My son was recently cited for "Failure to Control" his vehicle, in Toledo OH. The time was approx. 7 pm, the wx was light snow, and the temperature at or near freezing. He was exiiting off I-75 and onto I-280. This interchange makes a looping "S" curve, and drops down under an overpass before coming back up to the level of I-280. The "drop" and "wind-tunnel" effect tends to decrease the temperature & increase the moisture level in the area where my son's car slid on the "black-ice", hit one guard rail and spun 180 degrees sending it across to hit the other guard rail. There were no injuries or other cars involved. There were so many accidents at that time that it took Toledo PD 45 minutes to respond and an additional 45 minutes for the tow truck to arrive.
Q ~ Should my son fight this ticket? Q ~ Is there a lesser included charge?

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Originally Posted by curious alien

My son was recently cited for "Failure to Control" his vehicle, in Toledo OH. The time was approx. 7 pm, the wx was light snow, and the temperature at or near freezing. He was exiiting off I-75 and onto I-280. This interchange makes a looping "S" curve, and drops down under an overpass before coming back up to the level of I-280. The "drop" and "wind-tunnel" effect tends to decrease the temperature & increase the moisture level in the area where my son's car slid on the "black-ice", hit one guard rail and spun 180 degrees sending it accross to hit the other guard rail. There were no injuries or other cars involved. There were so many accidents at that time that it took Toledo PD 45 minutes to respond and an additional 45 minutes for the tow truck to arrive.
Q ~ Should my son fight this ticket? Q ~ Is there a lesser included charge?

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Your son can fight, but it won't do any good. Not sure what the process is in Canadian court but in the USA, what I'd recommend is contacting the prosecuting attorney for your state/province and trying to reach some type of "plea bargain" - getting the ticket amended to a lesser charge. The cost of the ticket itself may increase, but it's worth it in the long run.

EDIT: Just caught this morning that it said Ohio, not Ontario. Blonde moment :) But my advice still stands.

You can always "fight" any ticket OR, as "This" said, attempt to get it reduced to another charge.

Bottom line - your son lost control of his car. I understand the circumstances (I'm a liability investigator) but he did lose control.

This is one of those things I always hate, yes, if he had been going 1/2 his speed and did better on controlling the skid perhaps he would not have had a accident.

But accidents do happen but to many police there has to be a cause, and that cause gets ticketed, in fact some police department have a rule a officer is suppose to ticket someone at each accident scene.

Now if you had photos of the area, weather reports and the police report showing the weather ( hopefully it is complete) the judge may just dismiss it . Also at times, at court you can do a plea with the DA before the court begins.

Depending on what that charge counts in points on license, some lower charge could be worked out