[sethypooh21]

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Friend gets involved in fender bender on snowy mountain road. Possibly significant property damage but no one is hurt. Chain or snow tire restrictions are in effect, and friend has summer tires on. Police cite friend for failing to heed tire restrictions while filling out report.

Does this citing have any bearing on insurance claim/liability?

Other driver wasn't cited but didn't have proper tires either. Friend thinks this is because other driver was determined not to be "at fault". Does this have any bearing on anything.



this is probably like asking your ophthalmologist about your heart murmur.

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The insurance claim question is highly dependent on the specifics of the policy, so I won't even get into that...

As for a civil action between the drivers, the fact that neither car had chains/studs will come into evidence, but the fact of the citation likely will not (or will be subject to a limiting instruction),* as it's essentially multi-layered hearsay unless the cop who wrote the ticket actually saw the accident. The crime/violation would have to be much more severe to have sort of preclusive effect as a matter of law.

* This varies widely from state to state - different states have very different rules for the admissibility of 'traffic court' type stuff. Some places it's always admissible, in others it is never admissible, and some places it depends.