Ticket Help: Failure to Obey Peace Officer Directions

[J-hop]

Originally posted by Feruk
I'm surprised people are giving OP shit for driving around a police car... we all do it every day when a cop pulls a guy over. We don't turn around and take another road.

Good luck OP, I'd definitely fight this one.

A little different when the cop is perpendicular to the road blocking the lane.

If a cop did that while pulling someone over absolutely you would stop.

I get it though. In the moment you get flustered and do something stupid that you wouldn't have done otherwise. Everyone has done something like that multiple times in their life, whether it be driving or something else. If they say otherwise they are either lying or ignorant.

That being said getting flustered isn't a legal excuse and you can't blame the officer for doing their job, even if the discretion they used was harsh. All you can really do is put on your puppy dog eyes and hope for a sympathetic judge.

[speedog]

Originally posted by FraserB


The two situations are nothing alike.

Your friend was pulled over already, then decided that his time was too valuable and decided that he could drive without his license and other documents.

OP can make a case for his actions using exemptions provided in law.

I never said that the situations were alike, just that the OP's reminded me of my friend's and in both cases, a little bit better judgement would've resulted in a different outcome.

[FraserB]

Originally posted by OTown


You're telling me that if there's a police car parked perpendicular to the roadway in the entrance of a lot across the lane that you would have no second thoughts about driving around it?

I would stay as far from that as I could IMO. What if its a crime scene and the OP just contaminated it by driving into it?

If a cop had parked in the right lane, and provided no other visible direction, I'd have no problem going around him. Especially since 12(1)c allows you to cross the centre line if the right lane is closed.

[J-hop]

Originally posted by FraserB


If a cop had parked in the right lane, and provided no other visible direction, I'd have no problem going around him. Especially since 12(1)c allows you to cross the centre line if the right lane is closed.

But the key thing is the cop has positioned their car perpendicular to the road blocking a lane. Would you honestly still drive around them? Wouldn't you stop and wait to be directed?

If the police car is in line with the lane blocking it yea I'd probably go around too. But perpendicular means they've made an effort to block the road.

[austic]

The cop could have also got out and signalled to you and made sure you understood.

I would go in with the argument you were following what you thought his orders were as you didn't know about the other entrance.

You will likely get it reduced if you were not intentionally/obviously trying to be a dick.

[RPM]

I appreciate the comments folks. This was very helpful.

Some of the replies have been about the fact that a reasonable person would not go around an officer blocking their lane in this situation.

I was wondering if in this situation I "disobeyed directions" and "drove left of centre" wrongfully. For the commenters that do not think I should have gone through i would like to know if they are thinking that i violated the laws as described. Or are you just letting me know that I'm going to struggle in life.

Just to add some more thoughts. From my point of view there is a very wide open access to the left parking lot just two car lengths from the officer. The intersection is quite wide at about 4 car length. Plenty of room to go around. Also the intersections are misaligned so my "lane" is actually unobstructed from my view