ARVADA, Colo. — A trip to the car wash turned into a ticketing nightmare this summer for a woman from Arvada.
Nobody disputes that Arlene Branham, 78, hit a Colorado State Patrol trooper’s car. Nobody disputes it was an accident, either.
But after CSP wrote Branham a ticket for the crash, which caused a minimal (and disputed) amount of damage, she reached out to Steve On Your Side to ask two questions:
- Is this worthy of a ticket?
- Does CSP have jurisdiction to write one?
On the afternoon of July 26, Branham rolled her Honda HR-V into Cobblestone Car Wash, off Wadsworth Boulevard and West 66th Avenue in Arvada. She said it was her first trip to the car wash, as her late husband usually handled that errand.
Not only was Branham unfamiliar with the protocol, but she also missed a sign with important instructions: to put her car into neutral as she entered the drive-thru.
“When you've not done anything like that, you're just kind of apprehensive,” she said. “All of a sudden, just a short distance in, the car stopped. Well, it stopped because I hit the guy in front of me.”
Surveillance video shows the moment Branham’s car hits – mostly bumps into – the car in front of her in the wash. Turns out, the vehicle belonged to a Colorado state trooper.
Nobody got hurt.
Body camera video shows investigators discussing what happened after. While the incident happened in Arvada, both Branham and CSP said Arvada Police never responded. But CSP did respond, sending additional troopers to investigate.
Branham ended up with a ticket for careless driving, costing her $169, and a few points against her license.
“I just felt like it wasn't right that they gave me the ticket,” she said. “I mean, there was no damage. I had a tiny, tiny little place where it took the paint off my car, and I could not really see any damage to his car. Nobody was hurt. I mean, we weren't even probably going a half a mile an hour, and so I just thought it was just wrong.”
“It looked like they did find very minor damage on the bumper of both vehicles,” said Sergeant Patrick Rice, speaking on behalf of Colorado State Patrol.
Rice helped answer several questions posed by Branham and the Steve On Your Side team.
This case happened at a car wash in Arvada. Does CSP, known for patrolling state roads and highways, have jurisdiction on private property?
Rice: “We turn investigations over to local agencies when they have a traffic unit or are able to enforce those traffic crashes. But sometimes they just get busy, and the communication might get lost, who knows from situation to situation. But if the local agency is not able to handle something on their private property or even on the public roadways, sometimes we'll pick those up for them.”
Considering the minimal (and disputed) damage, does CSP have any discretion about whether to write a ticket?
Rice: “Troopers most of the time have complete discretion on a regular traffic stop. But when we are involved in investigating a traffic collision, we tend to pull that discretion back because now there's money involved and there's people that need [to be] compensated.
How frequently does CSP write tickets for crashes on private property?
Rice: “In 2022, the State Patrol wrote 298 private property tickets. We wrote over 300 in 2023 and we've written 198 so far this year."
CSP said the agency will write tickets for the following violations on private property:
- Unsafe backing
- Careless driving
- Reckless driving
- Driving under the influence
Was a ticket necessary in Arlene’s case?
Rice: “I mean, there's always discretion. No matter what, the officer always has discretion, but the standard policy or procedure for the State Patrol and for troopers is if it's a crash, and we can prove that there was a law violation, then we're going to write that ticket.”
Branham remains frustrated by the whole ordeal. She can’t believe that her first trip to a car wash could go so wrong.
“That was an all-new experience and a horrible one,” she said. “I just didn't see that it was worth the $169 worth and points [against my license].”