Advice needed to failure to yield ticket...

[MollyJean]

I received a 811.145 (failure to yield to an emergency vehicle or ambulance) ticket in Oregon. I was pulled over on Interstate 5 (at night, in the rain, and I was alone in the car). I motioned to the upcoming exit so the police officer would know my intent to pull over there as opposed to parking on the narrow freeway shoulder. I thought I was within my rights to wait until I reached a safe place to pull over. The police officer ticketed me with the above mentioned citation and for speeding.
I plead guilty to the speeding charge and paid that ticket, but plead not guilty to the "failure to yield." I have a court date on April 21st and am trying to gather information for my case. Am I right or wrong? :confused: Please help!

[nj50]

just go to court and explain yourself.

I received a 811.145 (failure to yield to an emergency vehicle or ambulance) ticket in Oregon. I was pulled over on Interstate 5 (at night, in the rain, and I was alone in the car). I motioned to the upcoming exit so the police officer would know my intent to pull over there as opposed to parking on the narrow freeway shoulder. I thought I was within my rights to wait until I reached a safe place to pull over. The police officer ticketed me with the above mentioned citation and for speeding.
I plead guilty to the speeding charge and paid that ticket, but plead not guilty to the "failure to yield." I have a court date on April 21st and am trying to gather information for my case. Am I right or wrong? :confused: Please help!

[P01IC3M4N]

some cops are just anal about it. when i turn on the lights, i know where i prefer you go. if you get off the road and don't take too long, i don't have a problem with it.

if you can show it was raining, dark, etc, then bring up the thing about exploding vics and that you wanted to get off the road, they may dismiss it. most prosecutors and judges know who their anal cops are and dismiss citations without thinking twice about it.

[Seand442]

If it was the next exit, good job. I try to turn my lights on close to an offramp so that we can take care of business on the offramp or off the freeway. Its safer for everyone that way. As has been stated before, some cops are very anal about it and take somethings a little too personal. Explain it to the judge and it sounds like you should be fine. Now if you went past 3 exits, thats a different story.

[Scruit]

How far was it from when he lit you up to when you actually stopped? If the offramp was in sight when you were lit up then you should say that to the judge. Also I would take some pictures, or maybe even measure the width, of the shoulder where he lit you up. If you can show that you had a reasonable belief that the shoulder was too narrow to stop safely, and that there was a safe place visible, and that you clearly indicated to the officer as soon as his lights were on that you inteded to pull over, then you would have a strong case.

However, your arguments would be based upon your 'reasonable belief' as to the safety of stopping there - remember that the officer is trained and experienced in selecting where to pull you over and that if the officer thought it was safe, then the judge will accept that is it WAS safe. I would not try to argue that the officer made a mistake or that the location WAS unsafe - you are not trained or experienced enough to make that call.

My argument would be; "At the location the officer activated his emergency lights the shoulder ,as shown in the picture here, is only 8' wide and there is a concrete barrier. *I believed* that it was not safe to stop here, and that it would be safe to stop just ahead. I could see the offramp ahead and could see a much safer place to stop, so I signalled to the officer by (hazard lights/waving) that I intended to pull over and then proceeded slowly to the first location that I felt safe stopping at, which was just 800 yards away from where he first activated his lights. I really did not feel safe stopping immediately."


I spent some time in the public gallery at the local Mayor's court when I came to this country... I saw a case where the kid was charged with speeding, failure to yeild for an emergency vehicle, and MJ. H pleaded nolo to the MJ and speeding in exhange for them dropping the FTY. As the prosecutor was reading the events to the judge he stated that the "officer turned on his lights at Route 161 and Post road, and the subject did no stop until the McDonalds on Route 161." I was new to the area and though, "That doesn't sound very far!" On my way home from the court I drove rom Post Road to the McDonalds. It was 2 miles, in a 35 limit, through 6 sets of lights, and into the next city! And they let him plead it! They did state that he didn't attempt to elude, just that he didn't pull over. Probably trying to think of a was to hide his stash... ;)