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Old 05-15-2009, 08:12 PM
Stoney Stoney is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 176
Red light camera photo showed the red Light was not working

I got a Red Light camera ticket that CLEARLY showed that the Traffic Light over the center of the intersection was not working but they sent me the summons anyway!

I returned it noting that I could not be held liable when the Traffic Control device was CLARLY not in operation...

They returned it saying "The Adjudication of the Violation is not within our jurisdiction. Pay the Fine." I took the summons to the nearest traffic court, requested a hearing, presented both the photo and a copy of the Dept of Traffic Non Working Signal Complaint and Repair order I got from the DOT after making a written request under NY FOI law and they wiped it. The hearing officer took a look at the date/time of the Complaint made by another driver that the light was not working, noted it was before the time stamp on the photo and wiped the violation and actually apologised for the error.

Sure it cost time but it was $50 +3 points on an already clean record.

I have had friends get tickets that did not display their car but the partially obscured plates had SOME of the numbers/letters that were on their plate. The funny one was for a VW Bug that had the first 3 letters (GIN) of my friend Gino's Ford F-350 Super Duty Dualie Pickup (GINOSTRK)-now just how can you mix up a VW Bug and a Ford F-350 Super Duty Dualie?

Simple - they do not even try to check the vehicle description, they use a computer program to scan the DMV Plate file and send tickets to ALL the matching or partial matching plates and see who pays!

But if you want to get away with illegally parking your Motorcycle or Scooter in NYC just use Velcro to mount the plate and when you illegally park just take the plate with you! Traffic Enforcement agents do not even try to write up the vehicle based on the Registration (displayed on the forks or frame) or the Inspection Sticker because they would have to get out of the car or actually bend over and look for it! Today I did a random survey of the 45 Cycles and Scooters parked in Batery Park City between 1st Place and 5th Place. 42 of the 45 had the plates removed and were illegally parked in a crosswalk or blocking a curb cut but not one had a ticket on it!
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