Failure to yield to an emergency vehicle. (First ticket)

[sXenoG]

I would just like advice as to what I should do.

Location: California

Scenario:
Its a four way intersection. I was first at a red light, there was an officer who was in the apposing traffic first in line to make a left turn. The vehicle I failed to yield to was perpendicular to me heading toards me (it was a fire truck).

What happened:
I am a fairly new driver and just got my first ticket next month I will have been driving for a year and will be 17 next month as well. I am still fairly intimidated by cops as im not fully comfortable behind the wheel as of yet. So I was at a red light the light turn green and i looked at the officer who would be in front of me to the left i entered the intersection i looked to the right and the instant I looked there was a fire truck to my left, If i had stopped at that moment I would have been impeding the fire truck so i accelerated to get through the intersection. Immediatle i pulled ot the right in attempt to yield to the emergency vehicle. Next thing I kno after im allready stopped the officer who was in apposing traffic was behind me. He hadnt even begun to make a u turn b4 I had yielded but he wrote me a ticket for failure to yield to an emergency vehicle. I do admit that I was in the wrong for not check both left and right b4 entering the intersection, but it was not my intention at all to not yield to an emergency vehicle. I did have my music on so i did not hear the siren but feel that should not be even considered since the deaf are perfectly legal to drive. There was notthing obstructing my vision at all it was just hat i looked at the officer b4 entering the intersection.

Question:
I am perfectly willing to pay my dues even tho i feel that severe punishment would be unjust. Especially since I have abided my the law better than anyone I kno. I didnt take passengers before the 6 month limit(each of my friends have) I wait to make sure i can clear an intersection before doing it. I practice safer driving then many of the people i know.

So bassicly I want to kno what my best shot would be to reduce the fine or avoid it all together which I dont feel will be a probable option due to some of the things the cop said to me. The cop immediately asked "So you dont like to follow the law" I tried to answer but he left me dumbfounded as he kept rolling with questiong belittling my own character. After i got the ticket I asked him a multitude of questions as to how mucht e fee was going to be and how i could reduce etc. I saw a curious look on his face so i decided to explain my questiong to him, My father told me that if I were ot get the ticket I will be expected ot pay double the fine. He the responded to me telling me that perhaps I should decieve my dad by never telling him and handling it all on my own, which leads me to beilieve this cop is perfectly willing to be decietful if put on the stand.

PS:
Food for thought: How many people in their right mind unless they had a death wish(which i do not) would purposefully pully out in frount of a fire engine.

PS.s: I also in my opinion do not feel i ipeded the path of the fire engine what so ever.

Thanks in advanced for any advince and help you officers will give to me.
-Sorry for tyhe typos and bad spelling as I have a migrane atm and witht he computer I just built I dont have a spell check bundled in software I feel is respectable.

[Aero]

that sucks. But I think you did the right thing, if you got into the sitersection and were blocking the emegency vehicle MOVE OUT OF ITS WAY, which you did. Heck thats what I would have done.



Lol, might be a good time to practice social engineering if you want :p

[sXenoG]

Lol i went into a cops forum and asked them they're all like shame shame, just pay it and learn. Im like god im going to pay it just want the littlest fine as possible and i allready learned so i just want a small fine. I found out the minnimum fine is 100$ here and it can go up to 250$ *cringe* In actuality its not a big fine but im a major cheap skate unless im spending it on my computer

[tapion440]

Can't this ticket bring up what you pay on insurance? I know speeding tickets do. You need, you need, you need to fight this.

Know why cops asks you questions? Cause some people get frightened and they don't answer which makes them look suspicious and guilty(you). Did you admit to what you did? Did you tell the officer what you did wrong? It might be easier to argue if you didn't.

Quick story: I was 15, had no license, and was driving double the speed limit in a car that had a missing title(was mine though). Got caught by a cop and I started playing sad and stupid and started to plead with him with a face that said "I'm about to cry". The guy let me off with a warning!!! and followed me as I drove back home. Ok, back to the topic.

