A Day at the Court

This is a story from 1991. I was living and working in the US back then. 

One day as I was driving home from work, as I slowed down to take the exit, the traffic stopped suddenly and I managed to stop behind a van. It was a close call. However, the young woman driver behind me could not stop and I got hit from behind which made me hit the van this time. I ended up being the middle car in a 5 car accident.

That was my first and thankfully the only accident so, I was shaken a bit. After the initial shock, I got out and saw that the front end of my car was in real bad shape because the van was a higher vehicle. The back side of my Toyota Corolla was not so bad, despite being hit from behind. The car that hit me was a smaller and lower car too. 

So, as we were all waiting for the police to come to the scene, my colleagues who were also returning home, saw the accident and they stopped to support me. Imagine identical Toyota Corollas with consecutive license plates keep coming and a bunch of foreigners appearing at the scene. Alien Invasion, no less!

The police came and gave each and every one of us that were involved in the accident a ticket because of following too closely. Say what? And, the fine was not even specified on the ticket. That is unheard of in my country. So, the next day when I talked to my American colleagues, they told me to fill the back side of the ticket pleading "Not Guilty" and take the issue to the court. My 23 year old pride was already hurt because of the accident and I would never pay a single dollar for a ticket I did not deserve. No way! So, I filled out the form pleading not guilty and sent it at via the Post Office because it had to be registered mail. They sent me similar forms at least three times just to make sure if I really pleaded not guilty and, each time I had to go to the Post Office to send those forms. Finally, they gave a court date but of course, they changed it at least twice and each time I had to confirm my answer through the Post Office. I guess people just give up and pay at one point. Have they met me? I can be very stubborn. 

By the time "the" court date arrived, my car had already been fixed and returned to me for several months.

On the day of the trial, I had to be there at 9 a.m. but the traffic related issues were not attended to till after 3 p.m. or so. However, you had to be there all day otherwise, your license would be suspended. Seriously they took attendance a few times during the day. So, I waited patiently and have seen rather comical trials. One of them was about this middle-aged couple who were brought in because of neighbor complaints. The lady was in hair rollers and her husband was in his pajama pants and white tank top. They were constantly yelling at each other and at one point, the lady hit her husband with her purse. The judge told the officers to get a hold of them and make them sit in separate rows and keep their mouths shut.

I have seen lawyers who were dressed like the ones in old TV shows wearing bow ties with Prince de Galles suits. I have also seen people suing each other for all sorts of ridiculuos reasons and then I understood why there were so many 1-800-LAWYERS commercials on TV.

Anyway, finally a police officer came to take the place of the prosecutor and gave us each 5 minutes to tell him about our cases. I told him that "I WAS DEFINITELY NOT FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY" because my pride was still hurt and it was a matter of principle. He agreed and told me that unless the officer was there personally to observe that I was following the vehicle in front of me closely, he is not supposed to issue such a ticket but, it is done all the time. You know, income for the police force... Tsk, tsk...

When the judge told me "Miss T'Pol, Officer so and so has asked to drop the charges against you. Do you have anything else to say?" I stood up straight and proudly said "No, your honor. Thank you!" Hah! Goodby Elmsford Village Court!

I think it was one of the most proud moments of my life. I persevered and won.