OHTA.ca

I was driving on a road way that was divided by a painetd line in the center. The sides of the road had no painted lines. On the shoulder sides, there was no effective shoulder and it quickly drop off into a steep near vertical three foot slope. Most of the sides of the road have collapsed and become either broken pavement and or the actual pavement runs down the hill for no more than a foot. At the bottom of the hill which is only about a two feet from the edge of the road is a rusty old farmers fence. ( If I stand at the edge of the road I can touch the top of the fence which runs at the bottom of the hill.) I believe the fence is to close to the road to be lawfully placed or maintained.

After I entered into the road I heard my blue jug of washer fluid "thunk" over in its side in my trunk and I was worried that it would ruin my papers in the trunk if it leaked. So I decided to pull over and stand the jug up again. I knew I couldn't pull over that far but being a country lane with little or no traffic I felt that it was not a problem. I was decelerating and going about 5-10 km. As I was stopping and my right side wheels were off the road and propbally already on the downward slope, I heard or saw a car coming fast behind me and then I noticed that I was sliding down the ice encrusted hill into the rusty fence. There was no snow on the road or even on the side of the hill but the grass, and broken gravel pavement was concealing a sheet of ice that covered the sides of the hill. It happened so fast I don't tknow if I jerked the wheel to get off the road faster or if the slippery shoulder just caused me to slide down the embankment.

They result is I slide over top of the fence and ended up in the field. I turned around and drove back up the hill over the top of the disintergrated rust fence. I noticed a couple of pedestrians and asked if they saw what happened or who the owner of the property was, while talking the police showed up and I was charged with failing to stay in a marked lane. The officers notes say that even though I claimed to be distracted ?? she was not going to charge me with dangerous driving?? I think she didnt understand anything I said and I was doubly surprised she wrote me a ticket at all. I was never cautioned that she was investigating to write a ticket.

My arguments.

The lane was not marked there was no marking on the shoulder side of the road and I believe the charge is technically not valid as the lane way was not properly marked.

The accident only occurred because the laneway was poorly maintained and that poor maintenance served as camouflage that concealed the actual road condition and the nature of the ice encrusted slope. No amount of due diligence in pulling off the road way could have avoided the ice of the slide down the hill hidden by the lack of mainatencnace.

The officer could plainly see the road and the hidden conditon of the ice but then she said she didn't want to charge me but because there was property damage to the fence she had no choice. I say the only reason there was property damage was because the fence was far to close to the road and there would have been no damage if the fence was not within a couple feet of the road way. I believe all farmers fences need to be 3 meters off the roadway to avoid accidents/charges such as this in the first place.

Are these compelling arguments that may allow me to win at trial? are there better arguments or cases?

Thanks for any help.

154.1 (a) of the HTA states that the driver shall not move from the lane until the driver ascertains that the move can be made in safety. In this particular case it doesn't sound like it was safe to do so.

In regards to the fences as long as it's the farmers property and he isn't on any right of ways I don't see why he can't fence in his own property. If you are going to argue off of that you should be able to find and quote a law.

Did you speak to any of the witnesses? Did anyone see this car fly by? Can you get statements to that fact?

I was speeding about 80km on a 60 km to be honest and a cop was nearby and saw this I made one turn slowed down and continued tom drive straight speeding was in a hurry when he pulled me over he gave me dangerous driving charge and he said I was going on the wrong side of the road and that I was going 100 in a 60 km zone which he lied cause I wasnt cause I was just speeding (not sayin that is ok either I know I messed up) is there anyway I can fight this in court and by the way when I pulled over I pulled over in a mall parking lot and got out and ran cause I wanted to make it to a store before it closed.. I didn't cause no accident I didn't disobey anY lights or signs?