My “Friend’s” Strange Luck with Traffic Tickets
by dwilson on Apr.28, 2011, under personal
Disclaimer: For obvious legal ramifications, this didn’t happen to me but to a “friend”.
While waiting at the corner of 120th Ave and Bradburn Blvd. to make a left turn into the Bradburn Village neighborhood, my friend decided to ignore the left turn red arrow and run it. My friend often does this because these red arrows are unnecessary, especially at said intersection when you can see oncoming traffic for hundreds of yards to see if making a left turn is safe. My friend then did a rolling stop at the next intersection, turned left and then parked on the wrong side of the street to get the mail. In my friends defense, the rolling stop was not careless, as my friend lived a number of years in the Uptown neighborhood. This trained my friend, from both the perspective of driver and more often pedestrian, to slow to almost a complete stop before the intersection proper to look for pedestrians in both directions at the sidewalk threshold, then coast to the stop sign threshold to look for oncoming cars before proceeding. Parking on the incorrect side of the street was a mere convenience for getting the mail. Upon returning to the vehicle, a police cruiser was parked behind the car with lights flashing.
So to summarize the (alleged) offenses:
- Intentionally running a red light (and we aren’t talking pushing a yellow, straight up running it)
- Failure to stop at a stop sign
- Parking on the incorrect side of the street
The ticket issued was a no points parking ticket for $50 for parking on the wrong side of the road. The stop sign violation was observed and mentioned but dismissed, and it seems unlikely the red light issue was noticed. One cannot call it good luck to ever get a ticket vs. a warning, but strange luck.
My friend had another similarly interesting traffic run-in that falls under strange luck, but with a court date pending (nothing major, only nominal fines at stake) cannot be discussed at this time. Stay tuned this summer for a post on that case. There is already a fool proof defense for the trial.
