Location: Illinois (Boone County)
Citation: 625 ILCS 5/11-1303, illegally stopping, standing, or parking where prohibited
Last night I was driving home after a full day of work. It was close to midnight, and I still had about an hour left in a four-hour drive. I started nodding off and realized I didn’t feel safe to keep going. I pulled completely off the highway into the grass, around six feet past the shoulder. I shut the engine off, got in the back of my van, and laid down to rest.
About 20 to 30 minutes later, a state trooper pulled up. He parked, walked through the grass, shined a flashlight inside, and circled the van. I was still asleep until the light and sound woke me up. As soon as I realized someone was there, I moved to the front and made myself visible. He asked if I’d been drinking or if the empty cans on the side of the highway were mine (they weren’t). I offered to take a breathalyzer without being asked, and he declined. I explained that I pulled over because I felt too impaired to drive safely. He still issued a citation under 11-1303 and told me there was a rest stop 13 miles up the road and I should’ve kept going.
I’ve prepared a written statement for court and I’m willing to take responsibility for not stopping sooner, but I genuinely believed I was doing the safest thing I could. I wasn’t blocking traffic, and my van wasn’t visible as a hazard from the road. He also made it sound like being in the grass was worse than being on the shoulder, which doesn’t make sense to me. I intentionally pulled off as far as possible to avoid being a danger to anyone. The only way I could’ve caused an accident is if someone had already left the highway and was crashing through the field.
I’m not local to Boone County, so I’m deciding between going to court myself or hiring a local attorney to appear for me.
Does this qualify as a valid emergency under Illinois law? What are the odds of dismissal or court supervision? And is it worth getting a lawyer involved or just handling it myself?
Appreciate any advice.
Comments
Yeah they generally don’t want people pulling off the road to park in the grass next to the highway. An emergency would be something like someone dying; it’s unlikely they’ll see you being tired as an emergency
Not a lawyer but they’ll say you should’ve stopped before you got that tired that it became an emergency but I would rather have that than an impaired driving ticket. The best an attorney will probably be able to do is get the amount lowered but after the attorney fee you’ll lose money. Again this is just my logic in no way am I a lawyer
As a truck driver, I know you can send a letter to the DA’s office and explain the situation. Pretty certain that they’d rather you pull off the side of the road and get some shut eye rather than fall asleep at the wheel and get into a crash that could kill you or others. They prefer you to use rest stops or truck stops for that but they can be convinced to make an exception.
Try asking for deferred judification and pay the court cost or ask about taking learners Ed and pay court costs normally it’s lower cost and is removed off record after 6 months of no other driving infractions
With the rest stop being that close, you may have an uphill battle. And if the reasoning was I don’t think I could have made it another 13 miles, they’ll say you shouldn’t have kept driving as long as you did
Not a lawyer but the grass statement Trooper may have not been clear in explaining the danger of pulling off in grass. Parts of your exhaust system get hot enough to start grass on fire and burn your car up while you’re sleeping inside. We had a Sheriff a few years ago pulled off in his cruiser to radar speed and do reports, next thing he knows car on fire and 200 acre grass fire by the time fire department arrived.
You don’t have a great legal defense, but you do have a good excuse (what a lawyer would call a mitigating factor).
I don’t know the practices of the specific country where this happened, but as as general matter a prosecutor or traffic court judge (if that is no prosecutor) has great flexibility to reach a plea agreement. That might mean a reduced fine, delayed prosecution so that the ticket goes away if you keep your driving record clean for as certain period, or something else. They can even just dismiss it outright, although that’s sometimes less common. They have a lot of discretion, you just need to convince them to use it.
If you think a lawyer might help to make a persuasive presentation of the facts, then getting one might be worth it. If you think you can explain the situation in a credible way and negotiate for yourself, that would save you the expense of a lawyer.
Is it a citation that the cop needs to be present for in court if you choose to fight it? You could file to fight it and then reschedule it and hope the cop decides to not show up as it’s a minor infraction.