Originally Posted by FairladyZTT

This is what you do... No worries...

You need to just go to court without a lawyer. Just so you can see how the cop is going to handle the situation. Do not continue the case.

You go in front of the judge and plead "Not Guilty". See what the officer has to say. He may tell the judge that nothing appeared to be reckless but that he needed to issue a ticket.

You explain your story to the judge. Tell him that you were not driving wrecklessly, that you were riding and an unknown factor came into play. Thus causing the accident that resulted in no other losses or injuries other than your own.

See how the judge takes it. He very well may just dismiss the case or give you a lesser charge.

"IF", however the cop tries to throw you under the bus and/or the judge is not sympothetic to you plea of innocence. Then you simply leave the courtroom. Go to the clerk of court. Ask for an appeal.

Once you have your appeal date. You can go obtain a lawyer. At this point you will be able to tell the lawyer exactly what the cop said in court and the lawyer will be able to put together the best defense possible.

Also... pictures may help if you can visually see any of the contributing factors that caused the accident.

I would hate for you to pay $500 - $1000 for a lawyer to go to trial and the judge throw it out before the lawyer says 2 words.

edit:
try not to be too nervous. The judge makes the final decision. But most of them are human and will listen to what you have to say. Just explain it to him like you would anybody. He deals with it everyday. He will take away from the story what he needs to make his ruling.