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Hi, I am new to this and this is my first accident so I thought I would try this out. I was recently charged with careless driving while involved in a 4 car accident. What happened (the other individuals in the cars stated this) a car slowed down suddenly (traffic was moving at about 30km or so, extremely busy time on the highway) and the first car slammed on the brakes and did not hit the Lexus, however the second car hit the first car, then the third car hit the second and I was not able to stop in time (I was about 2-3 car lengths). I tried to stop to the best of my ability but was un able to as by the time the 3rd car hit the 2nd there wasn't much time for him to break until he hit the car in front which drastically reduced the amount of space I had. The OPP officer charged me with careless driving which is $490 and 6 demerit points, and how he was talking about the accident it felt as if he blamed me for causing the whole accident (causing every car to hit each other when I was the last one to collide). He very briefly spoke to everyone in their cars and then spent the most time talking to me as I was the last car. He only had my statement in hand at the time and went back to his cruiser. Upon return to my car he handed me the ticket. I explained to him that I did not start the accident, that the second car hit the front car and then the chain reaction occurred. He seemed confused by this and returned back to his cruiser for a moment then came back and asked "at the end of the day you hit a car yes?" which I replied yes to, and he handed me the ticket. At the beginning of the incident when he initially talked to us he also said that "I will try to get you out of here as quickly as possible as it is a busy night" so I feel as if he was rushing this and not doing a thorough investigation of what has happened. I have photos of the incident and the car I hit has little to no damage, the car in front of him has his licensed plate fully indented into the car and the very front car had his trailer hitch pushed fully in from the second car. I do not believe that I could have been travelling nearly as fast as would be required for me to move 3 cars. I do not believe I should at fault for all the damage that occurred.
My question to you is how much would it cost to hire someone to fight this for me, and what would be the chance of the ticket being dropped? I have pictures of the damages to all of the cars and would be willing to provide any more information you need. Thank you for your time!
(Also to note, I contacted the driver whom I hit to get a statement from him, he changed his story from what he told me at the time of the accident stating that he stopped just "barely" before I hit him and did the final push for him to hit the car in front. However looking at the pictures I have taken there is pretty much 0 damage to the back of his car, and the damage done to the car in front of him (his license plate is fully embedded into the back bumper) I don't see how I could have caused such damage, let a lot cause the front car to get as much damage as that had to.
Don't worry about the amount of damage. I think you're confusing insurance liability to the ticket. You are at fault for the collision as will be cars 2 and 3 in the eyes of the fault determination in the insurance act.
The ticket is a different issue and you should be able to negotiate it to a fall to turn out to avoid a collision which is a minor ticket for insurance purposes.
Your damage conclusions all sound reasonable but the bottom line is you impacted a vehicle that you were following so for insurance and HTA you are at fault. Whether you caused 3 to hit 2 and 2 to hit 1 is really irrelevant.
Former Ontario Police Officer. Advice will become less relevant as the time goes by !
Help - Careless Driving Ticket - I don't know what to do!