Listen, cops are assholes when it comes to small things like this they will always advise you to just pay it cause they don't want you argueing it/taking it to court. He said don't even tell your dad about it? What a dick. Don't hide something like this from him...especially if he's the one that's paying for your insurance :D

Talk to your dad and search all over the net for "fighting tickets". There's been a few books writen about it and I've heard that's helped a lot of people get out of their ticket. I was trying to find a recent one but had no luck. I'll post again if I can find it.

If nessecary, get your dad's help and call a lawyor. It might seem expensive but if it saves you from having to pay that ticket and a spike in insurance, it could very well be worth it.

[Crimson Sky]

Just an FYI, Deaf drivers have a sensor on their cars that alert them when flashing lights from sirens are in the vicinity. Its the same technology that changes the traffic lights to green with an approaching emergency vehicle :D

People need to turn down the stereo, get off the phone, stop eating yogurt, putting on makeup, watching DVD's, browsing the web and just drive-- :p

[temmink]

I don't know Crimson, I find it practically impossible not to eat my yogurt while driving ever since I installed a yogurt dispensor into my steering wheel, but I will try.

[sXenoG]

Lol crimson yes I kno they have these devices butt hey werent always around and id have to researchb ut i dont believe its required of them to have. And hey im 16 i listen to my music loud im sorry. If that cop hadnt been there i woulda seen that danged engine instead of looking at him

As for the cop asking me repeated questions to shut me up. Well i dont remember the entire thing but i stopped him in his tracks a couple times. He seemed as if he had to meet a quota or something so bassicly i got to say a couple words then he didnt write the ticket the little hand held device did the lazy a$$ doesnt even have to write to get paid :P. But anyways he wouldnt let me say enthing till he came back witht eh ticket then he couldnt answer any question i asked him.

I personally asked on a cop forum omg theyre all so condescending on there. The only advice they had was to just pay your ticket and learn from the incident. Im like shiat thats advice? I allready have ot pay the ticket and you learn from everything you go through on a daily basis so theyre repeating something that you do without thinking?



Also according to my dad my insurance is allready very cheap it costs the same for him to insure me as it costs hisself actually im cheaper cuz he has to insure hiself for his semi as well. I have all these deductions from like b or better avg. Then i have one for being ranked in the top 10 of my class and there were 2 more but cant remember them. Im not concerned with them and by my above comment i obviously did allready speak to my father.


ANYWAYS thanks for the support from you guys all but crimson are you a cop :P jk your comment wasnt harsh at all :)

Side note: Why do you think so many average people are on my side when each and every cop that read that had to speak down to me and would not even agree that me wanting to reduce my fees as much as possible was reasonable?

[Malatory]

Ok 1st off, if you use the excuse but the Death cant hear for the reason your raido is up so loud, then they are going to hit you with a high fine. Plus since you are under 18 they will send a letter to your parents informing them of your ticket. So you would be better off letting your parents know what happened. You might be able to do a day in traffic school and get some of the points/fine reduced but that is up to the judge. Sometime on the ticket they have the fine if you pay it early and higher one if you go to court. Last ticket I got doing 60 in 35 mph zone.

[temmink]

Hey, I have a stereo in my car capable of 138db without distorting, But for some reason I dont drive around with it so loud that I can't hear approaching emergency vehicles. Just turn it down, your an inexperianced driver, you don't need the distraction. And don't bitch about the cop giving you a ticket, you deserved it by the sound of it.

[Crimson Sky]

What if the fire truck was doing a nice clip and crushed your vehicle from the driver's side when you pulled out--Your parents would be planning a funeral. You should have seen/heard the vehicle before you pulled out, especially if it was coming from your left. Did anyone else pull out with you into the intersection when the light changed? The sirens and flashing lights are the best way to get your attention on the street--short of a big rubber hand that comes out of the side of the truck and smacks you in the head. Sirens for daytime, Flashers for nighttime.

