I've been caught and I am guilty of running a red light, no questions asked. The photo camera got my license plate (NC plate).

Fine = $340
option for traffic school is $40 plus the $340 fine, just a reduction of points.

What are my options? Is this worth going to court over? I'm just wondering if the court will reduce my penalty and fine, renderring traffic school a less economical solution.

The only excuse I have was that I was lost and going 20mph (thus not making it through the light in time). Not really an excuse to run a red light.

what is your expereince with this? i'm just trying to figure out whether or not i should hire a lawyer for $360 and get it all taken care of.

thanks

Eric

__________________
1995 E320 Sportline Wagon "Bernard"
black on black leather

http://i.imgur.com/BdZ7jM3.png

Bummer ..

I don't know about how California handles its traffic violations.. but in Ohio, if you get a ticket you can go to court to contest it. I had the option of going to court when i got my first traffic ticket. I went and pleaded guilty. The judge gave me the lowest possible fine + court cost. I ended up paying $82 instead of $225.

If I were you, you can see if you can go to court... if thats not a possibility... take the driver's class for the extra $40. That $40 will probably be the only way to keep your insurance rate from skyrocketing. ( I am assuing you're 24 or under?)

If you were caught on camera, the excuse that you ran the red because you were lost and driving slowly (i.e. distracted) won't play well with a judge. In California, the best way to win in traffic court is if a) you really weren't guilty and can make a strong case, or b) the issuing officer fails to show up to testify. Since you were caught on camera, neither applies. I think you'd be convicted.

If you take it to court and lose (my bet), the points will go on your record and you'll still have to pay the fine. Take the traffic school option. It keeps the points off your record, the incremental cost isn't that much, and you can get it over with in an hour or two on one of the internet traffic school sites.

You're screwed.

If you show up at court you'll probably get some sort of reduction through plea-bargaining with an overworked, very junior DA. The chances are that instead of going to the judge that first day the DA will get a continuance and you'll waste even more of your life in a courtroom for a second appearance.

Pony-up early and be done with it if your hourly rate is high compared to time + hassle + insurance points.

B

If you go to court and lose, don't you have to pay court costs?

I'd go for the extra $40 - the extra cost of that point (or maybe more) is well over $40 on your insurance.

I'd hate to be caught in that situation. I don't run red lights - I may zip through a yellow but never a red However, I can't say the same for many people around here (seems to be getting more common every day)

But if you even tried to go to court, the evidence is 100% damning, unless you can somehow prove you weren't the driver. Otherwise, it's just like having fingerprint or DNA evidence in a criminal case.

__________________
Current:
2021 Charger Scat Pack Widebody "Sinabee"
2018 Durango R/T

Previous:
1972 280SE 4.5
2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited "Hefe", 1992 Jeep Cherokee Laredo "Jeepy", 2006 Charger R/T "Hemi"
1999 Chrysler 300M - RIP @ 221k

let us talk about this....

what you may or may not know is that the yellow light timing controller is the vendor of the equipment.

seems that the equipment was sold with the vendor, a division of lockheed martin, getting a piece of the fine action.

when the equipment, using the normal yellow light dwell time, failed to produce the expected revenue[i.e., not enough cars were running the red lights], lockheed martin and their contractors[bevhills, west la, tempe, az et alia] it is a matter of record that the yellow light dwell time was reduced.

when even that didn't produce enough revenue for lockheed martin, they coerced the municpalities to change the rules. for instance, with the reduced dwell time yellow, if you were in the intersection when it went red, you were photoed and ticketed.

and god help you if you were from out of state. in the early days of this hardware, few attorneys knew enough to defend you. that has changed.

as the result of litigation, it is known now how the cameras have been manipulated to generate revenues, both for the municipalities and also for the vendors of the hardware.

today, attorneys in la should know how to contest your ticket. if you cannot find one, join the national motorist association.

the trap that got me in the first month of its implementation, and i don't live in la, was on olympic. going eastbound from avenue of the stars to spaulding. at that time, the eastbound route was unmarked and it is a downhill stretch. with someone on your ass, with a yellow, do you hit the brakes or go through the yellow.

entering the intersection of the yellow, if the light goes red while you are in the intersection will get you a citation.

not cricket.

i could continue.

but, i think you should figure out how to contest the ticket.

i did the defensive driving. hated it, but loved it in the sense that as a resident of texas, the california defensive driving course really tested you on california law and safe driving practices. whereas the texas defensive driving course only wants to assure itself that you are present and accounted for.

at the end of the day, it is cheaper to pay the fine, take dd course and move on...but, if you have daddy warbucks[dick cheney] on your side, FIGHT THE BASTARDS. AND GET A GOOD, KNOWLEDGEABLE ATTORNEY. NMA WILL HELP YOU THERE.

all the best.

except he was only doing thirty. no excuse to run that light, no matter how short the yellow.

now if he were doing 50 that might be something else.

__________________
'O=00=O'
bmw 2002.
long live the legend

Man....California is expensive

Unreal... I thought NY was bad.


Out of curiousity if you got caught by a camera I thought you don't get points on your license just the fine because the camera can't tell who was driving? Am I wrong?

I have a ticket in front of me right now. My daughter was caught going thru a red in Beverly Hills.

The fine is $340 and you can go to traffic school to remove the point from your insurance. It appears that they don't really care who is driving as long as they get the fine. The ticket was sent to me, the registered owner.

My daughter claims she was well into the intersection when it turned red and that is when she noticed the flash.

The ticket has 4 photos on it. The first photo shows the intersection head on and a small inset of a computer screen. My daughter is about a foot BEHIND the crosswalk. Red light is clocked at .3 seconds in the red already. My policeman brother-in-law says the system is infallible because the camera/flash is only energized when the light is red. It also shows the duration of the yellow as 3.9 secs. As mentioned above this is where there is potential cheating. They can shorten the yellow to catch more people in the red. The 3.9 secs is adequate and legal. The second photo shows her 2/3rds thru the intersection. Elasped time of red, 1.7 secs, vehicle speed, 40mph, elasped time from first photo, 1.34 secs. Third photo, from the rear shows her again behind the crosswalk. Fourth photo is a blowup of the driver.

Not much to complain about. I just have to keep my nose clean now for the next 18 months.

glenmore
1991 300CE
1990 LS400

That's a good indicator of the economic differences between the West coast and the East coast. In North Carolina it just $50 and it is charged as a civil penalty. There is no trial and a officer decides from the photos who is guilty or not. Also no points are charged to your driving record and your insurance is not affected. You are allowed to appeal the fine, but you must pay it first. If you prove your innocence then you will get a refund. This was to supposed to decrease traffic accidents at the posted intersections. Local news occasionally resports the income generated by the redlight photos but never if accidents have been reduced as a result.

__________________
Scott Diener
89 300E
93 300E
92 Volvo 740 Wagon aka "Mutt mover"

What next?

William Rogers.........

we have red light runners everywhere in southern california. even with lights that have long yellows.

whenever i am turning left i have to wait until the light is red before i can even move. i will already be in the intersection, but so many people are trying to beat the yellow that its impossible to actually run left on a busy intersection.

__________________
'O=00=O'
bmw 2002.
long live the legend

If you go to court you can still do the traffic school even if they dont reduce anything. Like, go in argue it, then they'll say yay or nay and then you do whatever you wanted to.