Failed to obey stop sign

Question

Driving at night I failed to notice a stop sign at the end of the street. Upon daylight i noticed the sign is completely behind a telephone pole and is only visible when your almost right next to it. Also the officer who pulled me over was at least a block up the road and it being at night i feel there is no way that they could tell if i came to a complete stop or not. I did yield and there were no other cars on the street that made this a dangerous event. The problem is if i dispute this the officer gave me a break and did not ticket me for having too many people in my car (novice license). Can the officer ticket me for that after the fact if i dispute the stop sign? and is it worth it to dispute it with the above facts?

British Columbia

Answer 1

No, the officer cannot go back in time and ticket you for the other offense...he needed to ticket you for the "too many people" in the car at the time of the stop.

However, if the STOP sign was obscured by trees, a telephone poll, or whatever, you need to take a photo of it at night (during the same conditions that existed at the time of your citation) to show that it is obscured and that is why you didn't see it.  All municipalities have the duty to keep such signs and warnings free from obstructions.

Also, if it is obscured, you might be saving someone else from harm for lack of seeing it.

Answer 2

Pay your fine.

Answer 3

First of all a Stop sign means stop not just yield. So, you did break the law. Yes, he could tell from a block away by watching your tail lights. If it goes to court, you can say the sign was obstructed by the pole-true. But then, he can come back with the fact that there was a second violation. I don't know if he can ticket after the fact. Common sense would say no. But it would come up in court. And then additional charges would be up to the judge. You don't say how old you are or whether you have had other tickets.  Your decision, of course. But my feeling is not worth the trouble to fight it.

Answer 4

As a purist, you should be able to fight the ticket as is without worrying about the "too many people" offense. You can even bring friends into court to agree that the sign was not visible. I've seen a case before where the lady got off because the judge knew the sign the lady was talking about and agreed that it was hard to see.

Unfortunately the lower level courts are sort of a civil guerrilla court system. The judges and cops will do almost anything to not lose face. If a cop knows ahead of time that his charge is bogus, either himself or the judge will dismiss it based on an unrelated reason so it doesn't look like you got off. If you do produce a well-spoken and fact based agrguement it may not even matter. I had a charge unrelated to speeding and when the cop said I was speeding the judge stopped listening to me and said I was guilty. Sometimes the courts just have too much power.

Answer 5

It is not in your best interest to dispute the violation.  You have admitted it is a violation and as a judge once said in a court of law, "The officer does not have to prove how fast you were going, you just testified that you were over the limit."  In other words, yielding is not stopping.  Want the points off your license?  Hire an attorney.

Answer 6

How the heck are you going to defend against the charge of having too many in the car? Are you going to claim the officer can't count? You caught a nice break. He probably won't try to go back and charge you for the stop sign, but he probably legally can. In my state, for instance, he has two years to file it, not that it's done, but it would be legal.