Please Help!! What do I do? CAR ACCIDENT ****ADVICE/HELP****

[Chicken Rustler]

Your situation is part of the reason to NEVER swerve to miss a deer. If you had not swerved yes you would have hit the deer BUT if you had hit the deer you would have something to prove it. So many people claim that they swerved to miss a deer, when there really was some other cause for a crash. I am not saying this is what you did you seem like a very smart honest young man but because others use the deer for an excuse it is not taken serious when it really happens.
I think you already have a grip on the idea of "if you mess up fess up".
Dress well, show respect, be a little early for court, try to keep your explanations short and to the point and at the end NO MATTER the out come tell the judge "Thank you your Honor". This will all go a long way.
I know this feels like a huge thing to you but it is really just a bump in the road of life (no pun intended) and a slight twist in the learning curve. The most important part of making mistakes is that we learn from them and don't continue to make the same ones.
Good luck keep us posted.

 

[silkiecrazy1212]

People preaching to me about not swerving to miss a deer do ABSOLUTELY no good now. I have learned my lesson (the hard way.)

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Sorry I came across that way I wasn't "preaching" to you about swerving I was simply trying to explain that if there was a dead deer laying there the cop and others would have no room to doubt you.
Rob

 

[ShadyGlade]

Just as an exercise in "the other side" of your case....imagine that you are the office or the judge. This is what you do day after day, year after year. Of all the folks you come across the vast majority have excuse itis. I can hear you forming your "yeah but" Please don't. The prison system is full of folks with more justifications than you would believe. Many if not most of the folks that our legal systems deal with are repeat offenders. Because of that experience it would be extremely foolish for the officers & judges to take explanations at face value. It is not personal so don't take it personally. It is terrific that you are facing up to what you did wrong. It is understandable that you feel upset that your integrity is being questioned. However all of the perfectly reasonable explanations that you offer are going to be seen through the lenses of those who deal with a lower class element much of the time. If you can try to look at it from that perspective perhaps you might understand that you will simply be one more of those "It isn't my fault because" revolving door offenders in their eyes if you take that approach. It might not seem fair but I think that you might make the case to restore your integrity in the eyes of the system far more eloquently if you "just say nothing at all". It's late and I'm not certain that any of that will seem sensible to you. Just try to think about it from the view of the "system".

 

[Calebs Acre]

For the sake of argument, I don't know if people can keep from trying to swerve to avoid an object jutting out in front of them. It's really a knee jerk reaction. Plus, I know of more than enough people killed because they hit a deer or other animal in the road.

I don't really think the judge is going to care about the deer. The judge is going to care about making sure Josh learns from this experience that driving is a privilege and when you drive, you need to pay full attention to what you are doing and obey the laws, or else you risk harming yourself and many other people. I'm sure he wants Josh to take this very seriously and accept responsibility.

With that said, I would be a total FOOL to suggest that you plead guilty, Josh. If you want to fight the charge, hire an attorney. If you don't want to hire an attorney, I would plead guilty. What do your parents think you should do?

By pleading nolo contendere, or "no contest", you are saying that you are not admitting guilt nor are you claiming innocence, you are simply not fighting the charges. I think that the judge would see this as a lack of accepting responsibility.

If you do not hire an attorney, then you would have to have some sort of proof that you are not guilty of the charges and without a full understanding of what constitutes those charges in your state, that would be pretty hard to do.

In Virginia, for instance, radar equipment used by police has be calibrated on a certain schedule. Some attorneys will ask to see the calibration record for a radar gun and if it hasn't been calibrated on the proper schedule, that is a cause for throwing out the charges.

Without an understanding of the regulation, you cannot make an argument against it.

 

[English Chick]

I am sorry to hear about your accident, but thankful that no-one was hurt. At the end of the day we can all give you advice, but what matters is that you have learnt from the mistake you made irrespective of what the Court/Judge may charge you with.

So whatever happens you will have to "take it on the chin" it all depends what happens on the day. Try not to worry yourself sick (I know easier said than done).......You will come out of this the wiser......so many young people on the roads these days don't survive accidents. But I will have my fingers crossed for you and will keep you in my prayers.

