“Disclosure, Adjournment,....no Plea Bargain Offered”

My wife received a fail to stop for school bus 11/14/12.

Requested and received disclosure 8/30/13

Trial date 9/30/13 Adjournment requested and granted.

No plea bargain offered by crown (at least before session, maybe severity of infraction?)

I requested an adjournment as officer was there and I was not prepared to argue on behalf of wife.

At this point I don't want to chance the officer not showing up - probably need a paralegal eh?Was hoping for a possibility to plead to lesser fine but that was not offered - is this normal?

Very unfortunate situation surrounding ticket. Not a blatant blast through school bus stop arm but did go through stop arm by 5 feet as it was extended as vehicle approached bus. Possibility of reasonable doubt as officer was conducting radar patrol looking northbound while subject vehicle approached from south. Not sure what officer actually witnessed (whole thing or looked at last minute). If she claims to see it all we're screwed - no chance for lesser charge then, right? Plead for leniency ?

I guess what I'm asking is I'd take a reduction at this point - what's my best course of action. Paralegal, try for reasonable doubt, approach officer/crown before session?

Thanks for your time

I have not seen this reduced here. This is something they take almost personal.

Duty of drivers when school bus stopped

(11) Every driver or street car operator, when meeting on a highway, other than a highway with a median strip, a stopped school bus that has its overhead red signal-lights flashing, shall stop before reaching the bus and shall not proceed until the bus moves or the overhead red signal-lights have stopped flashing. R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, s. 175 (11).

It is not the arms that matter it's the lights. The arms are just extra visibility

ops

OPS Copper wrote:I have not seen this reduced here. This is something they take almost personal.

Duty of drivers when school bus stopped

(11) Every driver or street car operator, when meeting on a highway, other than a highway with a median strip, a stopped school bus that has its overhead red signal-lights flashing, shall stop before reaching the bus and shall not proceed until the bus moves or the overhead red signal-lights have stopped flashing. R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, s. 175 (11).

It is not the arms that matter it's the lights. The arms are just extra visibility

ops

Good point. I need to establish if officer was in a position to even see them. Disclosure only tells how many car length the bus was from stop sign. No mention of officers position in relation to bus. She will probably say yes she did see it.