Red Light Cameras Are Evil! - Lehto's Law Ep. 5.42

[DrFrankeni]

My uncle fought and won one of these in FL because he proved the yellow light duration was set below the state's minimum allowed duration for the speed limit on that road. The city had in fact violated the state law in order to increase revenue from the camera system.

And that's my biggest issue for these things. They are billed as SAFETY devices but are nothing more than revenue generators pure and simple. Some will argue they do lower the number of collisions inside the crosswalk box and often this is true. However they greatly increase the number of rear-end accidents caused by people such as myself that stop on the first hint of yellow unless the tires will screech when there is a camera system present. If they TRULY wanted safety they would LENGTHEN the yellow lights and overlap the red lights just a bit. Mind you I'm good with an officer sitting there and catching violators and I'm good with a nice fat fine and whatever comes with that. But you need to make it safe to clear the intersection through a yellow and safe to stop by not having to bend the brake pedal to assure you're not getting a ticket.

And the cost to increase the yellow and overlap the red?? Approaching ZERO to the municipality AND to the community. Why is this not the FIRST thing we do??

[betsybarnicle]

About 8 years ago I read a very detailed article from someone who studied this in-depth. They found that municipalities would shorten the length of the yellow light in order to increase their tickets for red light violations. The shortened yellows were dangerously short and INCREASED accidents.

[ReasonablySane]

Eight or nine years ago in the city of Auburn Washington my daughter got a red light ticket. She had heard a rumor about a judge there and decided to give it a try. She fought the tickets. She showed up in court and there she was with a bunch of other people who have gotten nailed by the same camera. One by one each person got up and the judge asked them where you driving the car at the time the taken? One by one, each person said no. And one by one each time the judge said case dismissed.

[jaywmeinen]

The worst thing about red light cameras is that they are UNSAFE! When they were introduced in Houston, drivers were so paranoid about getting a ticket that they would slam on their brakes when they should've gone through the yellow light. The result is that heavier vehicles would rear end them. Rear end collisions increased greatly. Proponents of red light cameras claim that they're making traffic 'safer.' It's really just a money grab. 

I love your videos. Keep up the good work.

[jhnnyknxvlle]

Why I hate them - I drive much more hesitantly and find myself jamming on the brakes more often - even traveling at the speed limit - also the cameras are usually rigged to screw the drivers - there's a lot of fraud in those cameras and the timing.

[patrickgray]

Add to the fact the companies running the camera systems change the timing on the yellow light to catch more people! Georgia just went through that battle and lost.

[sheetsda]

It is my understanding that the small village of New Miami in Ohio raked in about 3 million dollars with its (speed?) camera program. They got sued and the program was ruled unconstitutional and the village is now on the hook to repay that $3M, leaving it bankrupt. Played with fire, got burned.

[MCTeck]

The city I live in removed them after losing a 2 million dollar lawsuit . The company [not controlled by the city] shortened the yellow light to get more revenue.

[jeffjenks]

The only condition that I would find a red light camera acceptable is if they were used with countdown timer displays. To enhance safety in Thailand at intersections they have countdown timer displays. They show the time left in seconds until the next change in state of the traffic light. This has two major benefits. First, if the light is green and you can see that it will turn red in a few seconds and you are half of a mile away, you already will begin to slow down because you know that you'll never make the light. This enhances safety. But these timers also countdown to the next green light. Imagine a timer counting down from 90 seconds. Traffic closest to and stopped at the red light tend to stay awake and alert and ready to go. If you are checking your phone and there is 60 seconds still on the timer you can feel comfortable doing that. The Thai don't have red light cameras to my knowledge, but there are better ways, like countdown timers at intersections, to enhance safety. If a red light camera is used in conjunction with countdown timers, someone blowing through the intersection against a red light clearly deserves a ticket.

[mark]

I got a red light camera ticket in Fife Washington. They actually sent me a video of the alleged infraction.
You can clearly see that I come to a complete stop that lasts about 1/2 second and then take a right turn. This happened at about 8am on a Saturday and I was the only car there).
I looked up and printed the statute I was accused of breaking and went to court.
The judge watched the video and asked what my defense was.
I told him that I had stopped and the law does not stipulate how long I have to be stopped.
He then told me that he will dismiss the ticket but I am supposed to stop before the line and I did not.
I waved my finger at him and said "No, No, the RCW states that the driver is required to stop AT the line. The meaning of the word AT is not BEFORE but ON."
He actually spun around in his chair to check the law.
Yes, I won but it cost me 4 hours of work. Next time this happens I will sue the redlight camera company in small claims for lost wages and other expenses associated with going to fight their bogus ticket.

[johnme]

Read about some youngsters in the U.K. who borrowed, (stole), the plates off a speed camera van, attached them to their car, then drove past the van at 90 mph. The van took a picture of the plates and a ticket was mailed to the city. They later replaced the plates on the van.

[bills]

I got a ticket by one such camera, in Milbrae, California and it took my picture as well as my license plate. I went to an arraignment and the judge knocked off $100 from the fine. It was still over $500. A friend of mine got ticketed in the same county and decided to fight it. I went with him to an arraignment where he plead not guilty and then returned for the hearing. Before the hearing, a cop who was going to testify, came up and told us that they had had timing accuracy trouble with that camera and that he would tell the judge he was going to drop the charges. That's exactly what they did and my friend didn't have to pay. All the other victims of this inaccurate camera, who couldn't get off from work to drive down to the county seat twice to go through the process, presumably just paid their $600 fines.

