Vishal Kesar
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- Pennsylvania
My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: PA
Hi Experts,
This is my first ticket ever in my driving experience of about 15 years. And its the worst, I passed a stopped school bus with red lights on and its extended Stop arm out.
This is what exactly happened on that fateful day:
It was first day of my daughter's pre-school. It was just an orientation session from 1:30 to 2:15 pm. I picked her up from home, went to her school, attended the orientation session and dropped her back home.
I left home at 2:25 pm. As soon as I leave my home street, I have to take a left for Mcknight Road which has 3 lanes on side of the road. Now, as soon as I enter the Mcknight Road, I know there is a traffic light after about 200 meters which I see everyday while going to work. After about 100 meters, there is a right curve on the road, so before you pass the curve, you won't be able to see whats on that traffic light. The extreme left lane becomes Left only at times with a Dynamic traffic sign or it is through for straight traffic most of the times.
So, I took left to merge into the Mcknight Road and kept driving in this extreme left lane. As soon as I passed the right curve, I noticed that the extreme left lane was Left only with Left Arrow on the traffic light. I knew I had to shift my lane to right. I gave the right indicator, looked into the rear view mirror, side view mirror and looked over my right shoulder. I saw a car in my blind spot. I kept looking at it in the side view mirror and over my shoulder. I realized If I kept driving like this, I may have hit the car in front of me who were waiting for the left light to go green. I sped up a little may be about 2-3 miles higher than I was driving, just enough to enter the lane towards my light. In the next second, I was looking at the green traffic light which was less than 30 feet away from me and I realized, I am in parallel to a stopped school bus whose extended arm was out and lights were turning from Yellow to Red. I had just that 1-2 seconds of window where I had to take the decision. I also got afraid what if I apply the power brakes and the car in my rear hits me because I was right at the traffic light. I couldn't take the best decision and kept driving. As soon as I passed the light, I knew I had done mistake unknowingly and moved to the extreme right lane. It was a matter of few seconds, I saw a police car giving me signal to stop.
Now my I am facing 3 charges: $383 fine + 5 points on my driving record + 2 months license suspension.
I have replayed this episode about 100 times and dont know what else I could have done. It could have happened with anybody. I can never ever think of passing a moving school bus let alone a stopped one. I have got 2 very little kids(1 & 3) at home. My wife doesn't drive. 2 months of suspension is going to affect us very badly. This is a very cruel punishment for a first time traffic offender.
I've pleaded non-guilty for my citation. I am getting my clean driving history record from India and Canada as well to see if helps in my hearing on Oct 27th. I am having sleepless nights and suspension thing is making me very nervous.
I request you experts to guide me what I should do in this case.
Thanks in advance
Vishal
Hi Experts,
This is my first ticket ever in my driving experience of about 15 years. And its the worst, I passed a stopped school bus with red lights on and its extended Stop arm out.
This is what exactly happened on that fateful day:
It was first day of my daughter's pre-school. It was just an orientation session from 1:30 to 2:15 pm. I picked her up from home, went to her school, attended the orientation session and dropped her back home.
I left home at 2:25 pm. As soon as I leave my home street, I have to take a left for Mcknight Road which has 3 lanes on side of the road. Now, as soon as I enter the Mcknight Road, I know there is a traffic light after about 200 meters which I see everyday while going to work. After about 100 meters, there is a right curve on the road, so before you pass the curve, you won't be able to see whats on that traffic light. The extreme left lane becomes Left only at times with a Dynamic traffic sign or it is through for straight traffic most of the times.
So, I took left to merge into the Mcknight Road and kept driving in this extreme left lane. As soon as I passed the right curve, I noticed that the extreme left lane was Left only with Left Arrow on the traffic light. I knew I had to shift my lane to right. I gave the right indicator, looked into the rear view mirror, side view mirror and looked over my right shoulder. I saw a car in my blind spot. I kept looking at it in the side view mirror and over my shoulder. I realized If I kept driving like this, I may have hit the car in front of me who were waiting for the left light to go green. I sped up a little may be about 2-3 miles higher than I was driving, just enough to enter the lane towards my light. In the next second, I was looking at the green traffic light which was less than 30 feet away from me and I realized, I am in parallel to a stopped school bus whose extended arm was out and lights were turning from Yellow to Red. I had just that 1-2 seconds of window where I had to take the decision. I also got afraid what if I apply the power brakes and the car in my rear hits me because I was right at the traffic light. I couldn't take the best decision and kept driving. As soon as I passed the light, I knew I had done mistake unknowingly and moved to the extreme right lane. It was a matter of few seconds, I saw a police car giving me signal to stop.
Now my I am facing 3 charges: $383 fine + 5 points on my driving record + 2 months license suspension.
I have replayed this episode about 100 times and dont know what else I could have done. It could have happened with anybody. I can never ever think of passing a moving school bus let alone a stopped one. I have got 2 very little kids(1 & 3) at home. My wife doesn't drive. 2 months of suspension is going to affect us very badly. This is a very cruel punishment for a first time traffic offender.
I've pleaded non-guilty for my citation. I am getting my clean driving history record from India and Canada as well to see if helps in my hearing on Oct 27th. I am having sleepless nights and suspension thing is making me very nervous.
I request you experts to guide me what I should do in this case.
Thanks in advance
Vishal
