Question regarding misinformation on a ticket
 

Hey guys,

As some of you may know I was involved in an accident a month ago. I was faulted for careless driving since I rear ended someone, and received a ticket for it.

The officer put down the wrong vehicle for the accident, however. I was driving my 95 E320 wagon that was silver, and he put down my mothers 300E (which I used to own) on the ticket instead. I have NO idea how this happened, and I was too shaken up to realize that he did it when I got the ticket.

I've been calling for the last month and leaving messages asking for him to call me back. I have gotten ZERO response, and it does not seem like there is any other way to get this fixed other than continuing to call him.

After 30 days I can no longer take a BDI course, so unfortunately I had to pay the ticket as is and start the course today since my 30 days are up tomorrow.

Does anyone have any experience with this? I just want the accident to be reflected on the correct car and not my mothers, as if we were to ever sell it it would obviously show that it has been in an accident which it has not.

Thanks!

Call your insurance company, the officer will never call you back.

Have you tried going down to the police station/courthouse in person? Seems like you might have wanted to try that sometime in the last 30 days...

MV

Considering I'm a full time student and work every day that I'm off, no I have not had the time to do so.

Not really sure what they would do, care to explain? They know that the vehicle effected is my E320, but how would that change my ticket?

I *think* the insurance companies report the stuff in for the carfax-not the police. Also, wouldn't that record be by VIN?

The ticket has all the information for the 300E on it. The VIN, the license plate, year, color, etc. All of it is wrong, except he put E320 in for model of vehicle.

That makes sense though, I'll give them a call and make sure it's sorted out.

Basically I was driving the 300E, and my mom the E320 for a few years and we swapped about a month prior to the accident. Not sure how but I think something got mixed up with that. We swapped plates too.

Sure sounds like something is screwy with the DMV. Almost like the paperwork didn't go through. Of course a simple VIN check at the scene by the officer would have triggered some sort of flag right them and there.

cop was apparently going by his car computer that hadn't updated yet, saw it was a mercedes with your current plate, assumed the same one, ect.

x2 call insurance company, but unfortunately you are trapped in the state bureaucracy here. That cop will never admit he recorded the wrong car, probably there are rules stating he needs to check the vin of the car in the accident regardless of plate, and he probably breezed by it. To admit he was wrong about the ID would also be to admit he did wrong procedurally. I bet you something of that nature is going on with the total lack of returning phone calls. You may have to go up the chain of command

This will be fun to sort

The actual ticket is evidence and the cop can't just change it after the fact based on your phone call.

Several years ago I recieved a speeding ticket on my only child's birthday. The cop inexplicably wrote the wrong month on the ticket (he wrote 4/8/XX instead of 8/8/XX).

When we went to court, the cop presented his case and orally said "On August 8th, 20XX, I observed..."

When it was my turn, I told the judge, "Your honor, I don't know if it makes any difference, but the officer wrote the wrong date on the ticket. He stopped me on my only child's birthday, and I am quite sure that was not 4/8/XX."

The judge demanded to see my part of the ticket and the officer's. The officer had, at some point after giving me my part, made the "4" into a "8" on his copy.

The judge threw out the case. The cop and his supervisor loudly protested something about administrative errors on tickets are not grounds for dismissal, but the judge told them in no uncertain terms, "But you have to tell me you made the mistake when you present your case."

Why did you do that? In Nevada that would be quite illegal.

I'm wondering what difference it makes. I would want to be sure the insurance company for both cars knew which car was involved in the accident.

Perhaps the judge would throw it out like the other fellow above.

It sounds like grounds for dismissal to me.
Call an attorney and inquire.

Cop may have done you a favor, it occasionally happens where they have to issue a ticket which they don't feel is entirely deserved, and deliberately make an error which is as good as a 'get out of jail free' card.

It's illegal to change titles and plates in Nevada? That's a new one.

Oh, titles and plates. That makes sense. You just said you swapped plates, which didn't make any sense.