GeneralZod

This is in California.
Friend made U-Turn at lighted intersection.
There were no anti-U-Turn signs posted. Officer pulls her over for making a U-Turn. Does not ask for License or registration, just gives ticket. She pays for the ticket, processing fees, and traffic school.
Traffic school officer said that there is a law in California that you will get ticketed for what an officer deems is an unsafe maneuver. The officer in this case decided that her U-Turn was unsafe due to the amount of complaints about accidents that have been received about that intersection. The traffic school officer also said that they are in "revenue-generating" mode...so they pull over for almost anything...as there are approx 43,000 traffic laws in CA...and tripping one up is easy.

But this one just blows my mind...how can she know that the intersection is unsafe and there is no sign against U-Turns? When asked, the officer said they will "probably" put a No U-Turn sign on that intersection in the future. But how can WE be in on this privied information??? If I have a choice about making an illegal U-Turn or not, you can bet I will not, but if there is no sign and you are at a green-arrowed lighted intersection and there seems to be no safety hazard, how can we know that it is potentially unsafe without this secret knowledge the Police Dapartment has? We are all potentially at risk to get tickets for anything at any given time because someone says so. I think this is BS.
She did not want to fight because the if the courts deem that you are wasting time, you get convicted and fined and your record is blemished for 3 years. It's as if we are being strong-armed into paying $$ because one day an officer feels like generating some revenue for the state and you can do nothing about it but suffer the consequences if you fight it.

I got riled up about this when I heard about it because it does not seem fair in any way.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? Happen to you?

Happy Monday

willsabstract

All I can say is that wouldn't happen in Texas...

cyberpmg

I would have asked for a ticket and then contest it in court. Because there's no posted sign to indicate that U-turns are illegal and that you had a green light (so you had the right-of-way), it could be challenged and very possibly thrown out.

A4NCAR

Sounds like it was completely "legal" though, if it was in an intersection- where there were no "No-U-Turn" signs posted. The law is confusing though. If I recall correctly; you cannot make them in the center of a road if the street is a business district (regardless of single or dashed yellow lines). But in an intersection, it should be fine. Too many traffic laws. This would have to be challenged in court to know.

CruisinginVirginia

they decide that it's illegal to make a u-turn? Please... That should have been contested! Now I'm assuming a u-turn is generally allowed (barring any signs which state otherwise). Anyway, like Cyberpmg stated, it's a little too late now.

GeneralZod

traffic school officer said she would have lost the court challenge deeming her effort a waste of time...costing her more.

GeneralZod

Yeah, I know it's too late, but I this is just discussion on the subject...I just think it's BS

LAK

Yep. Doctrin of voluntary payment. Dont pay the ticket if you want to contest!

CruisinginVirginia

trying desperately to generate revenues in other ways...

MikekiM@PureMS

In California, you have to first pay the ticket amount, whether or not you want to fight the ticket. If you win your contest, they simply refund you the bail amount.

Sounds like this ticket should have been challenged.

www.ticketassasin.com, and www.helpigotaticket.com are two good CA resources to challenging your ticket.