[Sarge]

Originally Posted by 05suby

so on 10/26/07 my girlfriend got into an accident caused by a deer jumping in front of her suv. now this was one of those days where it was raining non stop for 3 or so days. she was on a back road on her way from school. like stated above, a deer jumped out in front of her suv and she swerved and ended up doing a 180 into a tree. she was going less then the posted speed limit. so long story short the state troopers said she wasn't going to recieve any citations in the mail because it was caused by a deer.

now today, 11/5/07, she recieved 2 citations in the mail. one of them really doesn't make sense. so here they are:

first citation: (the one that doesn't make sense)

driving on roadways laned for traffic

the trooper said " the defendant did operate above said vehicle in a manor and drove off roadway causing a crash. vehicle was not driven within a single lane."

now the manor causing her to crash was a deer. there was no mention of a deer on this citation, but on a paper she recieved from the trooper on the day of the accident, he noted a deer on it. she swerved and did a 180 into the opposing lane and then struck the tree.


second citation:

driving at a safe speed citation

i actually don't understand this one either. so now you can get a citation for driving at a safe speed? the trooper said " the defendant did operate above said vehicle at a speed greater than what will permit the driver to bring her vehicle to a stop within the assured safe distance ahead causing a crash."

so again, the accident was cause by a deer. that still isn't stated in this citation. so i guess they went out there a couple of days later and conducted a field test to see that if driving the speed limit and swerving from a deer you should stop within "said" distance? the distance from where the deer jumped out at and where she hit the tree is no more, and i mean no more than 15 yrds. so i dont see how an suv can stop from going the posted speed limit of 25-30mph can stop safely from swerving to avoid a deer on wet ground that has been rained on for 3+ days.

now hitting the deer would/could have been bad. so i guess by these citations, she should have just struck the deer?

the car is totalled. so any help would be much appreciated. sorry for this being so long. hope i didn't take up too much of your time. if i did, my apologies.

thanks

Without seeing the accident report I can only tell from your post that the trooper felt that she was "driving to fast for conditions" ie the rain slick roadway. As for the driving off road you should have her call the Trooper and ask him to explain the summons to her as to why she got them. If you don't aggree with the trooper after you speak to him. go to court you have a good chance that you can win on the driving off road that one seems weak.