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

[redhen]

personally, i think they should rescind your driving permit...you dont seem mature enough to have it yet. You broke the permit laws.( and KNEW it)...you shouldnt have the permit right now...period. good luck..but i hope the judge is strict with you..really.

 

[silkiecrazy1212]

Quote:
I knew someone had to be a jerk.
IM 14 YEARS OLD!!! OF COURSE IM NOT FULLY MATURE!!
Im not retarded.
Are you saying you have never done anything illegal?
I can completely guarantee you have!
Does that mean you arent mature?
Does that mean you dont deserve your lisence?

PEOPLE MAKE MISTAKES!

 

[Picklestix7866]

Quote:
My opinion: NO It's not worth it. You will look better and more mature if you accept the charges and appear humble. Otherwise it kind of looks like you don't want to accept responsibility or something. Don't take that personally. And really, the fine isn't all that much. The whole "permit getting taken away" thing is because you violated a bunch of the rules you were supposed to follow when issued the permit. Fighting the reckless driving won't erase that. You would probably spend more on the attorney then all the fines put together. AND it's traffic court for petes sake! It won't even show up on job applications or anything. Please don't take any of this personally or get offended. I'm just giving you my honest opinion.

 

[chickenwhisperer123]

Quote:
My opinion: NO It's not worth it. You will look better and more mature if you accept the charges and appear humble. Otherwise it kind of looks like you don't want to accept responsibility or something. Don't take that personally. And really, the fine isn't all that much. The whole "permit getting taken away" thing is because you violated a bunch of the rules you were supposed to follow when issued the permit. Fighting the reckless driving won't erase that. You would probably spend more on the attorney then all the fines put together. AND it's traffic court for petes sake! It won't even show up on job applications or anything. Please don't take any of this personally or get offended. I'm just giving you my honest opinion.

Thanks, and the whole permit getting taken away thing...
I wouldnt mind if it got suspended for a while! (I honestly dont want to drive for a while.)
The thing I am worried about is them changing my future. (Like not letting me get a lisence until I am 17 or whatever.)

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

I wasn't allowed to get my license until I was 17. I had my learner's permit (meaning I had to drive with my parents) when I was 16 and then I could go for the test when I was 17. This only happened because I had taken three driving lessons with a trained professional. Otherwise, in the state of NJ you have to wait until you are 17 to get your permit and then you can go for your license at 17 1/2. I think even this is changing though and you are not able to go for your license until 18, no matter what.

Honestly, I had no need to drive anywhere when I was 14. At least not anywhere that my parents or a bus couldn't take me

Honestly, if they take away your license until you are 17, its really not that big a deal. That age will be there before you know it. I'm really surprised that your state allows people to drive at 14. I don't mean to sound condescending at all, but when I was 14, I was only a freshman in high school. It just sounds so young to me! (Again, I'm not saying you are immature, its just so young age wise...haha and I'm allowed to talk, I'm only 20!)

I've made so many mistakes in my short life (and yes, some of them may have been illegal!) Luckily I'm the type of person that learns from my mistakes and it seems like you are as well. Chances are they will probably suspend your permit for a while, and maybe the dat eyou are allowed to ge tyour license. It may seem like the absolute end of the world to you now, but I promise you (And cross my heart!) that it will not matter one bit in 4 or even 3 years. I was happy that I had gotten my license at 17, but if I had had to wait until I was 18 it wouldn't really matter right now.

I wish you the best of luck though! These things do make us stronger. We tend to over worry, stress ourselves out, etc...but in the end it will all pass and chances are you are worrying way too much. Just be extremely happy that no one was seriously injured. Cars can be replaced, people can't!

Oh, and I'll add this to my already very long post: I didn't have a car of my own until I was in my first year of college. I borrowed my parent's cars when I needed to, but they told me that if I wrecked one of them I was responsible for all the costs, I would have to pay my own insurance, etc. I never did have an accident, but I still paid for my own car. The fact that I had to earn the money and pay for it myself taught me a huge deal about responsibility. Honestly, I think it is a good lesson for kids to have to purchase their own vehicles. Not only will you respect that vehicle more, but you've also made the second largest investment you will probably ever make in your life!

