01-10-2010, 03:03 PM
Alex, You will plead Not Guilty. The police officer will first state the facts based on that persons observation of the alleged violation. Unless the officer testifies to something completely false, disputing their facts does nothing but create an adversarial situation. The officer is testifying to what they observe not what you observed.
Here’s my hypothetical testimony:
You honor, I will not dispute the testimony of the officer, as I was not in his/her vehicle and therefore have no idea what he/she observed. This is the fact as it occurred.
On X at around X time I was traveling (state direction and location). In front of me was a (describe car). This car was traveling X mph based on my speedometer.
After following that vehicle for about X miles, we arrived at (state the specific location) where the road in front of me was clear of all incoming traffic and the pavement marking as a broken yellow line. The vehicle in front of me was traveling about 15 mph below the posted speed limit. After double checking that there was no cars approaching and checking my rear view mirror and saw no cars attempting to pass me, I signaled and pulled in to the left lane and started to pass the vehicle in front of me.
Now this is very important to state:
As I started to pass and pulled along side the slow vehicle, I tapped by horn to let them know I was there. It is my understanding that this is the acceptable way on Hawaii to let the car your passing know your there.
I don’t know if the car I was passing didn’t want to get passed, thought the toot on the horn meant speed up, or was just being confrontational, but they immediately started speeding up as I was passing. I decided to fall back behind them, but as I started to slow, they started to slow. The vehicle that was now behind my car had closed the gap due to the slow speed of the car I was passing and was too close for me to safely fall back behind the car.
At that time I observed a vehicle now coming into view in the opposite direction, so I decided the other driver was playing around so I speed up and safety passed the car. By this time, I had entered a portion of the road where the broken yellow line had become a solid double yellow line.
As I was already committed to the pass where the line was broken yellow, and had it not been for the actions of the other vehicle speeding up and slowing down, I would have made the pass safely while still within the passing zone.
It was not my intention of passing in a no passing zone and I had fully intended to complete the pass while still in a passing zone.
Here’s my hypothetical testimony:
You honor, I will not dispute the testimony of the officer, as I was not in his/her vehicle and therefore have no idea what he/she observed. This is the fact as it occurred.
On X at around X time I was traveling (state direction and location). In front of me was a (describe car). This car was traveling X mph based on my speedometer.
After following that vehicle for about X miles, we arrived at (state the specific location) where the road in front of me was clear of all incoming traffic and the pavement marking as a broken yellow line. The vehicle in front of me was traveling about 15 mph below the posted speed limit. After double checking that there was no cars approaching and checking my rear view mirror and saw no cars attempting to pass me, I signaled and pulled in to the left lane and started to pass the vehicle in front of me.
Now this is very important to state:
As I started to pass and pulled along side the slow vehicle, I tapped by horn to let them know I was there. It is my understanding that this is the acceptable way on Hawaii to let the car your passing know your there.
I don’t know if the car I was passing didn’t want to get passed, thought the toot on the horn meant speed up, or was just being confrontational, but they immediately started speeding up as I was passing. I decided to fall back behind them, but as I started to slow, they started to slow. The vehicle that was now behind my car had closed the gap due to the slow speed of the car I was passing and was too close for me to safely fall back behind the car.
At that time I observed a vehicle now coming into view in the opposite direction, so I decided the other driver was playing around so I speed up and safety passed the car. By this time, I had entered a portion of the road where the broken yellow line had become a solid double yellow line.
As I was already committed to the pass where the line was broken yellow, and had it not been for the actions of the other vehicle speeding up and slowing down, I would have made the pass safely while still within the passing zone.
It was not my intention of passing in a no passing zone and I had fully intended to complete the pass while still in a passing zone.