speed around buses nor do I take children's safety lightly. Pretty much, she's an angry school busdriver. If I had children, I would want her to be my bus driver, I can't blame her for being over-protective of children, but that doesn't mean she is right in this situation

The court date was wrote up wrong, i thought it was funny I was supposed to be appearing in court only 1 week after the ticket was written. Unless she brings in kids on the schoolbus that day (which I seriously doubt she will do since the whole situation is a bit ridiculous), there are no witnesses. They were middle-schoolers too, not toddlers. On a completely irrelevant note - its a horrible bus stop, even for the kids crossing. I can draw out the neighborhood and show you exactly, but its too much work. Pretty much the streets form a huge circle, and she passes all the hosues anyways, I guess its easier for her to stop at an intersection and drop kids off, then make 1 extra stop later in the bus route. A judge will consider that information irrelevant.

This is a suburban town, they are not going to place my rights over children's safety. The judge is a big time dick whose job it is to generate revenue, I have heard MANY stories. It's pretty much the worst kind of judge you can imagine, no joke. A family friend was telling me her husband went in to fight a ticket, he called the court a kangaroo court and was going to get contempt and placed in jail for 10 days. Then they found out he recently had heart surgery and had to see a doctor every couple of days which of course they didnt want to pay for. It was only after they learned that, that they told him if he apologized, he could go - guilty of course of his original ticket. The ticket he got was for riding a should for 5 feet before he entered a shopping plaza (he was not passing cars).

I can't go in with optimisim that "justice will be served," i will get killed. Even though I think I am in the right, and this whole situation is completely blown out of proportion by an over-emotional psychotic busdriver, i have to deal with it. I should also note my last traffic infraction was a year and a half ago, never been in any accidents (knock on wood). I have a pretty clean license for the most part, maybe 1 point. In my life, I have gotten 2 out of state speeding tickets, nothing too crazy or bad. I plan on hiring a lawyer, taking a ton of pictures, then going up to the DA and optimistically cutting a deal paying a fine and getting no points. Realistically I'd probably get some infraction worth 2 points and a fine. I don't even want to think about the worst case scenario. It's bullshit, but thats the system for you.

MikeAI, any legal advice?

09-26-2005	#24
Biggy Members Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 768	Re: tomorrow i go in front of the judge hey voodoo - you don't even want to know the penalties for this. this is considered pretty serious, at least from an auto-insurance perspective. an explanation of the diagram: i was pulling a left as a bus was approaching a regular street stop sign (i had no stop sign). it was at the regular street stop sign that the school bus stop was also at. the only way I could have known from a realistic perspective that she was stopping to let children off would be the red lights on top of the bus. The stop sign was completely obstructed from my angle, and her red lights weren't on when I started making my turn, as if they were, I would have stopped. I think she's stopping at the regular street stop sign. She also was not pulled over to the right of the street, she stopped as a regular car would stop at that sign. I would've also had a full frontal view of the schoolbus door, to be able to see kids crossing, but there were no kids anywhere. There were no kids even remotely close to the intersection. About 75% thru my turn, the bus driver starts honking like crazy and yelling (at the same time - that is called rage). A honk is an indication.. honking and yelling simultaneously is rage. This occured on Sept 16. Tuesday, Sept 20th, I received a ticket in my mail - improperly passing a school bus. 5 points, plus the penalty also can carry a jailterm of no more than 15 days and/or 15 days of community service. She caught my license plate because I was going slow, I don't speed around buses nor do I take children's safety lightly. Pretty much, she's an angry school busdriver. If I had children, I would want her to be my bus driver, I can't blame her for being over-protective of children, but that doesn't mean she is right in this situation The court date was wrote up wrong, i thought it was funny I was supposed to be appearing in court only 1 week after the ticket was written. Unless she brings in kids on the schoolbus that day (which I seriously doubt she will do since the whole situation is a bit ridiculous), there are no witnesses. They were middle-schoolers too, not toddlers. On a completely irrelevant note - its a horrible bus stop, even for the kids crossing. I can draw out the neighborhood and show you exactly, but its too much work. Pretty much the streets form a huge circle, and she passes all the hosues anyways, I guess its easier for her to stop at an intersection and drop kids off, then make 1 extra stop later in the bus route. A judge will consider that information irrelevant. This is a suburban town, they are not going to place my rights over children's safety. The judge is a big time dick whose job it is to generate revenue, I have heard MANY stories. It's pretty much the worst kind of judge you can imagine, no joke. A family friend was telling me her husband went in to fight a ticket, he called the court a kangaroo court and was going to get contempt and placed in jail for 10 days. Then they found out he recently had heart surgery and had to see a doctor every couple of days which of course they didnt want to pay for. It was only after they learned that, that they told him if he apologized, he could go - guilty of course of his original ticket. The ticket he got was for riding a should for 5 feet before he entered a shopping plaza (he was not passing cars). I can't go in with optimisim that "justice will be served," i will get killed. Even though I think I am in the right, and this whole situation is completely blown out of proportion by an over-emotional psychotic busdriver, i have to deal with it. I should also note my last traffic infraction was a year and a half ago, never been in any accidents (knock on wood). I have a pretty clean license for the most part, maybe 1 point. In my life, I have gotten 2 out of state speeding tickets, nothing too crazy or bad. I plan on hiring a lawyer, taking a ton of pictures, then going up to the DA and optimistically cutting a deal paying a fine and getting no points. Realistically I'd probably get some infraction worth 2 points and a fine. I don't even want to think about the worst case scenario. It's bullshit, but thats the system for you. MikeAI, any legal advice? __________________ Create a solid TGP presence for your site(s). ICQ: 110850739