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Can I dismiss my ticket?
20/f
I'm under 25 years old and I live in Texas.
There was snow today and the roads were icy. I was driving and I breaked far away before hitting an intersection but I lost control of my car. My car skid and hit the bumper of another car. There was more damaged done to my car than it did to theirs (only leaving a scratch). The fire department came and saw that there wasn't much of an accident to deal with since both of us were fine and left. The police came 10 minutes after the accident and issued me a "Fail to control speed-accident" ticket.
I am slightly confused. The police was not present during the accident to monitor my speed but yet; I was presented a ticket. I am going to court in two weeks and I was wondering if there was any possibility in dismissing my ticket?
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As adviceman said, there is a possibility depending on how lenient the judge is.
To address your confusion on how the police could ticket you without knowing what speed you were going:
Even if you were below the posted speed limit, speed control also depends on the road conditions. If you were unable to stop at an intersection, even braking from far away, it means that you were driving too fast for the snowy, icy road. This is what you'll need to defend.
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The only way the ticket can be dismissed is by the Judge. You can go to court and plead not guilty and explain to the judge that you were attempting to stop. Had started to break far enough from the intersection when you hit an icy patch or black ice and lost control of your car. It is then up to the judge to decide what to do. You can ask for the charges to be dismissed at that time.
I'm not sure the police chose the proper charge to charge you with. "Fail to control speed-accident" does not sound proper. In the state I live in they have a charge of "loss of control-failing to avoid an accident or speed in excess of road conditions." The last one means you might not have been traveling over the posted speed limit but were traveling over a speed which would allow you to control your vehicle based on road conditions.
Based on what part of Texas you live in, the further south the better for what I'm going to suggest. This winters weather has been very strange. Portions of this country that have never seen snow saw snow for the first time.
When you plead not guilty and ask the judge to dismiss the ticket. You can also ask the judge if he or she cannot see their way to dismissing the ticket or finding you not guilty. Would they be agreeable to "Probation before judgment, (PBJ)."
Based on your driving record the judge may be agreeable to this. If a PBJ is granted you would be on probation for however long the judge orders, generally 6 months to a year. If no other moving violations are issued to you this one is dismissed and expunged from your driving record. Your insurance company is not notified and your rates do not or should not reflect the ticket.
Good luck in court. Dress in business casual and stay calm when talking to the judge. State your case clearly. Based on all the accidents this weather has caused across the country I am confident that Judges are not going to add insult to injury, so to speak, for minor traffic accidents.
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