Red Light Camera Ticket - Should I Fight It?

[KizzyMan]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

Following up on a post I made about 10 days ago, I received a red light camera ticket in the mail today. The photo and video does show my front tires just behind the first crosswalk line when the light changed to red. According to the ticket, the light was red for 0.32 seconds before I crossed the stop line.

So I guess my question is, what now? Should I try to fight it, and on what basis? The pictures are clear, and the face in the photo is obviously me.

Does perhaps the fact that I was only late by 0.32 seconds make me a candidate to have the fine reduced?

The ticket says the light was yellow for 3.9 seconds. According to the online video, which is 30fps, the light was yellow for at least 3.63 seconds (109 frames / 30 fps), but it could easily have been longer, as the video starts when the light is already yellow, so there is a good possibility there are some additional yellow frames before. I guess I'd have to do discovery to find that out for sure? In any case, even assuming the very previous frame showed a green light, and the light was only yellow for a total of 3.63 seconds, would it justify my being 0.32 seconds late, since 3.63 + 0.32 > 3.9 seconds?

If I don't fight the ticket, I think it would be wise to at least try and have the fine reduced. How do I go about this? Would I need to set an arraignment in front of a judge, plead guilty, and then ask for a reduction due to financial hardship? Or would I have to do this at trial?

 

[Maestro64]

Well the obvious thing is you crossed on red

However do the math, What was your speed?

Here is rule of thumb numbers for every 1MPH of speed you cover 1.47 ft. If you take the time they say it was red now you can figure out how much distance you could have traveled in .32 secs which I would bet it is more then the distance your tires were away from the line. They could have shorted it on you. Look at the distance your car was from the line and they are suppose to snap the picture exactly when it turned red and only issue the ticket if you proceed threw the red light. Does the picture show you in the intersection on red of does it stop at the line.

Just an example, if you were going 10MPH you would cover 14.7 feet in one sec in the case of the light being red for .32 sec you could have covered 4.7 feet however the picture showed you only being 2 ft from the line, guess what it snapped the picture too early since in .32 seconds you would have been in the middle of the cross walk. I would bet you were going more than 10MPH and the distance you would have covered in .32 sec would have put the car more like 10 to 20 feet from the cross walk when the camera snapped the picture when the light turned red.


The other thing to look at is for that intersection is 3.9 second within the allowable standard. Some RLC companies have shorten the yellow times:

The Red Light Running Crisis: Is it Intentional? Executive Summary

You need to figure out was everything correct or was something not adding up. You can not argue with the math.

Are you sure the video is running at 30fps many time it recorded at 24fps.

 

[JIMinCA]

There are lots of good TLC defenses. Home - Fighting Red Light Camera Tickets and Help! I Got a Ticket! are two good ones. There are issues with chain of custody which are routinely broken and there is also the issue of the yellow light duration must be based on the speed limit... which must be justified by a speed survey. So, no speed survey, no RLC ticket. Take a look at those sites and do some more snooping here. It will take some effort, but I believe these are pretty beatable.