 

[Rockpile99]

Hi Josh,

Hopefully you are not first on the dockett so that you may be able to see what others are doing before it's your turn. It might not be a bad idea to just go sit in on a court session before it's your day. you don't even need to stay the whole day, just the morning session is usually enough to see many different possible outcomes. Everything from people that are rude or clearly disrespectful to people with lawyers, to respectful people without lawyers. That will really prepare you for how things are handled in your state and what some of your options may be.

Please understand that this is not legal advice from anyone, we are just offering our opinions and experience.

I've been to traffic court a few times over the last 25 years, and while it can vary greatly by state the first thing to understand is that "careless driving" is a very generic and broad term used to cover a lot of things that aren't covered by another charge. My husband is a professional truckdriver and got a careless driving ticket once for driving on the shoulder of the highway, I think two wheels left the pavement. It was raining out, he was following a safe distance behind the car in front of him and at a greatly reduced speed. The car in front of him wrecked, and while he was going less than the speed limit, he still needed to get off the road to avoid hitting the car. Was he doing anything wrong? Not at all, by going off to the side he saved someones life by not running them over. He didn't cause any damage to any vehicles or any other property - ok maybe the grass a little. He still got a ticket because his wheels left the pavement.

Watch the terminology that you use to describe the incident. pretty much whenever a law official hears the word "swerve" it's an automatic careless driving ticket. To them Swerve means that you were not in full control of the vehicle and or driving at a safe speed for conditions. Try using terms such as "turned or steered to the right, to avoid the deer in my lane of traffic", when you finish that sentence you can see how the careless driving part comes in to play. "I turned back to the left and overcorrected, causing my vehicle to overturn". Probably don't want to say that part if you don't have to. It being incriminating and all.

Second - please with legal counsel, it is almost always recommended to plead not-guilty, even if you know you are guilty. If you plead guilty you have no negotiation room. If you plead Not guilty and can speak to the DA - they are the ones who can recommend easier terms. You may also be able to get a deferred sentence. That means that for a certain length of time, usually between one to two years if you don't get into anymore trouble, the charges are dropped entirely - no record at all, no community service, no classes, no nothing. If however you get even so much as an unpaid parking ticket they can come back and press full charges against you, for both the original citations and the new ones.

These are really decisions to be made with your parents and legal counsel, even if you just go in for a free consultation you can probably get quite a bit of info that will help you out.

Good luck!

 

[Calebs Acre]

This is traffic court, not criminal court, so I doubt that a DA will be involved. Usually, the officer at the scene, as an officer of the court, reads the charges, but that, too, can differ from state to state. In my state, if the officer doesn't show, you can request that the charges are dropped. You shouldn't have any sort of "sentence" in traffic court. I really agree that your parents should be involved in the decision about whether to get a lawyer or not. And if you do not get an attorney, they should concur with the decision you make regarding your plea.

Many people go to traffic court without attorneys, which is the only reason I have given my opinion at such length. NO ONE here in the forum can give you legal advice. We can only render opinions. ONLY if someone here is a licensed attorney in YOUR STATE would they be qualified to give you legal advice.

I like Rockpile's advice that you go to a session of traffic court to experience what happens there. Great idea! I have to split a few hairs in Rockpile's assessment of the truck driving incident. I'm sorry. But, the very definition of "following at a safe distance" means that you can safely stop without having to leave the highway. So if you cannot do that, you can be charged with a traffic infraction, at least in my state. Could be different in other states.

Check your locality for the dates and times for traffic court, as sometimes the dockets run concurrently with civil court and other times, they are consecutive or even on different days.

Have you tried researching careless driving in Nebraska on the internet to see if you can read how other people made out? Looks like it carries points in most states.

 

[cmcgoun]

Someone may have already asked, but you said you have a permit right? Well in my state if you have a permit you MUST have a parent in the car with you. Did you have a parent, or do you not need one in your state?

 

[mom'sfolly]

I like the advice of going to see traffic court before your court date. you'll have an idea of what to expect. It is not like TV court. They run through things very quickly. My babysitter's mom (one of my best friends) said she was surprised, and she does think that her son dressing for court made a good impression. She said most people were so slovenly that it looked really bad.

I would not try to contest things....

I'm sorry that you're going through this stuff; but I as a parent I'm impressed. You're taking responsibility for your actions, researching the option in a totally non-threatening situation, and looking towards the future. You screwed up, but most of us have at one time or another. Bravo on taking your licks and moving forward.

I'd be proud to have a kid like you...and I would have done similar restrictions on all the good stuff too.