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sappatoti -> RE: Red Light Cam Ticketed!! SHIT (6/29/2010 7:12:30 AM)
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I have no problems with camera-based tickets through the mail. Here in Florida there's no difference between them and those issued by law enforcement that might happen to be on scene to witness the traffic infraction. Either way the infraction was witnessed, whether by camera (with the footage most likely reviewed by a human) or live by a cop, it's a judgement call as to the actual running of the red light.
In your sister's case, did she come to a full and complete stop, with wheels not moving at all for those full 10 seconds, or was the car creeping along, even at a snail's pace? Did she make the turn with no traffic coming or did she make the turn by trying to sneak into an apparent opening between two cars?
Automated camera systems are programmed with arbitrary tolerances that, perhaps, your sister tripped. Had a cop been on scene, he or she might have not been so tight-assed about it and let your sister's actions slide, but then again, maybe not.
No metro area can afford to have a human cop sitting at all intersections controlling red light runners all of the time. Yet, something must be done to curb those infractions, for in some metro areas red light running is getting out of control. Just this morning, while reporting about the passage of the new law here in Florida making such cameras legal, the television reporter counted no fewer than 100 cars running the red lights at the intersection she was stationed in a two hour period... which is typical for intersections in the Orlando metro area (4-way intersection with six lanes running north/south and eight lanes running east/west).
Yes there will be legal challenges and cries of invasions of privacy that come with these cameras. Boo-hoo. There have been legal challenges and cries of invasions of privacy when cops pull people over for running red lights. What's the difference?
Red light cameras are safer for law enforcement, at least here in Florida. In the past three days six officers have been shot -- one killed -- as they've tried to carry out routine traffic stops. One of those incidents was pulling over a man on a bicycle and he mowed down two officers with a .45 caliber pistol at point blank range (they're recovering) he had hiding in his shirt. Traffic stops have become shooting galleries of late, with the cops being the targets. So, as a cop, would you want to pull someone over for running a red light, only to be shot down?
Like it or not, red light cameras (and toll-booth cameras, for that matter) are becoming the norm for catching routine traffic infractions. Those tickets issued can be fought in court just like the officer-issued ones.
So, PA, if your sister feels she didn't deserve the ticket, she needs to fight it by whatever avenues are open to her in her area.
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