Sorry to say you were 100% in the wrong on this one--Failure to yeild to an emergency vehicle is a VERY common ticket, when there is a cop around to see it happen. Emergency vehicles and the people inside them save lives, and as far as "I'm 16 and listen to my music loudly" --getting this ticket and hopefully learning a lesson is the price you pay for not paying attention. And no, I'm not a cop. ;)

The ticket you got was not necessarily about what you did. it is the law's way of saying: HEY

WHAT IF: the fire truck as on its way to YOUR house, and you slowed it down or caused it to crash.

WHAT IF: the fire truck swerved to avoid hitting you and hit a minivan full of preschoolers.

You're going to learn in life that some things are worth fighting for--and I would be on your side if I thought you were right. Some other things you just have to be a man about and concede.

[sXenoG]

It can be argued that i slowed it down but i kno for a fact i did not. The fire truck was to my right not my left. The cop was to my left and is waht i saw. I kno i was in the wrong and am paying my do's but dont want to have my ass handed to me in fees thats allt he advice i wanted. Ummm im not planning on saying anything about music or any of that and i found out that i may not even have to go to court.

Anyways i never heard the siren after i turned my music off anyways so whos to say it was on (the fire house isnt even 100 yards away from the intersection so its possible it wasnt on at that point in time). Ive heard emergency vehicles at the volume i was listening to it at b4 so i honestly dont kno what was up with that to be honest :).

Anyways i was far from the truck there was not even a likely hood of it hitting me what so ever. O and about slowing the truck down the truck hadnt entered the intersection when i crossed and i found out that it is the law for them to slow down b4 they approach an intersection b4 they enter it anyways.

All i was here for was looking for advice to perhaps cheapen my ticket thats all im not saying i wasnt in the wrong cuz u are supposed to look both ways but if youg uys tell me that you do that every time i find it hard to believe because 90% of the time i hardly see people look. I dont need sympathy but perhaps understanding it was a mistake but other then a few people i get nothing but well you should be a perfect driver all the time and not make a mistake.

O and you say be a man. Well if i dont get the bennefits of being a "man" having to obide by all the rules school and parents set for me then why should i concede as one :P lol I couldnt help myself there i dont really mean it totally.

[Bum]

I know you feel this is harsh but it really is a lesson to take to heart. It isn't usually the crazy, drugged up, escaped mental patients that are causing accidents on the streets everyday. It's the average driver that took his/her attention away from driving to change the station, adjust a mirror, pick up their spilled drink, check out a cute girl in the car next to him,(or worry about the cop sitting at the same stoplight) etc...that suddenly finds themselves drifting across lanes or coming up fast on stopped traffic or whatever. I ride a motorcycle everday and you wouldn't believe how many people would have killed me (and I do mean that literally) if I hadn't been watching all around me all the time. People are constantly merging into my lane while I am directly beside them or riding my tail when they don't have a prayer to stop as fast as I do in an emergency situation. It all comes down to actually DRIVING while you drive. No matter how much experience you get, you can never really relax while tooling around in 1 1/2 tons of death on wheels.

Now...as far as getting the least fine you can get, if you don't go in front of a judge I don't see any way your fine could be reduced. In fact, the only way it would be reduced is for the judge to convict you on a lesser charge or dismiss it, generally speaking. If you do go before a judge, you are taking your chances. I had two speeding tickets before I turned 18 and I went in front of a judge both times. They were both for 59 in a 45. I went before the first judge and he gave me a small lecture put an extra $50 on my fine and gave me probation (no ticket on my record). A year later (6 months after my probation was over) I got the second and went before another judge. He was PISSED and raked me over the coals and doubled my fine with no probation. I did nothing different in either case. If it doesn't affect your insurance and you plan to be a law-abiding driver from now on, I'd go ahead and pay it out of court. If it will affect your insurance or job (clean driving record) then I'd try for probation or traffic school. You could also get lucky and the officer won't show up to court to defend his ticket but I wouldn't count on that. In any case, the chances of reducing the fine are slim. Good luck