Failure to maintain control

Wattie411

Member
Back in the beginning of 2014 I was in a single vehicle accident on I-75. I fell asleep as it had been a rough week working construction and as I was driving my company pickup I fell asleep. Well the jerk officer who responded wrote it up as my fault and cited me for Failure to MAintain control if the pickup. Due to personal issues that year I wasn't able to make it to court. Now I have this on my license. What Im wondering is, is this the same as careless or reckless driving? How bad does this hurt my driving record. Also I was in a accident last December where a guy was driving the wrong way on a divided highway at 830 at night. He was arrested and his insurance played for my vehicle and med bills. That accident shows up on my mvr the same as the one I was faulted for. Is there anything I can do to clear it or make sure potential companies can see the difference? Thank you all
 
Your MVR only shows you were involved. It doesn't give any details about the incident. That will be up to you to explain. The falling asleep deal? No, it's not careless or wreckless driving. It is exactly what it says. If you were cited for either wreckless or careless around where I live you would have been arrested.

BTW, I REALLY HOPE you learned your lesson about driving sleepy!! Not rubbing it in, I just take that very serious and don't want you on the road with me or my loved ones driving drowsy!
 
Back in the beginning of 2014 I was in a single vehicle accident on I-75. I fell asleep as it had been a rough week working construction and as I was driving my company pickup I fell asleep. Well the jerk officer who responded wrote it up as my fault and cited me for Failure to MAintain control if the pickup. Due to personal issues that year I wasn't able to make it to court. Now I have this on my license. What Im wondering is, is this the same as careless or reckless driving? How bad does this hurt my driving record. Also I was in a accident last December where a guy was driving the wrong way on a divided highway at 830 at night. He was arrested and his insurance played for my vehicle and med bills. That accident shows up on my mvr the same as the one I was faulted for. Is there anything I can do to clear it or make sure potential companies can see the difference? Thank you all
from what i am familiar with, accidents cannot be taken off the DMV until such a time, they fall off by age, according to your state.

so if in your state, it takes 3 years, then they are there to stay...3 years...

same for 5 years..

however, ANY company, CAN ORDER UP a LIFETIME DMV on you.

so when filling out job applications, they may ask, "any accidents in the past 5 years>..??

your state may have to cut off point of 3....

my state has a 3 year cut off time...and that's all I GO BACK........

I DO NOT volunteer MORE THAN my state provides me.....

and if you ever mention you fell asleep at the wheel, to a trucking company, you may have sealed your fate in getting a job. in fact, one company i applied to, A.Duie Pyle, specified at one time on thier applications...."any night time driving experience.?"

if i had said no...then NO job.........

(i was applying for linehaul.......night time work)...

BUT at nearly any company, you WILL BE on a 24 hour clock.....so beware...
 
Unless you were doing something stupid like trying to drive from Chicago to California non-stop when you fell asleep (which you won't be doing in a truck), you're not cut out for trucking.

You didn't explain the circumstances. You said "after a hard week working construction" and "company truck".

If your employer had you working on a jobsite like 500+ miles from home and you began this trip home after working a long shift on a Friday or something, that's still unacceptable though way more understandable than if you fell asleep while on your daily 30 mile commute.

If it's the latter type of case and you fell asleep on a relatively short trip home, that's going to be very hard to explain.



"Failure to maintain control" is the universal citation cops give for any crash unless they find other contributing factors. Whether you fell asleep or lost control on ice, it's the same ticket. And no, it's not the same as reckless driving.

It's seen kind of as a combination of negligence and unintentional human error.

Reckless driving is seen almost as bad as drunk driving because it's 100% intentional.


The wrong way driver incident should not negatively affect you because you were not at fault, however you will have to explain it on job applications and to the recruiters as long as it's still showing up on your MVR.
 
i should also say, sometimes a police report is required by some employers, which may have the details of a crash/DMV report.

many, many years ago, i had a fender-bender in my car, during the winter months. on a job application of course then, i had to list the accident. employer told me to fax or mail to them a copy of the police report.

cost back then for copies, was a mere 10¢ per copy.

just sayin'...be prepared, in fact, try and get all police report copies now, to save yourself some headaches.....BUT DO NOT send them, unless they ask you.
 
Is there anything I can do to clear it or make sure potential companies can see the difference?
Certainly is. I was in a similar situation a few years back. Luckily for me I was already working for a company when the incident happened. They knew the accident was not my fault and that the other party was looking for a bogus claim. In the "incident" my cdl vehicle was untouched. At the time I did not think they would try to pend their drag racing (where they left an over 250ft skid mark) accident on me. I continued on my route only to get a call from dispatch saying motorist are claiming you caused an accident.

They had called the police and gave them thier "story". The issuing cop wrote on his report that I failed to yield right of way. But thankfully I was not given a ticked and ther other party never tried to sue for damages. I tried everything I could think of to get the accident removed of my records.

After several phone calls emails and what not to DMV local and state, they simply told me the fact of the matter. And that is that there's no way to get that report off your record UNLESS the issuing officer amends it to say no you were not involved in the accident (as I tried to get them to do) or in your case to "sweeten" your report a bit so future employers would be more willing to hire you .( But to get it removed is really very hard to do.)

I contacted the issuing officer by phone but only got his supervisor. Spoke with him at length about the incident and he said according to the law, his officer wrote the report up correctly. I even looked up the code and showed them where it said you lose any right of way when speeding. But the day sergeant said yeah but you still can't turn in front of them.

Our company supervisor said they heard of a similar case in court where the driver got off because though they also turned in front of a speeding vehicle, that vehicle was so far away that under normal speeds, which the other party in court admitted to, there would not have been an accident.

In the end I have kept all emails and pictures and correspondence that showed I took all necessary precautions to avoid that incident and it would behoove you if you could do the same. Good luck!!
 

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