Got ticketed for sitting on passenger side and chatting.....
 

hi guys me and my brother are driving team and i was supposed to start my shift in 15 minutes,(after having a combined sleep and off duty of more that 14 hrs) , i had my evening tea ready and was sipping while sitting on passenger side, A chp officer pulled us over and wrote me a ticket for not being in the bunk/sleeper so any pointers to beat this ticket and how much will be the bail amount for this he put sections 34506.3 and 1213.g.3 , i could not make any sense of this... so pls help and if you can recommend a good lawyer it will be great too... thanks

Re: Got ticketed for sitting on passenger side and chatting.
 

I call BS
34506.3. Except as otherwise provided in this division, it is an infraction to fail to comply with any rule or regulation adopted by the department pursuant to this division

If you were sitting in the passenger seat in a team truck that is in operation then you were technically On DUTY, not driving.

When it comes to team trucks there are only 3 lines that can be used when they truck is moving. Sleeper, Driving, On Duty Not Driving.

If your log book showed you in the sleeper and you were in the passenger seat then you were/are guilty of log falsification. If your log showed you as Off Duty then you were in violation.

it smells fishy to me, a cop just pulls you over out of the blue because you were sitting in the passenger seat?? sounds like one of unkuts stories.

it's bs, yeh, i know, you were technicaly in violation but we all know the truth. we are not robots, we don't all sleep 10 hours and most would let 15 min slide.

this happened at the lebec truck route down grade n/b just before the 45 mph zone (where it says 45 mile zone ahead ) i think after I-5 incident in the tunnel the cops over there have gone in Overdrive or some thing , actually at this particular stop he gave two tickets one to my brother for speeding which he was not his foot was off the gas and jakes were on as he was preparing for the 45 zone, and 35 next and he was the last truck in right lane and had good distance from the trucks ahead and to make matters worse he noticed me in the side seat he did say that it was me sitting there that caused the traffic stop and caused my brother his ticket too... besides what do i gain to bs here in the forums ... why it is hard for the trucking brotherhood to take the word of thier own rather than the cops .. anyways if there is a way to link a picture i can post both the tickets here for every one to see.... thx

its the way you told it, now you tell it different. anyway, the way to link a picture is you have to save it on photbucket or a similar site and then link it from there, it still doesnt make sense to get pulled over for sitting in the passenger seat, lots of drivers have passengers.
you say your brother got a ticket for speeding, but he wasnt speeding. then you say the reason he got pulled over was you in the other seat., can you see now why we question the whole story?
if the situation really is as you told it. go here and ask your question, you will get some good advice
http://www.olblueusa.org/askthelaw/emailATL.html

One has to expect this
 

After that fiasco in the Truck Lane on the Five, they (LEO-DOT types) are going to be under the gun to keep the lid on there.
Not to mention there were 9 trucks which the drivers haven't been accounted for. Now all 9 couldn't have caused the accident, so kind of tells us things are out of hand in Cali.
The old "sumbuddies gonna pay for this" game is in play and guess who is being nominated?
The last time I did that route I was in a Freightshaker doing the posted limit (it's a Frieghtshaker. so I was +/- three percent or so) and I was passed by everyone.

thanks for the info on that link.... and yes i have been verbally warned a couple of times when the officer pulled the driver over for traffic stop and i got talking on behalf of the driver or i was sitting besides having coffee... but this is the first time some one has ticketed me on that day i did see 3 -4 chp cruisers on that stretch and two other truckers were also pulled over besides us... and i hear that the officer was supposed to give me reasonable time to update the duty status on the logs which was not given to me so can i use that as a defense .... here i am trying to upload the two tickets..http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v688/skydlz/st2.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v688/skydlz/rt2.jpg
the first ticket is for my brother and second for me....

so it looks like you got a ticket for not having your log updated, not for sitting in the passenger seat, they dont have to give you a chance to update it, it is supposed to be current to your last change of duty status. as for the speeding, it says 61 in a 45 but you say he wasnt speeding? that will be hard to prove, try to get the judge to withhold the points..

see as per my logs i was in sleep and the bear said i had to be on duty to sit outside the bunk if i was in sleeper i'd be fine anyways .. so how can i plead with the judge to keep the points of my record.... thanks

you didnt explain that in the first place, if your log says sleeper, then thats where you need to be, you change your status as soon as you get out.
there wont be any points for that, its a non-moving violation, I meant for your brother to ask the judge to withhold the points for speeding.
dress nice, be pleasant to the judge, ask nicely if there is any way to reduce or withhold the points, most judges will do it. its all in the attitude..
as far as your ticket, I would just pay it, that one is pretty cut and dry. the cop could have given you a break, but what if you had been up there awake all night and just logged sleeper, then you take over driving fall asleep and kill somebody? that's probably why he gave you the ticket.