[TheSmoothGrind]

Another home run, Lehto! Municipal courts are a mega pain in the ass. I had a tenant parking their car in the alley adjacent to the property so they fined me $124 because of it. I fought it with all I could, wasted 2 afternoons of my life. The court brought in 2 witnesses, had the property surveyed, and some beautiful diagrams showing someone else's car parked with 2 wheels on my lot. I didn't win and I really don't think the city won either after spending all that effort for $124 dollars. Especially when the ticket was supposed to be $30, yet they just put all these processing and court costs on to it initially when they send it. I am obviously frustrated, but satisfied I got my day in court and hopefully spent more of the cities money than I paid to them.

[aidanppp]

I've been on the receiving end in Elk Grove California. Difference is, you get photographs in the mail and a link to go online and watch videos of you blowing the red light in high definition from multiple angles. They blur out the faces of all of your passengers but the driver is very very clearly visible in both the photos and video - it was clear that one of the cameras was angled specifically to identify the driver. In my town they compared that to the DL photo of the registered owner and issue the citation to the driver. In all the ticket cost a bit over $600.

[michaelb]

I received one of these 20 yrs ago in San Diego. Back then they only took pics from the front, which clearly shows who is driving unless you hide behind the visor. I hit the intersection just after the light turned yellow, but was surprised to see the flash when I crossed the intersection and again when I was 1/2 way into the left turn then I saw the light turn red. The ticket told me the light was red for 0.6 seconds before I crossed the line, which I know was wrong. I found so many engineering defects in the system's design as well as getting city records that the entire camera system was replaced 3 times in 8 weeks with my ticket in the middle of that time frame. In traffic court, I dumbfounded the police officer testifying against me then had the Judge Pro Tem testify against me and then say he believes the light could have been yellow, but found me guilty anyway. What happened to unbiased and impartial as well as reasonable doubt? He testified against me and had reasonable doubt so it should have been dismissed. I won on appeal, but only because the audio recordings were too poor for the city attorney to document what happened in traffic court. I also think he didn't want me exercising discovery in a lawsuit to find all camera records then having all tickets refunded based on defective equipment. Later the city was found to have shortened yellow light times to get more infractions/revenue and other camera systems were found to be defective. The systems were eventually removed. Nothing more than a revenue generating scheme. If dash cameras were readily available back then and I had one it would have been an easy case to win if not sue both the service company and the city for insurance increases, traffic school costs, and illegal violation's time wasted by the victims.

[eikkO]

I once got a parking ticket for a green Mercedes with the same numberplates as my white Toyota. I mailed them a kind letter inviting them to go ahead and arrest me as I need the deformation claim's money to retire but funnily never heard from them again?
BUT
The best one though was the speeding ticket I got for a car that had been stolen a week prior to the "speeding crime" I phoned the contact number and explained to them . Two weeks later I got a summons to appear. By luck I knew Senior council that I fixed a phone problem for and I asked him to help me to write them an e-mail. I included a copy of my e-mail to the police asking them to investigate possible fraud at the traffic department and a digital copy of my phone conversation with them and e-mail to the local newspaper inviting them to attend my arrest and court appearance,
Once more never heard from them again
Conclusion... They are bigger chancers than the "criminals" they try to catch

[Daynja]

Somehow I knew ATS would come up in this video. They are the most unethical scumbags I have ever dealt with. They pitch red light cameras to cities with the guarantee of revenue at no cost to them. Then they set up the cameras based on what will generate the most revenue, not based on safety. For example, a “no right turn on red” instead of a high speed intersection.

[davident]

Steve, I don't know if you read new comments on old videos, but I will tell everyone what happened to me. Years ago, in Stockton, CA, I received two red light tickets back to back. These were new systems that had just been installed in some of the intersections in town. When I received the notices, they both had a copy of the ticket and pictures of me and my car, complete with license plate. The pictures were taken from the front and had surprising clarity. Anyone could definitely identify me in the pictures. So, I decided to search the internet to see if there was a way to beat these kinds of tickets. I found a site that mapped out exactly what to do. I printed a one page questionnaire that I was to use in traffic court in order to question the officer.
When I went to court, the officer got on the stand and I went down the list of questions. He answered them quickly until I got to the question of "Who pulled the picture from the camera?" He then said that it was the private company that pulls the pictures and sends them to the police department. I then asked if the employee of the private company was a sworn peace officer. He stated that he or she was not. I then asked the judge to dismiss due to the broken chain of evidence of the photo. The judge asked the officer if a civilian pulled the photo and the officer stated yes. The judge dismissed both tickets. Within a year, all red light cameras were removed or disabled in that city.

[BGFAN]

Several years ago red light cameras were installed at some busy intersections in Boulder, Colorado. There were signs that informed drivers that the cameras were of there. The result was that the number rear-end accidents increased dramatically. Drivers would approach the intersections doing the speed limit and if the light changed from green to red, they would slam on the brakes. This lead to numerous rear-end collisions. I don’t have the newspaper stories about this but as I recall it was in the local newspaper—The Boulder Camera.

[mikeb]

Same thing at toll booths. I bought an rv trailer. 9 months later I got a ticket for not paying the fine which was a first time notice. The ticket was given 1 month before I owned the rv in a State of Georgia I never went. I called the number on the info and they said according to KY u are the owner but I told them I did not own when the toll was issued. They said to send proof so I immediately sent my registration and the a copy of the registration of person who owned it before me. Now I have been sent to a collection agency. I called and sent another copy to them because they claim they had no record of me calling or sending proof to them. Now I have received another letter from the collection agency. I am being harassed and it might adversely affect my credit. This needs to be stopped. I should be able to sue for harassment, time and stress. I won't pay as I do not owe.