[dacron2]

Hello,
Last winter I was in a car accident in an intersection of two state roads. The road conditions were very snowy and icy, with poor visibility, and the posted speed limit was 55 mph. I was going down the road at 40mph, and when I saw the sign for "Stop Ahead" I began braking. My anti-lock brakes kicked in but I slid through the intersection, and I was hit by a car coming from the intersecting road.

I was cited by the sheriff for "driving too fast for conditions" and I had to go to court to pay the ticket. I plead guilty to the ticket, because pleading not guilty would have meant additional court appearances and I would have been required to hire a lawyer, which would have cost more than the ticket.

From reading the gouges posted on this website, I am now very worried this is going to adversely affect my chances of getting hired on at a regional airline. I have no additional traffic violations other than this accident (I have never even been cited for speeding). My question is this: Is this ticket that I plead guilty to going to prevent me from getting hired? Is there anything I can do to fix this? How should I handle this issue in a job interview?

Thank you.

[Aviation Interview Prep]

I have discussed your situation with a few carriers on your behalf and have received a mixed answer. Truthfully I don’t know. I personally think that one motor vehicle incident should disqualify you but after the Colgan crash as you know carriers are getting much stricter with failures and moving violation both reported and unreported. The consensus was you need to disclose obviously and let them decided if they want to offer you an interview. Two carriers I spoke with said if they had hired you and it came back in the driving record and hadn’t been disclosed, it would be grounds for immediate dismissal regardless of the severity of the moving violation.

My advice is to keep on building up time. If you truly want to fly and you can explain it away in an interview you should be in good shape. You just need to get the first job and then it is usually water under the bridge.

Best of luck,

Andrew
www.AviationInterviewPrep.com