I have a real conundrum and\u00a0 I’m not sure what to do.\u00a0 I genuinely and honestly have no idea if I am responsible for the wreck I was in this weekend.\u00a0\u00a0 The details are below.\u00a0\u00a0I’m prepared\u00a0to admit up front that I was on my phone.\u00a0 But that’s not a crime in NC, sorry haters.\u00a0 And it doesn’t automatically mean I was at fault in this wreck.\u00a0 In fact my passenger has repeatedly insisted I was not at fault.<\/p>\n
I was coming down\u00a0South Salisbury\u00a0Street talking to Amy.\u00a0 I caught the red light one\u00a0block away from the intersection of W. Edenton and S. Salisbury where the wreck occurred.\u00a0 I left the light when the signal turned green and was traveling towards Edenton.\u00a0 From my point of view, perspective, whatever, I began crossing Edenton and the next thing I know I was popped real hard in my door by a blue mini-van.\u00a0 Amy heard the whole thing on the phone.\u00a0 The truck got spun around in the intersection, hitting another parked car during the slide.\u00a0 I was stunned and then said to Amy, “I was just in a really bad wreck”.<\/p>\n
As I was trying to free my leg from being wedged between the steering wheel and door I look out my window and a woman is screaming “Your still on the phone!\u00a0 I have my kids in the car and your still on the phone!” \u00a0So I naturally assumed, oh damn, I just ran a red light because I was on the phone.\u00a0 I appologized to the hystarical women several times as I finally got out of my twisted truck.\u00a0 My ribs were hurting real bad but I didn’t pay attention to them at the time.<\/p>\n
At some point I know I said “I must have run the red light” and the driver of the mini-van said “well, at least you’re willing to admit it”.\u00a0 My passenger was still telling me I didn’t run the red light.\u00a0 So there we were, me and the mini-van family waiting for the police.\u00a0 The husband went on about how people get tickets for talking on cell phones while driving in England.\u00a0 What I wanted to know is: did I run the red light?\u00a0 I really did not know, still don’t.<\/p>\n
I was about to tell the police I might not have run the red light but an unidentified witness on the street said I did.\u00a0 That was actually very\u00a0reassuring at the time because I wasn’t certain.\u00a0 But then I thought about it.\u00a0 There is absolutely no way that witness would have been able to see the color of the lights on Edenton and Salisbury from where she was standing on S. Salisbury St.\u00a0 No way at all.\u00a0 They are both one way streets and no lights face in the direction of where she was standing on Salisbury.\u00a0 The woman was simply drawn to sympathizing with the mini-van family.\u00a0 That’s all.\u00a0 You can’t tell me with the spectacular wreck that was unfolding in front of her\u00a0she ran up the road far enough to\u00a0make a conscious effort to identify the color of the lights, before they had time to change.<\/p>\n
My guilt of being on the phone at the time of the wreck and the fact that I was hit by a family with kids in tow blinded my judgement as to whether or not I actually ran the light.\u00a0 Or did the mini-van driver?\u00a0 One thing that concerned me is the statement the other driver gave to the officer when asked how fast he was going.\u00a0 He stated “20 maybe 30 miles an hour, we don’t know because we were trying to find our turn”.\u00a0 So he was trying to navigate his way through downtown.\u00a0 Did he know what color his light was?<\/p>\n
The officers immediate response to his comment was “So help me get my head around this.\u00a0 You were going 20-30 mph and managed to spin a Dodge Dakota 180 degrees in the intersection at impact?”\u00a0 Clearly the officer couldn’t add up the physics based on the other drivers statement.<\/p>\n
So based upon my reassurance of an eye witness, who could not have seen the lights, I accepted responsibility for running a red light I may not have run.\u00a0 My passenger insists that I didn’t and his statement to the police was that the mini-van “hit us like a missile”.\u00a0 I know that part is true.\u00a0 Although cited, I have not plead guilty to running the red light and I’m not personally certain I did.\u00a0\u00a0At this point\u00a0I’m\u00a0taking the word of a unreliable witness, who’s not listed on any police report, and the “victims”.\u00a0 So now I’m not sure what to do.\u00a0 Do I plead guilty without knowing if I am?\u00a0 Or do I plead not guilty and force someone to prove it to me and the court?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have a real conundrum and\u00a0 I’m not sure what to do.\u00a0 I genuinely and honestly have no idea if I am responsible for the wreck I was in this weekend.\u00a0\u00a0 The details are below.\u00a0\u00a0I’m prepared\u00a0to admit up front that I was on my phone.\u00a0 But that’s not a crime in NC, sorry haters.\u00a0 And … Continue reading A Responsible Dilemma<\/span>