I was driving home on Monday, August 31, 2009 from Columbia, Maryland. As I exited I295 at the Pennsylvania Avenue exit, I noticed there was a sign like the one below (a picture was included in the letter) as I rounded the exit and filed into traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue. There is a crosswalk (a small, but important crosswalk) that crosses the off ramp of that exit, and the sign (a pedestrian crosswalk sign) notifies traffic that there might just be a pedestrian there at anytime, so we as drivers must be careful not to hit anyone.
I took my usual route home, stopping at the traffic light at the corner of Pennsylvania and Minnesota Avenues Southeast before making a right turn to go southbound on Minnesota Ave. When I made this turn it was about 7:00 p.m., not entirely dark but the light was leaving. There was a car with Virginia tags directly in front of me who made the same turn (not even) five seconds before me. I followed him, not speeding, as I would on any other day and I was immediately stopped at the traffic light on 23rd Street Southeast by a police officer who made a U-turn to pull me over. I know the officer had to make a U-turn because there was no one behind me as I turned onto Minnesota Ave.
I was completely surprised; I had never been pulled over in D.C. before. I must admit, the reputation of D.C. police officers precedes them, and that wasn’t a good thing for me. It scared me, and I didn’t know what to do to avoid being harshly treated, especially because I was alone, tired from the day, and unaware of what I did to get pulled over. I figured whatever I did the car in front of me must have done as well, but he had not been pulled over. The officer immediately flashed the bright light on me. I reached in my purse and grabbed my wallet; I was nervous and flustered. My sunroof was open and I heard the officer over the loud speaker, but didn’t understand what he said, so I turned the radio completely off and sat still. The officer repeated, “Ma’am, pull your car down.” That made me even more nervous because I had no idea what that meant. I continued to sit there, foot on the brake, hands on my wallet, and eyes on the rear view in scared frustration. He repeated, and too scared to stick my head out the window, I said through the sunroof, “I don’t know what that means.” I wasn’t being flippant; I really didn’t know. When he repeated the phrase a third time, I was getting nervous and angry because I thought he would take my actions as intentional disrespect. I took a couple of breaths and realized that he meant “move up,” which wasn’t what he said, so I moved through the light and pulled up to the curb by the hydrant in front of the church on 23rd and Minnesota.
When the officer approached my car I gave him my license and registration. He asked for proof of insurance, and I gave him that as well before asking, “Can I ask what I did wrong?” He asked me if I saw “that man in the crosswalk. You were supposed to stop” I said, “No,” to which he responded, “That’s even worse,” and walked away with my information. I know he was frustrated with me, primarily because I didn’t understand his directions to “pull down my car,” but also because I asked what I had done wrong. It was written all over his face when he took my information. I turned the car off after he walked away to write the ticket. I tried to calm down and remember seeing someone in front of my car or in the crosswalk that I had endangered. What I did remember was seeing a flash of blue in my peripheral (through the driver’s side window). It could have been a blue shirt, but I’m not sure.
While the officer was writing my ticket, I noticed several people crossing the street all over the place right in front of where I was pulled over. I wasn’t surprised by what I saw; people are always in the street in this area – my neighborhood. They don’t typically use crosswalks, nor do they have any concern for their own lives as they walk out into the street right in front of cars. All this considered you can imagine my surprise when I was handed a $250 citation for “failing to yield for a pedestrian in the crosswalk,” and told to “drive safely.”
There are a few things that could have been considered but weren’t:
The turn onto Minnesota Ave takes cars around a small, two-lane curve. To the left of the left lane, there is an island that separates the lanes of the cars going eastbound from the cars going westbound. At the end of the island there is a traffic sign. A crosswalk runs in front of that island across both the westbound and eastbound lanes. Not even 50 feet after eastbound traffic crosses that crosswalk there is another crosswalk that does the same. Neither of these crosswalks is marked with a pedestrian crosswalk sign. The man who was allegedly in the crosswalk (because I can never be sure I saw him, just the blur of a blue shirt) had to be standing in the middle of the crosswalk, hidden behind that sign at the end of the island (that faces the westbound lanes and still is not a pedestrian crosswalk sign) because there was no way he was in my line of sight in front of my car. I would have hit him, but before that, the car in front of me would have hit him.
I have never been pulled over in the two years I have lived in D.C. My record is clean, and if my Maryland driving record was checked, I have only received one citation five years ago. It was also obvious that I was puzzled by being pulled over.
Pedestrians don’t follow any traffic laws in this area. They do as they please all the time with no consequences. As previously stated, people are always in the street in Anacostia. Always. They often have no regard for anyone’s safety, including their own, because they continue their often inconsiderate behavior at night, when visibility is low. I was traveling home at twilight, so even though it wasn’t quite dark, if a man was in the middle of the street, he would have been harder to spot.
I am only asking that I receive fair consideration. A $250 citation for a first offense in a neighborhood notorious for pedestrians doing as they please is not fair consideration. I feel I was the victim of an officer’s frustration and pressure to uphold law…at the end of the month.
I'm no Matlock, but I think it's pretty good. So did "mail-in adjudication"; they dropped the charges! :-)
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