Pedestrian right of way question
 

I received a ticket a while ago, and wanted to know if my situation was valid at all.

I was driving northbound on 144th street in surrey by the courthouse at night. Coming up the crest of the hill, there is an intersection with a left turn lane. Across the intersection, there is a crosswalk (not pedestrian controlled, no lights). I was not speeding, I was actually going 50km/hr because I live in the area and know there is a crosswalk across the street. There was a truck waiting to turn left in the left turn lane. A pedestrian had crossed PARTWAY of the crosswalk, and I could not see them driving northbound as the truck blocked part of my view. By the time I could see the pedestrian (almost beside the truck turning left), it was unsafe to stop because there were other cars behind me. A cop happened to be turning left (northbound) onto 144th, and promptly gave me the ticket.

I understand that pedestrians have the right of way. The cop told me that I should have been scanning my environment, but I had been. It was literally impossible for me to know a pedestrian was there, since the truck was blocking my vision. There were cars approaching in the oncoming traffic so it was not unreasonable for the truck to be waiting to turn left. Nor was there any other cars stopped for the pedestrian.

Anyways, I'm not sure if there are points associated with this ticket yet, but I don't feel like it was safe for me to slam on my brakes in the middle of an intersection. Am I still at fault for a ticket?

At this point it's he said she said, and the cop would win. If you had a dash cam to prove the validity of your claim then I'd say yes it's worth fighting

i use that crosswalk regularly, and cops NEVER yield to me. i would love for your to get a gopro and cross that intersection all day almost getting smoked by cruisers and take that to court.

Yea, it's a pretty bad intersection and the city needs to make it pedestrian controlled.

Still debating to fight it or not...

Fight that shit. Sounds like you had a green light, it was dark, the pedestrian was blocked by the truck; and likely not wearing very bright clothing, you were doing the speed limit, you made a split second decision to continue forward so as to not cause an accident with the vehicles behind you and the pedestrian was unhurt.

What exactly was the ticket for? I'm going to guess undue care and attention. His argument is shaky at best. You could easily argue that you were paying attention and you approached the intersection cautiously as you have stated because you know about the dangers. You can't help that someone decided to cross the road when you have a green light. If you can afford to take the time off to fight it I would. Worst case scenario, you end up with a ticket you already have.

The ticket was for not yielding to a pedestrian. $167 and two points.

DGN23, I think you misread my post, but this wasn't a stoplight intersection, just a crosswalk. When I mentioned 'pedestrian controlled', I was referring to the yellow flashing lights that are activated by a pedestrian.

The ticket is legit.

The question you should ask yourself, WHY was the truck *waiting* to turn left??? (I know you said there were oncoming approaching.. but you can infer a missing puzzle piece if the cars are moving at a slow rate..) The truth is most people have sub-par vision or don't recognize potential hazards early enough. You probably just dropped the ball here.

You NEVER pass another vehicle that is stopped at a crosswalk for EXACTLY this reason. (until you are sure that they aren't stopped because of a pedestrian!)

I'm not sure what your point is, from the OPs description of the intersection and crossing the pedestrian would have nothing to do with the truck waiting to turn left as their paths would not be crossing.

Yes I did misread it. On that note, I would just pay it and move on.