Last weekend I was driving down at the beach here in San Diego. It was crowded, as usual, and I pulled into a long left turn line at an intersection. The left turn lane turned green and we all started to go. As I got to the intersection I was going about 10-15 mph and got to the point of no return as the light turned yellow. Since the cars in front of me were going slow (traffic was jammed up) I was going slow through the intersection. The light turned red as I was still in the intersection and I see a camera flash from the corner go off in my face. It was one of those intersection cameras getting me in the intersection going less than 15 mph trying to get through.

I hear that the fine for running a red light is $200-300! I don't feel I ran a red light, I feel like traffic was going slow and I got stuck in the intersection for an extra second. Does anyone have any experince with fighting the tickets from these cameras? I wonder what my options are?

 

Not to scare you or anything, but we call that GRIDLOCK in NYC. There's a fine and points are involved. I really don't know the laws in San Diego. Good Luck!

 

Get those license plate covers that don't allow pictures to be taken

 

Typically, those cameras only take your picture if the light turned red before the front of your car passed over the line into the intersection. Supposedly, if you were already in the intersection while the signal was yellow, you wouldn't have gotten you're picture taken. Unless you can somehow prove otherwise, I think you're screwed.

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2001 Silver TL w/Navi
Factory Spoiler
Comptech springs
Comptech sways
18" TMW Scuderias
Pirelli P7000 SS 225/40
35% tint

 

I have one of those plastic covers over my plate and i havent gotten a ticket from a camera so far.

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Tom

2001 Nighthawk Black Pearl TL

Comptech springs,Comptech drop in filter,Inspire tailights,Piaa super white 001 solitare fogs, Inspire fog switch,Burlwood shift knob,Piaa Xtreme white blinkers,Razo carbon fiber pedals,BEL 870 radar detector, Acura-TL.com sticker
tunes by StreetEffectz (coming soon)

 

Wait for the ticket, and then go to court. The only thing you can do is explain yourself like you did to the Judge. I would say it is a 50/50 shot. But if you don't try, you lose automatically. It doesn't hurt to try.

 

The only good thing about these cameras is that you don't get points... only fine...

 

Was it the light at Garnet in S.D?

 

those lights suck!! a friend has gotten caught in the camera by SDSU...and by the one in UTC

 

exactly.

 

Hopefully you'll be ok. The same thing happened to me on Aero drive on the way to Fry's. I never got a ticket, so it's probably not too big of a deal.

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">[This message has been edited by Prez808 on May 15, 2001 @ ]</font>

 

Yep yep, in NY, they stress "Don't block the box".. they mark the street's intersections with a big white boxes.. your car's on it when the light changes, you are getting a fine and points..
Ed

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Acura-TL.com - Forum Moderator
'66 Mustang Fastback
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I actually have doen a little more talking to people and web research. A couple things are encouraging.

1. 60% of the pictures taken never get pursued due to blurry, no front plate, etc...

2. My co worker was at traffic court in the last month for a speeding ticket and said they were throwing out all photo tickets the day he was there. No reason given.

3. A different co worker told me that there was a legal service in SD that for a $100 will fight this for you and have been very sucessfull.

So, I am going to try to relax and deal with this if a ticket shows up.

Thanks for all the responses above.

steve