Yes, the LEO was nice from the start – even told him “Nice truck, is this yours?” – to which Marcos didn’t reply.
Marcos starts in arguing with the trooper. Dumb opening move. Cab is disorganized and the sunshade is half down which the trooper is trying to wrangle with while holding paperwork and balancing on the step. Clean your cab up a bit, offer to remove the sunshade or roll it up, and start explaining that the pickup moved over in front of you and you were trying to safely re-establish a safer following distance when the trooper lit you up.
Doesn’t know what he’s hauling and has been driving 30 years?
That’s your first and last chance to give a good impression and plead your case right there – before the trooper goes back to the cruiser. That’s when you politely explain what happened – and – ask the trooper – “If you’re going to issue me a warning, can you please just write the ticket, because for a CDL holder the warning is worse than the ticket”
Then you can happily trot off to the attorney with your dash cam and fight it in court. In which case, the dash cam shows that Marcos had 15-20 seconds to adjust his speed and re-establish a safer following distance.
The right attitude can go a long way.
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