are Bald Tires Faulty equipment?

[justaguy]

I was involved in a fender bender shortly ago. The roads were wet and as I was changing lanes, traffic slowed. I slammed the brakes, but slid into the guy in front of me. No one was hurt, but I was issued a ticket for "failure to use due care and failure to reduce speed for traffic congestion ahead to avoid collision."
At the time I didn't notice it, but looking at my tires now, I see they are almost bald. Can that be construed as faulty equipment? And if so, should I plea not guilty because of that? I was not issued a citation for faulty equipment, but I think that's waht it is. Do I have a leg to stand on?
thanks

 

[dee_dub]

Bald tires can be faulty equipment, but you probably don't want to volunteer that information to the court. Maybe you failed to use due care anyways. It doesn't excuse you if you were following to close, and it might just add another charge.

 

[justaguy]

re:bald tires

Thanks for that info.
But, does one excuse the other? Even if I get charged for the bald tires, isn't that better than getting points taken off my license? And, no, I cannot go to driving school. I attended driving school within the last 12 months. (Bad decision and an illegal left turn a while back - NOT another fender bender.)
thanks

 

[dee_dub]

Bringing up the state of your tires may not save you. You can try it, but simply saying "my tires were bald" is not a defence in and of itself. You'd need to show something like that the reason you hit the driver ahead was that your tires were bald. Presumably you'd need to show that, had your tires not been bald, you would not have slid and would have stopped in time. I don't know whether you can prove that. I can envision you might get dinged with both your current charge of failure to use due care, and a new charge of faulty equipment.

 

[Duranie]

You have the responsibility of having safe tires on your car. It is wear and tear. Also you still are responsible for not having control of your car. You could have been trying too fast for the conditions. If your tirea were bald because you have not replaced them in a while then I don't see how that can possibly help you. That is failing to maintain your car.

 

[justaguy]

all right. I guess that answers that. thanks folks