Legal Question in Traffic Law in Wisconsin

I got a citation for "Failure to Control Vehicle". --- I was driving on the part of the express way that I drive 5/7 days of the week. This particular day had a winter storm warning. The visibility was a few car lengths, but still bad. About an inch of snow on the ground. I was going 20 under the speed limit, as was the other cars. I was driving in the second to right lane. The tail of my car began to fishtail. I did everything in my power to get back to straight, I tried to correct with the steering wheel and I tried to break. I had no traction, there was NOTHING that I could do. The car wouldn't turn back and the breaks did nothing. I kept turing so much that I was looking straight at the median wall, and it kept getting closer to me. I looked to my left and saw a car coming right at me. It hit my front driver tire. The whiplash caused me to hit my head and I don't remember what happened after the initial hit, but I did not black out. It was just a few seconds that I do not remember. Note: Within the 45 minutes we were at the accident scene, another car spun out and hit the median wall virtually right behind us, not even a half mile. Less than that. The next day, another girl died from an accident in the same spot. On the Kenosha Country Sheriff's page, it was said how there were many accidents on the interstate in Kenosha county (which, mind you, is a small stretch of high way). Clearly, the road was terrible, ESPECIALLY in that one spot. I want to plead not guilty, but do you think I will be fine if I do that?


Asked on 1/03/17, 10:25 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
JAY Nixon nixon law offices

Yes, if you go to trial without experienced traffic counsel on any citation, you are likely to be convicted. Here, failure to control your vehicle was the perfect charge. Any time that you are the fist car to lose control, you become responsible for all the resulting chain reaction impacts, once you negligently leave your lane of travel and fail to correct. Bad weather is no defense in WI. All this being said, however, if you want to keep this off your record, retell your story in the privacy of a law office and then hire him or her, since a lawyer can still help you greatly, even on indefensible charges.

If any answer on AVVO helps you, mine or someone else's, please mark it as "helpful" or "best answer" to help AVVO know which answers to show others . Answering this question does not make me your attorney, but you can post comments here for clarifications, etc. You can also see past answers to similar questions on AVVO at https://www.avvo.com/attorneys/53566-wi-jay-nixon-1529181/answers.html . Also see 15 years of past answers at http://www.lawguru.com/answers/atty_profile/view_attorney_profile/jknixon and https://www.facebook.com/NixonLawOffices . Answers may contain attorney advertising materials and both questions and answers may be may also be used in attorney advertising. not a valid defense in WI, so there was no more perfect charge for you than "failing to control your vehicle." You would be far better off to first safely exit the freeway and then lawfully park your vehicle until the weather improved, avoiding driving during periods when visibility is limited to a few car lengths as you

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Answered on 1/06/17, 6:26 am


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