Red Light Camera Ticket

Red Light Camera Ticket

Hey. Today as I was entering the park on park presidio leading into the turns I passed the red light intersection on fulton and the camera went off. I was in the far left lane, with my visor down I believe because I always leave it down to put my sunshade back on when I park. If it helps at all also, I have dark tinted windows on the front of my car which may have helped to blur the pic of me driving. I saw the yellow but I couldn't really slow down in time so I had to go through it but I've checked out ticketassassin.com and I understand it a little better and see that I have a fairly good chance of avoiding this ticket if my face was blurred or for other reasons. However, I haven't recieved the ticket yet (of course because I just got photographed today) and I don't know how I would approach writing in to fight my ticket. I was wondering if anyone could help give me an idea of how I should approach this ticket if I do get a notice in the mail saying that I ran the red. Should I do trial by written declaration or should I argue something else (i.e.-the light was still yellow as I went through the intersection, or have my mom go in since the car is probably under her name and say that she doesn't know who the driver is). Also, I have heard some people say that they waited till the last few days before their court trial date to mail in the trial by written dec, should I do this too or not because there is no direct officer I will be going through? Here is the link to the site and the red light discussion section on ticketassassin.com
http://www.ticketassassin.com/rlt.html
Thank you all for any help or feedback you might have, I really appreciate it in my time of confusion.

I'm not real familiar with the laws from where you are from, but I figured I would try to give you some info on the defenses you said you might try. If the car is registered in your mom's name, the citation will be sent to her. It is then her responsibility to prove who the driver is in the photo, if it is not her. I'm not sure on your laws, but I would think by her saying that she doesn't know who the driver is, she would get stuck paying the cost, since in a lot of states, the registered owner is responsible for the vehicle and its driver's. I would think that a photo of the license plate would also be taken, since that is how they find out who the owner is. Unless you want to have her end up having to pay the ticket, having your mom say she doesn't know who the driver is might not be the way to go. Also, in PA, the laws says that you must slow down and start to stop, when the light turns yellow. Accelerating through a yellow is actually an offense in PA, so that defense might not work for you. I would think that the only way for you to beat the ticket would be to prove that the machine was not working properly. Good luck!

Thanks for the reply bigdaddyk, yeah I had a feeling the whole telling my mom to go do my work for me thing was wrong too. I read on the ticketassassin site they said that if she went to go tell the dmv that they would just intimidate her into ratting me out or they would just make her go to court in person where they would try to scare her again into telling them it was me. What I'm hoping on is that they didn't get a clear shot of my face because of my tinted windows, the overcast/foggy conditions there were today and because my window visor was down hopefully covering part of my face. Thanks again for the reply bigdaddyk. Anyone else know anything about these red light cameras?

I have heard that a judge had dismissed all red light camera tickets. The reason was the conflict of interest on the camera installer part, since they get a cut for every fine collected. Also somewhere in the east part of the country, there's ruling against the camera operations for they set the yellow shorter than before to catch more runners.

If you could prove that the timing with that camera was different than no camera, you might have a case. Also, they do have to identify the vehicle as well as the driver. You might be in luck.

However, it may not be a good thing for you to get away with this. The statistics had shown that for every ticketed offence, there were 2,000 un-ticketed ones. Unless you learn your lessons, you will probably do it again. The next time might not be as lucky. I don't mean just a ticket. You could be involved in a horrific accident. No one, not mom, not chat room, not even ticketassassin could help you then.

We are all human. We all make mistakes. The important thing is to learn from the mistakes, such as not to speed toward the yellow. I didn't see your remorse in your messages. All I saw was that you only concerned about the ticket. I'm just trying to help you to see that there's much bigger thing than the mere ticket. If you realized that, it might save your or/and someone else's life in the future.

I wish you the best!

WOW. Thanks dacorollafan. That was really helpful, I don't feel so confused anymore, thank you. Thanks for also helping me realize about the ticketed offenses as opposed to unticketed offenses, it made me see that I have to be more careful from now on and watch out more. This may sound cheesy but this post has helped me a lot, not only with the confusion of the red light camera business but I think it will help me to become a safer driver thanks to your warning and advice dacorollafan. I really appreciate it.