Legal under interpretation, not regulation.
Many years ago one of my trainees was rushing to get a load picked up on time and then into one of our drop lots for his dot break. There was construction on the road and he needed to turn into a adjacent customer and cut across their lot, but signage was poor/non-existent. He got to our driveway and couldn’t make the turn. He continued up the road until he found a lot to get turned around in. As he was finishing his turn back onto the road he was rear ended. The officer doing the accident investigation cited him for being outside the HOS, despite the fact that he had 3 minutes left on his 14 when the incident occurred and he was 1/2 mile from our lot. The court upheld the HOS violation, which made the accident entirely his fault.
In short the OPs actions were legal until the lawyers get involved. Then he’s up a smelly creek without a paddle.
To be clear, I’m not talking about what is right, just what is.
