One more time...

One unfortunate fact of life is that if you write tickets for moving violations, you have to go to Traffic Court. Traffic Court judges know that my cites were issued following a crash, so I'm going to have multiple parties testifying, as well as witnesses. Since that takes time, my cases are inevitably heard last. 

On this particular day, though, when Judge X calls the roll, the defendant isn't there. 

"Officer EightyTwo, I think we're going to hear this matter first and get it out of the way."

Woohoo!

This was a rear-ender in which the defendant slammed his POS sedan into a large SUV. Defendant's POS was totaled, the only problem being that the crankcase ruptured, dumping oil all over the roadway (and creating a huge traffic backlog). Pretty straightforward; 22350 VC, unsafe speed. He was none too happy when I towed his vehicle for blocking the roadway, and probably less so when he got the cite, as he had multiple moving violations already. 

So the SUV driver and the witness come up and do their thing, and the judge renders his opinion: guilty, with a $300 penalty for the failure to appear. Suh-weet! In and out in under an hour, as opposed to the usual three. I might actually get some stuff done this morning.

As we're walking out into the lobby, the witness says:

"I think that was him."
"Who?"
"The defendant. I think he just walked by on his way into court."
"Oh, well. He's a little late. Judge X already ruled on his case." 

Except later that afternoon, I get a subpoena. For the same case. 

Turns out he showed up, gave Judge X a sob story about why he was late, and the judge vacated his earlier judgement and put the matter back on the calendar for the following week. 

So we ended up (all of us), going back to court to hear the matter a second time. And yes, the defendant lost a second time, in front of a different judge. I got OT for both appearances, so I suppose it evens out in the end.

But man, do I hate doing stuff twice. 

Gettin' by, with(out) a little help from your friends.

Nowadays, it's a given that just about everyone over the age of, say, four, has a mobile device of some sort (iPhone, Crackberry, whatever). What strikes me as odd is that virtually everyone who's involved in a crash, no matter how minor, feels they need to summon additional people (SO/parent/friend/relative) to the scene. 

The end result of this is that two-car, non-injury collisions end up with five vehicles and a dozen people milling around by the time I get there (most of whom want to offer input into the report for a crash they weren't present for).

Didn't self-sufficiency used to be a valued part of the American character? If you had a problem, you took care of it. Period. You didn't need three other people to come out and hold your hand (someone poking around the barn in the middle of the night? Grab the Winchester off the wall, and go TCB).    

                 
Look, if you're a high schooler who just crunched Dad's car, then maybe he should be present (especially if you're violating the terms of your provisonal license by carrying your minor friends.  But I digress.). But when a forty-year old, well-dressed man's biggest concern at the scene is, "I gotta call my wife," because he dinged her Escalade, well...something ain't right. For God's sake, dude...man up. (His wife's comment, BTW, after leaving work and driving all the way to the crash: "I don't know why he called me (sigh)."

Snow day!?!

Here in Cali, people can barely keep their vehicles on the roadway at the best of times (clear, daylight, light traffic). Throw some weather into the mix, or at least what passes for weather here on the Left Coast, and chaos ensues.

I'm pretty sure that in other parts of the country that get snowed on regularly, the first snowfall of the season isn't cause to send TV news crews up to the higher elevations, cameras in hand, so that some Ken/Barbie can stand by the side of the roadway in order to show the folks at home what snow looks like. Every. Single. Winter. (FWIW, I suggested they just stick some fake pine trees in the station parking lot, buy a big fan, and throw some Ivory Snow around as the reporter stands there. It'd have to be cheaper.)

So tomorrow, the National Weather Service is calling for snow levels down to 1,000 feet. Which means the SmallCity PD Traffic Unit might be in for about two or three times the normal number of collisions. I, howver, will be enjoying my day off. I might turn the scanner on, though, just to hear the insanity.