83 year old ticketed for passing a school bus

[igt123]

Hoping I can get some help here:
My Dad is 83. He was on his way to breakfast. The street was closed so he took the detour. In doing so he ended up on an unfamiliar road along with others on the same road.
He swears he stopped and the drivers behind him got annoyed and were honking him to move the cop pulled him over and wrote on the ticket "Failure to YEILD to a school bus". Below that is the infraction number that corresponds to failing to stop for a school bus while disharge. First question is Yeiding to a school bus is much different than the nasty 5 point you could goto jail and serve community service, lose your license deal. So, is the ticket written up wrong??. Additionally the location simply says E. Ramapo. E.Ramapo is a small village around 10 miles from where he was ticketed in Mahwah on E. Ramapo ave. (Am I reaching here??)
He's got zero accidents in his 65 years of driving. None. Had one 2pt ticket 3 years ago and none before that. Yes, he's been lucky. Last thing. My Dad wants to question the bus driver but is certain the bus driver hasn't a clue anything happened as he took off.. Does he have the right to ask to speak w/ the bus driver?
Thanks in advance - Steve

 

[mightymoose]

Your question isn't really clear to me, but I will take a stab.

1. Yielding to the bus:
Did he in fact pass a bus when he should not have? Was his reason for doing so because others were honking? Were the lights on the school bus flashing? If so, he really has no argument to make. He should have waited for the bus to clear.

2. Location:
He could possibly argue this in court, but the officer may be able to testify as to the exact location, and could even amend the citation between now and the court date. It is likely this argument would not get him anywhere, but if the time comes and the officer can not recall the details of the location you might be able to get the judge to toss it.

3. Age:
His age has nothing to do with it. His clean record also has nothing to do with it. He either committed the violation or he didn't.

4. The bus driver:
No, the bus driver has absolutely nothing to do with this. You need only be concerned with the observations of the police officer. You would have difficulty identifying the correct bus and driver anyway- and the last thing you would want is for that bus driver to say that the bus was passed when it should not have been.

 

[igt123]

Sorry. On the ticket in the blank where the officer fills in the violation it states "failure to yeild to a school bus". Underneath that ther is a blank that asks for the violation code and that code corresponds to passing a school bus. He says he didn't pass the school bus and still soesn't know why the cop ticketed him. The cop was rude and didn't want to tell him what he did more than "it's on the ticket"..
So, I was hoping that since the 2 don't jive i.e. the failure to yeild to a schoolbus(there is no Such violation in NJ) as opposed to the code that cites him for passing a school bus. He could ask the officer why he didn't write passing a school bs. To be clear he's called to appear for passinga a school bus - thanks again - Steve

His record has a lot to do with b/c repeat offenders get a much stiffer penalty.

 

[army judge]

OP, if you want to help dad, hire a lawyer to represent him.

This forum can only advise, not represent, defendants.

Dad needs a lawyer.

Hire one to help him.

It would make a great father's day gift!

 

[mightymoose]

So, I was hoping that since the 2 don't jive i.e. the failure to yeild to a schoolbus(there is no Such violation in NJ) as opposed to the code that cites him for passing a school bus.

The difference in wording here is not significant. Passing a school bus when the lights are flashing is the same as running a stop sign- and it is considered failure to yield. The two do jive, and really do mean the same thing.
As suggested above he can lawyer up if he wants, but from what you are saying here it does not sound like there is much of an argument to make. He can probably get it reduced to something else that won't effect his license status, but unless there wasn't even a school bus around it will be hard to make it disappear entirely.

 

[igt123]

Thanks!. I understand what your saying. To me yeilding and stopping are 2 very different things.
A yeild sign doesn't require a full stop, whereas a stop sign does, but I understand how my logic is flawed.
Dad doesn't want a lawyer and so I can't hire one. Thanks again for replying.

 

[igt123]

Greetings!. I met with a lawyer today. He told me he'd be happy to take the case but since my dad lives in NY and the ticket was in NJ, points do not get transfered to NYDMV, and so the insurance company won't get the info either. Unless it's DWI or drug related NYS doesn't transfer points out of state. on the other hand a NJ resident ticketed in any state can only receive a max of 2 points. For example if you live in NJ and speed 30mph over the limit you'd get 5 points. If you live in NJ and drive 30 mph over the limit in NY you'd get 2 points on your license. NY does have a one to one agreement with Ontario Ca. but I can get tickets in all 50 states except NY and end up w/ 2 points and a crapload of fines. But it would be fun