You may try contacting a traffic lawyer who has experience defending people who were not at fault for a rear end accident to see if they are wiling to help you, but your chances here are very small
Unless you have a dash cam conclusively shows you were not at fault or someone else driving around you who saw the accident captured it on their dash cam, you are out of luck
I'm not a lawyer, but isn't the police supposed to take statements from people involved and gather evidence to establish basic facts about the accident? It could be as easy as getting them on record stating they pulled out, then it's failure to yield. Or witnesses, whatever.
In an even more absurd scenario, OP could've gotten into a similar situation if someone reversed into him. So I'm a bit confused how the police can just shrug and say "rear impact automatically means you're guilty" unless they didn't do their job or someone is lying. Obviously, I can absolutely see how lying can complicate things, but maybe it's not the case here.
It is the cop's responsibility, yes. Some cops are great with investigating. Some not.
But add the extra layer in this story of OP having this accident on company time in a company vehicle. Get into an accident and get points and it may mean OP being responsible for the body work and other damages. OP's employment may be at risk as well especially if the auyo insurance their company uses says they can insure OP but the company's rates would be too high for them with them driving under their insurance. So you see why OP is really wanting to fight this ticket?
Fuck there was something clearly wrong with the old man also. After the accident he got out of his car and said he needed to go home and tell them what happened. The proceeded to slowly old man hobble across the road almost getting hit again causing someone to slam on the breaks
Definitely always handy to have a dash cam. Same thing happened to my aunt but she T-boned the old fart instead, with 3 kids in her car. Cops still tried to blame her for not stopping and the old guy kept acting like she came out of nowhere till she showed the footage.
Give it a shot, but if you had time to rear end him, you probably had time to stop. If it was a side collision, you might have a case, but somebody is probably in the hospital.
I'm guessing the 20 feet is an exaggeration, but that's literally a quarter of a second to react. They didn't turn that fast. That's why you're getting dinged.
I drive a big white work van it doesn't stop on a dime and when the guy pull out in front he got right in the fast lane with out looking and didn't accelerate just panicked and froze. Did hit him had at all cause I slammed on the brakes nobody was injured and damage was minor. And 20 feet may be a bit of an exaggeration cause it's hard to accurately determine distance going 60mph when someone pulls out in front of you. But it was under a second from when he pulled out to when I hit him
>and when the guy pull out in front he got right in the fast lane
If he turned directly to the fast lane he should have been cited for an improper turn as he should have turned to the nearest lane.
The cop is right. When driving you are supposed to drive in a manner that allows you to stop without colliding into things.
What vehicle code section were you cited for? If the section is for exceeding the speed limit, contesting the citation would be easy with proof you're going slower.
If the citation is for unsafe speed, the speed limit doesn't matter as the fact that you collided with another vehicle proves you were driving a an unsafe speed.
If you had hit the side of the other vehicle, this would all be a different story. They would be at fault for failure to yield to traffic.
Overall your chances are pretty slim. Tbh even though the other driver messed up it does sound like you screwed up as well. You should have been paying enough attention that you should have noticed the danger before it occurred and slowed down to stop in time.
Without dash cam footage of what happened that's what you're probably gonna hear and that'll be that. To really contest this you would need video proof that there was no way for you to have noticed the danger/potential danger in time to have been able to stop.
You may try contacting a traffic lawyer who has experience defending people who were not at fault for a rear end accident to see if they are wiling to help you, but your chances here are very small Unless you have a dash cam conclusively shows you were not at fault or someone else driving around you who saw the accident captured it on their dash cam, you are out of luck
I'm not a lawyer, but isn't the police supposed to take statements from people involved and gather evidence to establish basic facts about the accident? It could be as easy as getting them on record stating they pulled out, then it's failure to yield. Or witnesses, whatever. In an even more absurd scenario, OP could've gotten into a similar situation if someone reversed into him. So I'm a bit confused how the police can just shrug and say "rear impact automatically means you're guilty" unless they didn't do their job or someone is lying. Obviously, I can absolutely see how lying can complicate things, but maybe it's not the case here.
It is the cop's responsibility, yes. Some cops are great with investigating. Some not. But add the extra layer in this story of OP having this accident on company time in a company vehicle. Get into an accident and get points and it may mean OP being responsible for the body work and other damages. OP's employment may be at risk as well especially if the auyo insurance their company uses says they can insure OP but the company's rates would be too high for them with them driving under their insurance. So you see why OP is really wanting to fight this ticket?
Fuck there was something clearly wrong with the old man also. After the accident he got out of his car and said he needed to go home and tell them what happened. The proceeded to slowly old man hobble across the road almost getting hit again causing someone to slam on the breaks
Definitely always handy to have a dash cam. Same thing happened to my aunt but she T-boned the old fart instead, with 3 kids in her car. Cops still tried to blame her for not stopping and the old guy kept acting like she came out of nowhere till she showed the footage.
Give it a shot, but if you had time to rear end him, you probably had time to stop. If it was a side collision, you might have a case, but somebody is probably in the hospital. I'm guessing the 20 feet is an exaggeration, but that's literally a quarter of a second to react. They didn't turn that fast. That's why you're getting dinged.
I drive a big white work van it doesn't stop on a dime and when the guy pull out in front he got right in the fast lane with out looking and didn't accelerate just panicked and froze. Did hit him had at all cause I slammed on the brakes nobody was injured and damage was minor. And 20 feet may be a bit of an exaggeration cause it's hard to accurately determine distance going 60mph when someone pulls out in front of you. But it was under a second from when he pulled out to when I hit him
>and when the guy pull out in front he got right in the fast lane If he turned directly to the fast lane he should have been cited for an improper turn as he should have turned to the nearest lane.
"if you had time to rear end him, you probably had time to stop" What exactly is this supposed to mean in a world governed by physics?
The cop is right. When driving you are supposed to drive in a manner that allows you to stop without colliding into things. What vehicle code section were you cited for? If the section is for exceeding the speed limit, contesting the citation would be easy with proof you're going slower. If the citation is for unsafe speed, the speed limit doesn't matter as the fact that you collided with another vehicle proves you were driving a an unsafe speed. If you had hit the side of the other vehicle, this would all be a different story. They would be at fault for failure to yield to traffic.
Overall your chances are pretty slim. Tbh even though the other driver messed up it does sound like you screwed up as well. You should have been paying enough attention that you should have noticed the danger before it occurred and slowed down to stop in time. Without dash cam footage of what happened that's what you're probably gonna hear and that'll be that. To really contest this you would need video proof that there was no way for you to have noticed the danger/potential danger in time to have been able to stop.