Woman fights dead brother-in-law’s $180 traffic ticket after notice in the mail – death certificate wasn’t enough proof
IN one US state, even death doesn’t seem to be a good enough excuse to get out of paying hefty traffic tickets.
In Oregon, a woman recently found herself battling state authorities in Colorado after her deceased brother-in-law received a traffic ticket – some 18 months after he had died.
9NEWSA woman received a traffic ticket in the mail showing her deceased brother-in-law’s car committing a violation[/caption]
www.msn.comShe was later forced to battle Colorado state authorities over the ticket[/caption]
According to a report by 9News Consumer Investigator Steve On Your Side, Shirley Widom received a ticket from the Colorado Transportation Investment Office (CTIO).
The ticket claimed that a red Mercury owned by her brother-in-law, Kevin Day, had crossed the double white line on Interstate 25 in December, allegedly violating toll lane rules.
Widom said: “I just thought it was a stupid mistake. And I thought, ‘Oh, this is really kind of funny.’
“I always knew he was a bad driver.
“He had incorrectly merged somewhere, and he had a $75 ticket he needed to take care of.”
The problem, however, was that Day had died nearly a year and a half before the alleged violation.
Widom and her husband had been managing his estate and had sold his house and car to a company called “We Buy Ugly Houses.”
Widom explained: “They were wonderful. They bought the house. The car was very old and not in good shape, and we thought everything was done.”
She added that the company took “the entire house, contents, and car.”
So, when she received the violation notice, Widom called CTIO to explain the situation.
“They told me, ‘Well, just send us a copy of the death certificate,’ which I then did,” she said.
But while it seemed simple enough to rectify, this is where common sense seemed to fail.
“I get another letter, this time about civil liability, and now the bill is $150 with a $30 fee added,” Widom said.
The additional $30 was an adjudication fee for requesting an administrative hearing, bringing the total to $180.
Widom sent the death certificate again and included a picture of Day’s ashes, but received an email saying: “the documentation was not enough.”
Wisdom said: “I’m assuming then that they’re going to keep contacting him. And I suggested a seance, but it was met with silence.”
CTIO later dismissed the $180 ticket after Steve On Your Side got in contact, with a CTIO spokesperson providing a statement.
It said: “CDOT and CTIO would like to express our sympathies to the family of Kevin Day.
“We have looked into this case and are immediately dismissing the civil penalty, which should have been dismissed as soon as the family presented the death certificate, per our business rules.”
It was explained that a private contractor handled disputes such as these, and had likely misinterpreted a rule as the violation occurred long after the registered owner’s death.
It was described as “a circumstance we had not previously encountered” that “highlighted a gap in our procedures.”
CTIO is now working with the contractor to clarify rules and refresh training for customer service agents to prevent similar incidents.
How to fight a speeding ticket
According to a legally reviewed post, there are five effective strategies to fighting a speeding ticket if it was wrongfully issued.
If pulled over and issued a ticket, drivers can argue or dispute a driver’s personal opinion. When issuing a speeding ticket, an officer is required to write their opinion and come to an “objective” conclusion. If the ticket was written based on that judgment, it can be contested. An example would be if you were going 75 mph in a 65 mph zone because others were traveling at the same speed, you could argue that it would be more dangerous to travel at 65 mph.
You can dispute the officer’s presentation of evidence. If you were ticketed for something like running a stop sign or making an illegal u-turn, you can’t contest that if an officer saw you, but you can call things into court like eyewitnesses, diagrams, or photos.
Argue that the ticket was issued by a “mistake of fact.” This is tricky, but a “mistake of fact” is a mistake made by a driver about a situation that was beyond their control, or if a driver legitimately did not know they were violating the law. For example, you were driving in two lanes because the lane markers were so worn down that you could not see them.
You could say circumstances justified your driving. You could say you were speeding to pass a possibly drunk driver, or avoiding an accident by rapidly changing lanes. However, the argument won’t work if there’s proof you continued to speed after passing.
Similar to the above, it could be argued that speeding was necessary to avoid harm. The key is to argue that if you weren’t speeding, you or someone else could have been harmed.
Consult a traffic attorney, if all else fails. Many have free consultations to decide whether or not there’s a case.
Source: FindLaw
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