Hi guys, I recently swerved to miss a deer (mistake #1) and ended up with my truck off the road, in trouble. It was cold that night, and even with the cell booster, I had shoddy connections. I tried my best to call 911 ASAP but it just didn't work. One truck door was open and I couldn't get it closed. The night was chilly, this was somewhere around 1am (I wish I had kept a closer eye on the clock.) I turned on my hazard lights and put a torch up on the roadside, hoping someone would see it and come help me get the police. I would get a sporadic signal, and try to get through to 911, but it was no good. My cell phone log does show those calls where I got a connection, but with 0:00 duration on them.

Anyway, I finally got through to 911, and a state trooper was dispatched around 6:00am, I was huddled in my truck most of the night, which was still running, in order to stay warm. Let me add that I was in an unfamiliar area, and I didn't know where I was. I have always been taught to stay with the vehicle.

The trooper arrived, gave me the standard field sobriety test, which I somehow passed, being the nervous wreck I was. I took a breathalyzer, blowing 0.03. I'd had 4 drinks at the wedding reception I'd come from, but I in no way felt inebriated (I'm a big guy). State trooper calls me a tow truck, which comes and hauls my non-driveable truck out, and I head off to the airport with the towtruck guy. No citations issue. While I wait there for a lift, a few hours later, the trooper calls to tell me he's issuing me two tickets: one for careless driving, and one for, in his words "delaying reporting an accident." I had shown the trooper my phone at the scene, showing I was not getting a signal, but he wasn't interested. He said there were houses only 1/2 a mile away to the north. How was I to know that? If I'd gone in search of help, no doubt I'd be up for fleeing the scene. He said the citations would be mailed to me, and I'm going to fight them. Am I doing the right thing? How should I start?

Edit: I should mention, prior to this, I've had my license for 15 years, with not so much as a speeding ticket

You start by speaking to a good attorney…and weighing the cost of retaining one to the cost of the fines and the rate your insurance will likely go up to……Der Doktor ist heraus!
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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.

You start by speaking to a good attorney…and weighing the cost of retaining one to the cost of the fines and the rate your insurance will likely go up to……Der Doktor ist heraus!
_____________________
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.

I thank you for your advice. I feel like I did everything I could correctly. I kept my hazard lights on, and a road flare lit above my accident. I just got the ticket in the mail...a misdemeanor for not reporting an accident. My cell phone didnt have a signal! When I finally got one, I was the one who reported it! Can I do anything?

This sounds like an overzealous cop. He was sticking to the letter of the law, instead of helping someone in distress. I would bet he works for a cash strapped jurisdiction, and his salary comes out of the ticket revenue.

What if this driver was too injured to move far?

The accident reporting laws are flawed, because they assume that an easy way to call police is handy. They are written by city dwellers with city driving in mind. Exceptions should be written into the laws for single driver accidents and unavailability of communications. If someone is injured, and the other driver goes for help, he can be charged with leaving the scene.

And there is no such thing as careless driving when a deer is involved. The actions of deer are totally unpredictable, because deer instinctively try to avoid being eaten, instead of being smashed. They zig and zag to throw off predators. Or worse, a mother will expose herself to danger to save her fawns. Sometimes they will charge at the car. Deer do not understand that cars stay on roads. They equate cars with wolves, and try to fool them into turning the wrong way with erratic evasive action.

Thanks everyone for the advice..when I called the district to plead not guilty to the charges, I found that the officer had scratched out the "failure to report" infraction, after mailing me my copies. I asked them to mail me a copy of their original to be sure.

I'm still fighting the careless driving charge. I don't anticipate winning, but I might get them to lower the fine or take some points off.

I personally like how you have an accident and they automatically assume fowl play and you must have been drunk, this is the reason for the ticket for failure to report, he assume you did not report to wait until the alcohol wore off.

I had a accident at 18, had to go to the hospital and while there they drew lots of blood. I asked why since they normal do not draw that much, they would not answer me. Found out later it was to do all sorts of drug and alcohol tests. Never asked my permission either. So today any accident is probably cause to assume you're DWI. If you look at the millions of accidents each year only a small percent involve drugs or alcohol, but every accident is assume to be caused by them.

Just be aware, if you attempt to fight the careless driving the officer will bring up the fact he gave you a field test and you blew a 0.03 which in his eyes you were careless. Also, check to see if your state has a law on the books about driving under the influence, it different than a standard DWI ("I" in this case is intoxicated) driving under the influence is having reading of less then 0.08 they can not arrest you but the ticket is as bad. If they do, the ticket could be amended thus the reason you might want to consult a lawyer.

I'm going to play devil's advocate here, because this story sounds fishy to me.

If you blew a 0.03 at 6 am, hours after you had the accident, what would you have blown at 1 am, or at the actual time of the accident? Something much closer to the legal limit (or over the legal limit).

I believe you when you say that you swerved to avoid missing a deer, and that's why you ran off the road. What I'm not sure about is whether or not you then realized you were potentially over the legal limit, and that if you called the cops immediately, they might realize that and arrest you for driving drunk. It sounds like you might have waited to sober up before calling.

