Always fight it , at least they will probably cut it down by half. Just express your sincere apology and don't try to lie about things or claim things about the officer. Just say you recognize what you did was wrong and say like I was listening to some music and got distracted or something and there was light traffic around at the time. If you don't have much of a driving record, tell them you have had no tickets in a very long time and it wont happen again and you are truly sorry. Explain that you have a financial hardship (even if you dont) at the moment (have a lot of bills to pay or something), and if they could at least cut the ticket in half that would help. 9 x out of 10 they still find you at fault anyway but if you explain all this they will usually cut it in half for you ....or close to it. You wont get it thrown out but will save money and have extra time to pay for it.

THe officer not showing up thing doesn't work any longer thanks to the pandemic . Now they do a lot of hearings Virtually and you have no choice but to come do the online virtual hearing or you lose and pay in full. About the best that usually happens is they cut the price of the ticket down in half or so, but they still find you at fault.