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A travesty of justice!
Jan. 22nd, 2015 10:54 amThe mail recently contained a most unwelcome surprise: a violation notice (and $158 fine) from a red-light traffic camera. Frankly I'd been pretty neutral on RLCs up to now. Sure they're mainly revenue generators for municipalities and the companies who make the cameras themselves, but as long as they're ticketing people who deserve it, I'm okay with that. I'm not in the habit of running red lights, and don't much care for drivers who do, so it's all good, right? But now I may have a different tune to sing, because I don't think I deserved this violation.
The incident in question was on New Year's Eve day, around 10:30am, light traffic and clear weather conditions. We were on our way to a neat toy store we like to visit up in Apopka, and I was making a right turn. There was a turn lane, the crosswalk was clear and no pedestrians in sight. No right-turn signal, just a normal traffic light which had just turned red. Being familiar with the traffic pattern of that intersection, I knew that the next lanes to get a green would be the left-turn lanes of the cross street onto which I was turning, so I essentially had a protected right turn, and so I slowed but did not stop before making the turn--and the camera captured that.
The interesting part: Florida passed a law in 2013 to better regulate the use of RLCs, and it states the following: "A notice of violation and a traffic citation may not be issued for failure to stop at a red light if the driver is making a right-hand turn in a careful and prudent manner at an intersection where right-hand turns are permissible." The problem is, there's no clear definition of exactly what "a careful and prudent manner" means, so each municipality is free to define that. We actually had a judge somewhere in the state who started simply dismissing any and all rolling right turn violations, until our Attorney General (who is a piece of work, lemme tell ya) told him to cut that out. But on the other hand, the standard statute on traffic signals is more clear, and says drivers must stop before entering the crosswalk, and only then may proceed through to make a right turn (though almost no law-enforcement officer actually enforces the law that strictly). So I violated one but maybe not the other, and which takes precedence?
The whole thing reeks of scam, though, the more I look into it. They make it sound as scary as possible to contest, and as difficult as possible to boot. There's a form to fill out, and then it can't be mailed, it has to be delivered in person to the police department. Then you get a hearing, and if you lose you have to pay the $158 fine plus unspecified "administrative fees, up to $250", and there's even the chance it could go from a civil infraction (which doesn't add points to your driver's license and won't affect insurance rates) to a full-on traffic citation with points and insurance repercussions.
So at this point, I dunno. Do I listen to my inner voice screaming for justice and see what happens down that road? Or do I just chalk it up as a lesson learned, submit to the scam, and pay the fine because the only thing certain about contesting it is that it's a pain in the ass?
Either way, I will now consider myself an opponent of red-light cameras. FIGHT THE POWER!
The incident in question was on New Year's Eve day, around 10:30am, light traffic and clear weather conditions. We were on our way to a neat toy store we like to visit up in Apopka, and I was making a right turn. There was a turn lane, the crosswalk was clear and no pedestrians in sight. No right-turn signal, just a normal traffic light which had just turned red. Being familiar with the traffic pattern of that intersection, I knew that the next lanes to get a green would be the left-turn lanes of the cross street onto which I was turning, so I essentially had a protected right turn, and so I slowed but did not stop before making the turn--and the camera captured that.
The interesting part: Florida passed a law in 2013 to better regulate the use of RLCs, and it states the following: "A notice of violation and a traffic citation may not be issued for failure to stop at a red light if the driver is making a right-hand turn in a careful and prudent manner at an intersection where right-hand turns are permissible." The problem is, there's no clear definition of exactly what "a careful and prudent manner" means, so each municipality is free to define that. We actually had a judge somewhere in the state who started simply dismissing any and all rolling right turn violations, until our Attorney General (who is a piece of work, lemme tell ya) told him to cut that out. But on the other hand, the standard statute on traffic signals is more clear, and says drivers must stop before entering the crosswalk, and only then may proceed through to make a right turn (though almost no law-enforcement officer actually enforces the law that strictly). So I violated one but maybe not the other, and which takes precedence?
The whole thing reeks of scam, though, the more I look into it. They make it sound as scary as possible to contest, and as difficult as possible to boot. There's a form to fill out, and then it can't be mailed, it has to be delivered in person to the police department. Then you get a hearing, and if you lose you have to pay the $158 fine plus unspecified "administrative fees, up to $250", and there's even the chance it could go from a civil infraction (which doesn't add points to your driver's license and won't affect insurance rates) to a full-on traffic citation with points and insurance repercussions.
So at this point, I dunno. Do I listen to my inner voice screaming for justice and see what happens down that road? Or do I just chalk it up as a lesson learned, submit to the scam, and pay the fine because the only thing certain about contesting it is that it's a pain in the ass?
Either way, I will now consider myself an opponent of red-light cameras. FIGHT THE POWER!
