There are all sorts of reasons why car accidents happen — careless drivers, idiots who think they can somehow outsmart the laws of physics and boundaries of reality — so when a man had a heart attack behind the wheel and crashed, he probably figured that was a good enough excuse when cops showed up. You probably know where this is going.

According to the Asbury Park Press, a 20-year-old New Jersey man suffered a heart attack while driving, which led to a minor traffic accident. Just about a week afterward, he was surprised to find three traffic tickets waiting in the mail.

Okay, so he and his family thought a doctor’s note would help his case when he went to the local court to fight the tickets.

“Please forgive [the man’s] tickets due to his unfortunate experience of having a heart attack seconds prior to his car accident,” stated the note from his doctor.

While two tickets were dismissed, a third was only downgraded to a $133 fine, one for obstructing the passage of vehicles. He paid the fine after having to plead guilty, but now he and his family are wondering why all three tickets were written in the first place, and then weren’t tossed.

“What’s the charge? Criminal cardiac arrest?” his father said.

The man doesn’t remember the accident, where his car hit another at a traffic light. But he’s been told that afterward, he got out of the car, walked toward the front of it, threw up and collapsed. Medical personnel arrived on the scene and began CPR before he was taken to the hospital in an ambulance.

Although a police sergeant on the scene had administered CPR, he wasn’t the one who issued the tickets — those were written by another officer later, says the family. They arrived on the same day a defibrillator was implanted in the man’s chest.

20-year-old has heart attack behind the wheel, gets 3 tickets in Spring Lake Heights [Asbury Park Press]

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