I was making a left turn, didn't have headlights on and was putting on my seatbelt at a time. Really stupid thing to do, was very stressed out and just feel dumb about it. What am I facing, and what impact will it have on my insurance? On ticket it just says Careless driving, there are no details..

if you didn't hit anyone? why were you given the careless driving charge

If you get convicted, the consequences will be harsher than any other traffic violation. It is a major offence and insurance company will not take it lightly. You should absolutely request a trial for this charge. From there, you can either get a lawyer/paralegal right away and let them handle it, or wait for trial date, and try to negotiate a plea bargain with a prosecutor. If you pick the latter and are not happy with the plea bargain offer, I think you should be able to ask the court to reschedule the trial so you can get legal guidance.

I do think your chances of getting it reduced, if not thrown out entirely, are pretty good. I have seen people get "improper left turn" charges for causing real accidents with major injuries, a "near miss" like that should not get "careless driving".

iFly55 wrote:

if you didn't hit anyone? why were you given the careless driving charge

A collision isn't required to lay the charge. If the officer observed the combination of no lights, no seatbelt and unsafe turn, I think the argument could be made the OP was driving without due care and attention.

The lack of collision will probably help in getting a plea deal however.

Yeah, could probably get "fail to yield" or something like that... but the combination of circumstances, as Stanton pointed out, probably is what led to the original charge.

Thanks for replies. I'm going to seek consultation. It was just really dumb of me, I never had any tickets before and just really felt stressed out that moment, should've taken a deep breath before turning on ignition. I learned my lesson and will never be such a douchebag again.

That being said, does the fact that on a ticket there are no details mean anything? It just says "Careless Driving", without details. I am sure he has a report, but should I have asked for a copy of it? I also failed to mention that this happened as I was making a left turn from a side street on which I was parked, so it's not that I was driving around with no seatbelt/lights - I literally drove like 20 meters before I got pulled over.