Just a had a question about something that happened last year, that still bugs me. I was on my way from my home town to my new permanent duty station. I had everything I owned, including my mustang which I was towing on a full car trailer with my Lightning. In Illinois on the interstate, one of the 10,000 lbs. rated ratchet straps holding the car forward somehow cut, and broke. The car rolled back on the trailer, and sent me swaying hard side to side. Well it came too far to one side, and jackknifed around. I spun, Lightning, Mustang, and cartrailer at 55 mph down the highway, into a steep ditch. No damage except for blown tire that blew when I hit the other side of the ditch. The police officer came, was nice as I was to him but then wrote me a fine for $110 for having an "unsecured load." I explained everything to him but still got the fine. Which I had to pay because I had to be in Arizona in a few days. Does this sound right? Sorry for the long post.
Question for LEO
- Thread starter charged351
- Start date
I bet it was a state trooper. A troopers job is to enforce those highway laws. Most likely in his mind you created an unsafe situation for other drivers and were lucky you didnt injure someone else. So he wrote you a citation for "unsecured load". Indeed your load was unsecure. So it does sound plausible and accurate.
Definitely sounds like ISP to me. If you're asking whether it's a fair ticket or not, that all depends on who you ask. If you're asking about whether it's a ticket that will stick up in court, the answer is most likely yes. Traffic offenses are considered "absolute liability". You don't need to have any knowledge or intent to be convicted. The only real burden of proof is whether or not it happened. At the time of your accident, the load was unsecured.
Short version. I think most officers on here would tell you that from your account of the situation, that's probably not how they would have handled it, but the citation you received is a valid option. The guys from ISP usually have pretty strict guidelines they are expected to follow. If it was a trooper who wrote you, in his defense, he may have been following some sort of policy that calls for a citation that assigns fault to be written whenever he takes an accident report.
Short version. I think most officers on here would tell you that from your account of the situation, that's probably not how they would have handled it, but the citation you received is a valid option. The guys from ISP usually have pretty strict guidelines they are expected to follow. If it was a trooper who wrote you, in his defense, he may have been following some sort of policy that calls for a citation that assigns fault to be written whenever he takes an accident report.
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