 

[cluckychick]

You may very well loose your license till your 18. In MO you would. You should read the rules of a permit, it more than likely tell you right in your drivers book what the consequences are of your actions.

 

[preppy*hippie*chick]

Just wondering... if you were on a gravel road, wouldn't you only be going 15 mph or so? It doesn't seem like you should have been going fast enough to wreck, much less total your truck. I try to miss deer too, but while I'm swerving I'm also hitting the brakes - hard!!! It seems like you must have been going awfully fast for this to have happened on gravel & maybe that's where the reckless driving is coming in.

I would not get an attorney. Doesn't go well with "humble & taking responsibility" bit. I still think the biggest part of your punishment will be not driving for a while. Good luck.

 

[Rosalind]

Wow. When I grew up, you could not get a learner's permit until you were (I think...

) a few months short of your 16th birthday. And you had to make an appointment for an exam to get the permit, and the appointments were always booked out for 2-3 months, so in any case you pretty much were not going to get a learner's permit until you were 16. And then you were issued a kiddie license with a lot of restrictions (# of passengers, age of passengers, curfew times), which was not converted to a grownup license until you were 18. Nowadays I'm told they don't convert it to a grownup license until you're 21.

All things considered, you're pretty lucky and have been entrusted with a lot of responsibility at a comparatively young age. Think the cheapest bet would be to just pay the fines and do the community service or whatever else they give you, because it will be less hassle than getting a lawyer and fighting it. Lawyers cost way more than $200, I promise.

Sure, grownups make mistakes. And we pay for them, too. Usually grownup mistakes cost a LOT more than $200 and community service. I'd say you're very very lucky.

And before you assume that everyone breaks the law at some point...there are indeed people who have never broken a law. I admit they are rare, but they exist. My grandmom is one such; never even gotten a parking ticket. It happens.

 

[ruth]

I'm really curious, in what state, at age 14, are you allowed to drive on public roads, alone, without an adult in the car? I know of NO state where this is allowed - whether to/from school or not. Nothing personal, but I want to be sure I avoid that state if the roads are full of 14 year old drivers.

You are lucky you are alive and well and that no one was hurt. Your tone of voice and replies sound very defensive and argumentative and that won't help you one bit in court. As other adults have posted, your best defense is to arrive early, dress professionally, be humble, admit your mistakes and take your punishment.

My daughter wrecked her car, right in front of our house, when she was 17 and had just started driving (the min. age in LA). she lost control coming too fast around the sharp curve and like you, overcompensated and skidded off the road, went in the ditch, hit the concrete culvert which bounced the car around and slammed it into the tree in the front yard and totalled the car. We called the police because we knew we would need a police report for insurance purposes. She got a ticket for wreckless driving. We showed up in court, with her dressed professionally; we sat quietly, near the front, all day waiting for our turn; the cop did not show up; we did not hire a lawyer; she told the judge she was sorry and had learned her lesson - he told her she looked like a beautiful and smart young lady who was well behaved and well spoken and had her learned her lesson - then he threw out the charges and told her to "have a nice day".

But I can tell you my daughter did indeed learn her lesson that day because she watched the same judge send one kid after another to jail for speeding. Some were going 80 mph. Every time he sent one of the young teens to jail and said "That's too fast, for your own good, I'm sending you to jail for 5 days to teach you a lesson" my daughter would turn to me and say "Did he say jail?" So you can bet she was a nervous wreck by the time her time came and she never again drove too fast. But I can tell you this, most of the kids that got jail time were sloppily dressed and showed an "attitude" that the judge felt he needed to correct.

 

[preppy*hippie*chick]

I also notice that you've been editing your opening post and as Ruth said, you're getting defensive. Just because someone doesn't tell you what you want to hear, that doesn't make them a "jerk". Perhaps you "just knew someone would be a jerk" because you know you're in the wrong here. You posted this asking for opinions - would you rather everyone sugar coat?

I think this behavior is pretty typical of someone your age and on a personal note, don't think anyone should get a full licence til they're 18.

I don't think this is a huge deal as far as having an adverse effect on your future, but you hopefully have learned that when driving, a few seconds can erase your future and maybe someone else's too.