OHTA.ca

Hello all,

On my way to work this afternoon, I got pulled over for "making an improper left turn" at the intersection by my house. There is construction there so when turning left I didn't stay in my lane because i wanted to avoid a pothole. The officer was down the road and pulled me over.

I tried to appeal to his common sense, but he just said my car could handle the potholes since it is an SUV. Basically, there was no talking about it.

He made a mistake on the ticket. He got my birthday wrong (wrote 16th instead of 15th).

What do you recommend I do in court on this? Is it guaranteed to get thrown out due to the mistake?

Thanks in advance!

If the pothole was large enough to cause damage and your wide turn didn't effect any other traffic, I would think that's possible grounds to fight the charge in Court. I don't believe it's an absolute liability offence.

In regards to the error with your birth date, I can't see it being a fatal error. It's basically a minor typo. Fatal errors are bigger mistakes like missing names, incorrect fines, etc.

you should take pictures of the pothole/intersection/officer's vantage point

i'm surprised they're actually getting serious about drivers making traffic congesting wide-turns; i highly support this step in the right direction, except for cases like this

a lot of Ontario's Finest make Left/Right turns so wide they go into multiple lanes blocking other right-of-way vehicles from turning into their proper lanes