Yes, you say you tried to call 911, but why would your phone suddenly start working at 6 am, when it hadn't worked for 5 hours? Dead zones are dead zones, regardless of what time of day it is. You say the call shows on your call log, but with 0:00 for the call time. I can get this to happen by dialing a number, then immediately hanging up before the call even goes through. The person I'm calling will not have a missed call.

This response will probably make you angry or upset, but as I said before, I'm just playing devil's advocate - I'm NOT saying that this is what actually happened. The reason I'm giving this opinion, though, is because it sounds like this is what the cop may have been thinking, too.

If you are going to court, make sure to get your cell records so that you can show the hundreds of attempts to call 911 you must have made from 1 am - 6 am. I'm sure that you must have tried to call many times in a 5-hour timeframe. Your cell records will show this.

Actually the cell phone records may not show any call if no connection is made, they only record on your bill completed calls these days verses air time like they use to do in the past. Unless the phone made a connection with the tower and completed the call it will not show on your records, However, the phone company can tell is an connection attempt was made, that information is in their tower log files.

Lastly, not all dead spots are always dead, they power level can change depending in various environmental conditions, as well as how a phone is held at the time and number of other variables affecting reception in low power zone. Trust me the court will not give you the time to explain this as a justification of why it took 5 hours to get through.

They are going to jump to the same conclusion LFO did.

I'll bet my donuts that you were impaired when you went off the road.

I would be surprised if state troopers really care about the money from traffic fines. It's not like we're talking about a small city where that's how they balance their budget here.

State troopers write tickets, because that's what they're job is.

State troopers write tickets, because that's what they're job is.

Ah some State Troopers write tickets to get vacation time approved or get overtime to make a little extra money, so it is not a town motivation but a personal motivation. Then again he could have just been pissed because the op made him come out and save his butt on a cold 6AM morning.

I apppreciate everyone's candor, even the devil's advocate. :)

Now, since the Failure to Report an accident causing damage didn't even make it to the courthouse, what cause has he to cite me for careless driving? Isn't the burden of proof on the state to show that I was impaired at the time of the accident, and if they could do that, that should be a DUI, right? If not...how is swerving to avoid a deer careless?

I guess I won't know until I subpoena the officer's notes of the accident, am I right? I also ended up at the doctor a few days later after having nausea, and a headache, who said I probably had a mild concussion. My family and coworkers had said I was a bit "out of it" for the week following the accident. Apparently, I'd bonked my head off the steering wheel around my right eye. Should I bring this up in court (with medical record, of course).

As to why the call went through at 6....I have no idea. I have a cell phone booster in my car that sometimes helps with dead spots, and I had tried moving the interior and exterior antennaes around. The call log shows that I would try to call about 5-10 times in a few minutes, and then try again the same thing in about half an hour. I was worried about the phone (and truck's) battery life. I offered my phone to the officer to let him try to make a call, but he was not interested. He wouldn't even look to see that it was showing no bars. But anyway, as that's not the battle I have to fight at this point, it's probably moot.

I know it would be much easier to drop it, pay the fine, and take the couple points, but I truly feel I was not impaired at the time of the accident. If I had been trying to sleep off impairment, why would I tell the officer that the accident happened hours previously, rather than just a few minutes before?

The burden is on the state to prove you guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

I suspect that the careless driving thing is an attempt to address you driving while you were impaired. It may be an easier charge to make than a DUI based on circumstantial evidence.

I do think the issues in this case are complex enough that if you want to fight it, then you should hire a lawyer.

You're right about the lawyer of course, but the worst than can happen to me is about the same price as an hour of a lawyer's time. As they say, it's the principle of the thing.

In my layman's understanding, for purposes of impaired driving in Michigan, .08 is impaired, while .07 is not. Nowhere have I or will I state that I would not have blown a .08 or above when I went off the road, only that I did not feel impaired at the time of the accident (or before). It's possible that I could have been above the legal limit. But possibility isn't proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Even probability isn't proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Don't get me wrong, I really don't anticipate winning or being taken at my word. I know it's silly to fight this citation, heck, just the price of gas of getting to the courthouse and back, and taking 8 hours off of work would cover the fine.

Most people who are impaired at the .08 to .12 level don't feel like they're impaired. They are.

If the breathalyzer that the trooper used gives an admissible result, it wouldn't be hard to prove your BAC at the time of the wreck beyond a reasonable doubt. It would require an expert witness, but it wouldn't hard.

I think you've (and common sense) has talked me into a no contest plea. It's just not worth taking a whole day off to fight (and probably lose) over a $200 fine and a couple points on my driving record which up until now has never had so much as a speeding ticket. I'll write the magistrate, explain my mistakes as I see them as follows:

1. Driving after having ANY alcohol whatsoever
2. Driving on unfamiliar roads at night, to take a shortcut
3. Swerving to avoid a deer (especially stupid considering I have a $0 animal damage deductible, while avoiding it cost me $500)
4. Driving late at night, while tired
5. Trying to estimate the time of the accident for the officer, when I didn't know

The main reason that got the "fight" up in me was the "failure to report" charge, both because it was the more serious charge, and it was patently not true. Charging me with that would have told me that simply getting into an accident in a rural area gives me a choice between a charge of "failure to report" or "leaving the scene". Not to mention, I think it's incredibly stupid to go for a walk at 3am when you don't know for sure where you are and hadn't seen a house in a while. When I look at my above mistakes (besides #5), I think my driving was probably careless.

