Spent the day in court, warning to speeders

Spent today in court as a witness to an accident from back in April. The case before the one I was there for should be a lesson to all those who think certain speed limit signs are for amusement only. The case before ours was a trucker that was cited for 66 in a 45, and a log book violation of log not current. He was cited back in March on EB I-70 coming down Genesse Hill. The way the judge handled this should be a lesson. I took some notes, and recorded as much of the audio on my phone as I could.

The citation was issued on March 15th @5:40 am, the original court date was set for May 20th. The driver, instead of appearing, hired an Atty. to represent him. As the judge pointed out to both the driver and his lawyer, on the citation the box "Driver must appear" is checked. Thus the driver, not just his lawyer must appear. The driver lives in Pa., the Atty. is a TVC Atty. here in Co..

Since the driver failed to appear on May 20th, the judge apparently issued a bench warrant on him, and had the clerk notify his state to suspend his license for Failure to Appear, and the case was rescheduled for Aug. 26th. So today, before the judge, it was the driver, his lawyer, the D.A. and the Sheriff's deputy who stopped him. The judge started off by asking the driver what part of "Driver Must Appear" that he failed to grasp? The driver said that he assumed that a lawyer could appear on his behalf. the judge asked the lawyer about it, and he said the same thing, that this was the first time he had ever had this happen. The judge suggested to both of them that in the future they should read the entire citation.

The D.A. noted specifically that the violation occurred in a tractor trailer, he then went on to ask the driver why he was going 21 miles over the posted limit of 45 mph for Vehicles over 26,000 GVWR. The driver stated that that he was lightly loaded, about 40,000 lbs gross, and was in complete control of the vehicle. Apparently he had cleared the Port in Downieville a few minutes earlier and that weight was confirmed. The D.A. reminded him that the speed limit for passenger vehicles on the same stretch is only 55 mph, so even then he was still going 11 mph over. The driver said that he was still being passed by other vehicles. The D.A. and judge pointed out that they weren't stopped, he was, and that his violation of 21 mph over the limit is an aggregious disregard for the law, showing willful misconduct. It was brought up that wildlife, specifically deer and elk are frequently hit on that stretch of highway, that there had been an accident in that same spot 3 weeks earlier where a semi hit three elk before rolling over. The driver of the semi was killed, and another motorist who hit one of the elk that was thrown by the semi was seriously injured. The driver was asked what would have happened had an elk walked out in front of him while travelling at that speed. If he felt he would have been able to have safely stopped? He didn't have an answer.

His lawyer asked the Deputy why if the passenger cars were all exceeding the speed limit, why he singled at the driver, the deputy stated that it was policy in that area for them to allow a + 5 mph variance, and had the driver been going 50 mph, the deputy would have only flashed his lights to get his attention and slow down, rather than actually stop him. From the deputies notes, it was read that the truck driver stated the speed limit was absurdly low and that since he was so lightly loaded, he felt he could go faster.

The driver was asked what the GVWR of his truck was, he stated 80,000 lbs. The D.A. showed a picture of the sign, specifically stating that it reads: Vehicles over 26,000 GVWR Speed Limit 45 mph.

The Judge brought up the drivers Pa. MVR, which showed 3 speeding convictions in the last year.

In the end, the judge found him guilty of Reckless Driving 392.2, dropping the charge of Failure to Appear, and but also kept in place the Log Book violation 395.8. The judge dropped the order to suspend his license, fined him $999 + $75 court and victims advocate fees. The judge pointed out that these two violations would also be reported to the drivers CSA score, and if he read it correctly carried 10 pts and 5 pts respectively.