My First Ticket (That I remember)

[Bob K]

It was in 1970. The year is so clear because 30 days prior to the ticket I took possession of my new 1970 Mustang. In a previous post I said I thought 99.9% of cops were good guys. Let me tell you about one of the 0.1%.

I was living in Fort Wayne, Indiana and it was dark outside when I made the turn off of US 30 onto Coliseum Blvd. I guess I had driven about 2 blocks on Coliseum Blvd. and then it happened. All of a sudden the front of the car came up and I was sitting sideways in the road. I never saw it coming and bang, a north bound car hit the front fender of my new Mustang. Extensive damage to both vehicles but luckily no one was injured. If it happened today I’m sure lawsuits would follow but not in those days.

There was a center concrete medium and it wasn’t very high and I never saw it. I don’t remember if I was distracted or just got too close to the left side of my lane but I tagged that concrete and the car just jumped partially over it. I think it may have been about 12 inches high.

Not sure how long it took but here comes the police. Two officers in one car. They both look around and question me and the other driver. Then the one cop says he’s writing me up for reckless driving. I said “officer, it’s obvious the accident was my fault but I was not being reckless. I simply didn’t see the divider.” He doesn’t say a word and goes back to his car. I wait a few minutes and then walk up to his car and explain again what happened. He says to me to shut up and get away from his car or he would take me in for DUI. I don’t drink but I walked away from him. In a few minutes he hands me the ticket for reckless driving and I don’t say a word to this guy. I know he’s bad news.

I hired an attorney because I did not deserve this ticket for reckless driving. If he had written me up for being left of center I would have accepted that and paid the fine. So the court date arrives and I meet my attorney at the court house for my hearing. We get in front of the judge and guess who doesn’t show up. Of course the cop that wrote the ticket didn’t. One thing I learned is that to write up a reckless driving citation the officer has to witness the event so he didn’t have a leg to stand on.

As an added bonus, his partner does show up. His partner told the judge that in his opinion I should not have been ticketed. I could not believe my ears. I don’t know if they remained partners after that but the judge dismissed the charge with an apology.