Can anyone think of anything I should add, or remove? I'm going to list the mistakes on the plea, not the second rest, with my clean record as a mitigating factor.

Also...should I wait to change my plea until I see if they offer me a plea bargain, or is this too minor of an offense for them to do that?

Are you sure that there aren't any hidden consequences to pleading guilty?

We don't have a careless driving law in Georgia. I frankly don't know what it is. I think of it as sort of a minor reckless driving.

It's a big difference in Michigan: mainly one of intent. Careless is a civil infraction, while reckless is a criminal misdemeanor. I'm thinking too much tonight, I'm back on the fence about fighting it. The more I recreate the night of the accident, and the scene of the accident itself, the more I regret telling the officer that I thought it happened around 1am, I now think it was closer to 3am. But, I can't take back what I said to the officer. I told him nothing but the truth as I saw it at the time, including the fact that I had drank earlier in the evening. I should have answered with non-answers or "I don't know" rather than trying to come up with explainations for things I had no explainations for. I asked my friend who had been getting married what time I left, and I got "Oh, about half an hour before us, we closed up the bar" which would have been 3am, meaning I left at 2:30. But I just don't think that'd hold up in court against the statement I made on the scene.

The big hidden thing really is what a couple points will do to my insurance rates...considering totalling my truck (which is my real heartbreak here - a loaded 04 Colorado extended cab Z71 that I babied, with 26k miles) resulting in the new rate on my new vehicle (07 Mercury Mariner AWD) by $17 over 6 months...I think I'm probably ok there.

I'd like to lighten up here and take this moment to pay condolences to my truck. I had to go up on Monday to take out all of my personal belongings, after it had been totalled. It was so sad, besides having a dent in the driver side rear door / bed, it looked brand new. All the damage was from landing on a boulder. Mostly to the frame, transfer case, differential, etc. Well, that and the tow truck driver knocked a mirror off pulling it out. It still even started up like a top. I went at the dash like a fiend to remove the remote starter. Later on, I found out that sometimes if you ask, insurance companies will sell you your totalled vehicles for a song. I wish I'd known that! Still, Colorados, being nice trucks with decent gas mileage are really hard to find up here in the tundra right now. Ahh well, it was nice to get some aggression out in tearing the dash apart. I mean, what can I do to damage a totalled vehicle, right? I just wish I'd had a hammer ;)

Anyway, I thank you all for listening and helping me out, this being my first run-in with the court system (should I be ashamed of that at age 31?), for reference to help anyone else who does a search on the subject, here are the relevant Michigan laws for Careless and Reckless Driving (leave it to my state to make sure "frozen public lake" is a roadway):

MCL 257.626b Careless or negligent operation of vehicle as civil infraction.
A person who operates a vehicle upon a highway or a frozen public lake, stream, or pond or other place open to the general public including an area designated for the parking of vehicles in a careless or negligent manner likely to endanger any person or property, but without wantonness or recklessness, is responsible for a civil infraction.

MCL 257.626 Reckless driving on highway, frozen public lake, or parking place; violation as misdemeanor; penalty.
(1) A person who drives a vehicle upon a highway or a frozen public lake, stream, or pond or other place open to the general public, including, but not limited to, an area designated for the parking of motor vehicles, in willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property is guilty of reckless driving.

(2) A person who violates subsection (1) is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than 93 days or a fine of not more than $500.00, or both.

Sorry for re-bringing this up, but the more I think about it, I just can't help but want to fight. The thought bringing this up is that, upon reflection, I have no idea what vehicle my father picked me up in at the airport (where the rental cars were, as we weren't sure if my insurance covered rentals or not - the officer was perfectly willing to let me go rent a car), whether it was his truck or mom's car (better mileage). And this was a few hours AFTER I blew a .03 on the PBT.

So, while at the time, which at this point I am thinking is about 3 hours before the PBT, I didn't feel impaired, I obviously WAS impaired after the accident, and the officer didn't notice. I don't know. I have abssolutely no evidence as to when the accident occured. The difficulty would be in hearsay evidence as to when the accident may have occurred, versus when I said it occcured. I doubt I would win. My advice to anyone still reading, is that you do not tell a police officer ANYTHING specific unless you know for sure. What they write down becomes quite specific, right or wrong.

Like I've said...the worst part of this situation is being wrongly convicted of something I didn't do, even though at this point it's a stupid traffic violation. I'm not trying to get out of being fined in general.

Kinda funny how they diverted my funding for the local sheriffs to the local animal shelter.

The real point is that deer are totally unpredictable. When you encounter one at speed, you can't predict what they are going to do. They are programmed to avoid being eaten, not smashed, so their evasive actions cause more of a hazard. Avoiding a collision with one is purely a matter of luck.