Just got a ticket

Call me stupid if I am.
I see damage on passenger side of the Freghtliner front. Was he in left lane and you moved left at this time? What is position of your trailer tandems was? If you did it with even rear tandem tire the trailer tail should take off his ####ing passenger side mirror. Is mirror intact? Or you are flatbed loaded with oversize tire?

 

Well the damage to the top of his fender looks like the bottom rubrail rubbing the truck as it's passing it in the same direction. The dark lines inside the damage could easily be the rivets in the rub rail digging in, or maybe the edges of the bottom hinges of the left door digging in as it makes contact. The lower damage could be from the bottom of the rub rail, or the back corner edge of the trailer near the abs light and marker light. If you don't have damage on your trailer there, you should be fine.

 

I appreciate your response. Mine initially to you was to respond to your assertion that basically an officer has to witness a misdemeanor in order to charge. That is not true in quite a few instances, think current domestic violence laws.
Now you are kind of stretching the hearsay rule and then go on with some kind of explanation on the meaning of swearing out affidavits....good faith.....crime does not exists, etc. This might be true in your particular State, but none of the State systems that I am familiar. As I said prior, States can be different in how they apply laws, making broad statements to "how the law" works can sometimes mislead those that are unfamiliar with the criminal justice system.
By the way, I speaking from being a LEO for 30 years.

 

I would have found a measuring object that's tall enough to compare the trailer tire, or whatever sections was claimed to have swiped his fender, then use that to physically confirm if the measurements are equal.

While also demanding the video, and express desire to press charges for false police report if he cannot prove.

Basically, give him the "Trump-treatment".

 

I dunno why every one is thinking tire. It's obvious to me anyway that was a dot bumper hit from the trailer. Perfect height for it.

 

So let me get this straight, you were both going down the road at 50 (let's use that number) and he was passing you or were you passing him?

My manage, the safety girl and I looked at that picture and think he hit something else and is blaming you. If he flagged you down five, that is 5 miles down the road, it throws a lot of doubt into his side of the story and with damage like that, your light would have taken more of a beating, and his hood would have sustained more damage, that's a scrap. We are thinking that he took a swing around and miscalculated what was in his way and hit that.

As for the ticket, I would fight it and if the video does pop up, and there is proof of it being unaltered, then fight it anyway.

Also just a lot of advice, take lots of pictures, with dates on them, go get an accident camera (**everyone should have one) that puts the date and time of the picture right on the image. This is really the only acceptable way to have it put into court records.

 

Yes

 

That's definitely not from a tire, the wide black rub mark is way to high. Look how far above the steer tire it is. And no way that little rubber grommet for the abs light left that either. Looks to me like the Werner truck is a victim of tail swing from a truck leaving a parking spot, or backing into one.

 

So in no states you are familiar with someone can swear an affidavit out falsely and it not be a crime? And in a domestic case, marks have to be there for an officer to make an warrantless arrest within the 24 hr time period, not just "oh he or she hit me". I was just explaining the OP that he has options, and that a lot of cops will forego the law and break it to issue a citation or make an arrest, sometimes out of ignorance and other time intentionally. I can't think of any time a traffic citation could be issued (especially five miles away from the scene) without an officer witnessing the violation with the exception of DUI, and certainly not going by a driver's word. I wouldn't write a stop sign ticket based on someone flagging me down and saying they saw a car run it. You and I both know you open yourself up to liability when do that.

While I don't have 30 years in LEO, and I can't attest to every traffic law in South Carolina, if that's where the wreck occurred, I am familiar intimately with traffic law and criminal procedure. Anything I don't know, I will ask my wife who is an atty, she will forget more than you and I will ever know about the law.

@superhill56 according to South Carolina Code 56-7-15, the uniform traffic citation issued to you must occur in the presence of the officer, FIGHT IT.

And according to South Carolina statute 16-17-722(C) A person who violates subsection (A) by falsely reporting a misdemeanor is guilty of a misdemeanor and must be imprisoned not more than thirty days or fined not more than five hundred dollars, or both. This could apply to the cop who swore it out, if it turns out you didn't hit the truck.

 

That's the only way you are to get that type of damage. Either his truck or the object that contacted him was stationary.
I say lawyer up and fight.