“Rear-end Collission, Skidding Downhill - Careless Driving”

I was driving around 30 kph northbound at Markham Road across HWY 407 bridge on a rainy evening. From the bridge and at 150-200 m, I noted the James Scott Road intersection traffic signal was at red so I slowly pressed the brake to slow down but the car has already made the downhill descent, albeit at low speed, trying to arrest the momentum. I anticipated that I will be a bit short, though. I was practically boxed-in as exiting to my left against the opposite traffic, or to the right which virtually became the fast lane owing to motorists cutting in front for the last minute lane change before the signal light would be counter-intuitive if not insanely suicidal. I just held firm, wheels skidding slowly until I finally nudged the rear end of a pick-up truck which was on a stop position. No damage to the pick-up truck but mine was somewhat totalled. Photos showed my front wheels were at 11 oclock which indicates an attempt to avoid the collision during the last few moments before impact. The responding officer wasnt very happy that I refused to hire the police-contracted tow truck and went against their recs. The tow guy I hired had a notorious record with the police but I went by the dictates of my pocket, regardless of insurance. Besides, the police cannot say whether the guy was legally barred from towing nor explain why they included him among my tow options in the first place. I simply went by one of the options given to me. Bottomline, I was given a careless driving ticket. At the trial, the prosecutor offered a lesser charge of fail to afford an opportunity to avoid with $110 and 2 demerits. I am adamant that I did everything to avoid an accident – slowing down and keeping my wheels straight on slippery road and downhill and last minute turn, etc., that if I were to do anything else the accident would have been more serious. The trial date was reset, pre-emptorily to me, to allow me to review the disclosure information. Does it make sense to fight off the conviction or take the plea down offer? This was my first and only ticket for over 20 years and would like to keep my records clean.

It was an at fault accident, I'm guessing you made a claim for damages so they know what happened.

Careless is tricky, if you plan to go all the way you really need to do your homework and cite the applicable case law. Your biggest obstacle will be that when an accident involves poor weather it can always be argued that you were going too fast.

ynotp wrote:It was an at fault accident, I'm guessing you made a claim for damages so they know what happened.

Careless is tricky, if you plan to go all the way you really need to do your homework and cite the applicable case law. Your biggest obstacle will be that when an accident involves poor weather it can always be argued that you were going too fast.

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Thanks for the advice. Is it fair to assume that if they were to argue speed that an accident reconstructionist has to testify this to be the case? I have a feeling the responding officer is not an expert on this but I cannot be certain.

I guess my corolla even if I were to just push it manually will break into hundreds of pieces if it hits the trailer winch of a Silverado. The airbag did not deploy, it just hit the soft spot I guess.