I was on my way to Ocean City, MD for the weekend to celebrate my Birthday. Well I made a turn onto Rte. 13 northbound by accident after crossing into Deleware from NJ and I needed to go south, well you have to get in the fast lane to make a legal U-turn. When I got into the fast lane, I was only doing 40mpg, a cop was flying up around a bend from behind me in the fast lane. I never saw him when I made my lane change. Needless to say, he slammed into the back of my car, he was doing like 85mph, it turns out that he was late on his way into work starting at midnight for his shift. His barracks was only a few hundred yards up the road. After the impact, I spent about 45 minutes standing on the highway watching about 10 cop cars surround the accident scene, I was the only civilian and they wouldn't let me asses what had happened, because everyone knew that the cop hit me and I started to realize that too. I then decided to get taken to the hospital to make sure that I was okay. After waiting in the hospital for 3 hours while my parents came down from NJ to pick me up, I was then police escorted to the same barracks that the cop who hit me was from. By this time it was around 4 am. I was then told I would only have to answer a few questions to complete the police report, well I was interrogated by two detectives for about 2 hours. They were trying to find anything that they could to build evidence against me, I look back at it now wondering if I should have kept my mouth shut and waited for a lawyer, but I am an honest person and I had nothing to hide. Anyway, it was a nice way to spend the first few hours of being 24 years old. At around 6 am I went to get some breakfast with my parents and then at around 7:30 I went to the garage where both cars were placed overnight. I got the rest of my things and then my parents drove me the remaining two hours down to Ocean City. My parents and I were up the whole night. To finish the story, the two detectives gave me a ticket for failing to stay in MY lane and they had said I cut in front of the officer. Looking at the pictures, I was initially struck from behind my left rear tire and the whole car then wrapped around the front of the squad car(the roads were wet and my car easily lost grip with the road) making it appear as if the impact had occured at a perpendicular angle. Well, I fought the ticket in court and a local judge and the one detective from the barracks that had interviewed me that night had collaborated beforehand and they pulled out an old statute in the law books that states: A driver shall remain in their lane for no less than 300 yards before making a lane change.
Since I didn't stay in my lane for 300 yards, I was found guilty.
On a side note, everytime I think about this story, I just want to destroy something. The detective and judge were protecting one of their own who was speeding and at fault. After all was said and done, my insurance went up $1200, I got two points on my license, and I lost $5000 between that Z and my current one mainly for depreciation (2000 miles, only had it for three weeks) and an increased APR on the loan.
I just hope that karma plays it's role in life and everyone gets what is coming to them in the end...
Since I didn't stay in my lane for 300 yards, I was found guilty.
On a side note, everytime I think about this story, I just want to destroy something. The detective and judge were protecting one of their own who was speeding and at fault. After all was said and done, my insurance went up $1200, I got two points on my license, and I lost $5000 between that Z and my current one mainly for depreciation (2000 miles, only had it for three weeks) and an increased APR on the loan.
I just hope that karma plays it's role in life and everyone gets what is coming to them in the end...
