San Diego Mattress Man Blog

Red Light Camera In San Diego

September 29, 2010 on 9:18 pm | In In and around San Diego | No Comments

You have seen the camera’s all around San Diego. All the signs warning of photo enforcement. There is so much talk among San Diegoians about if these are legal or not. Well they are here to stay for now and the number of camera’s are increasing. For the average citizen they have seen them and may or may not have heard about the cost of these tickets. The average cost is $450.00 just for the ticket. Plan on going to traffic court and add a min of 80.00 on top of that fine.

One day as I was driving in Poway I approached a red light camera. I was not planning on running the light. I was going to make a legal right turn on red. However for some reason I didn’t come to a complete stop as I was making my turn, I saw the traffic in front of me turning left into the direction I was leaving. In some traffic intersections similar to this one I would have a green arrow as its safe for me to turn on red unless someone was making a U turn. I saw the flash from the camera and thought oh another mistake by the camera. How many times have you seen the camera flash but no one is going through the intersection? I just figured it was another error as I have seen this happen many times. What I soon discovered 10 days later is that is was not a mistake and the red light camera’s are designed to catch drivers rolling right turn’s at red lights as well as driving. Its unclear which type of violation generates more revenue for the state.

Can you fight this ticket in court? More bad news is that prior to the light turning red there is a mounted camera 15 feet back recording on video as cars are approaching the intersection. It keeps recording and saves evidence in case there is a violation. If no violation then it just resets itself for the next light cycle. In addition there are 2 still photo’s taken of the driver and also the front license plate. Once you get the $450.00 ticket it come with instructions how you can go on-line and see you video of you running or making a turn on red. You can watch it as many times as you can bear the thought of paying $450.00 to the San Diego Superior Court.

What if your not driving the car but your the registered owner? You will get the ticket. Well if its your wife or child they mayor may not be able to find out who the driver is. You can always say you don’t “know” who that is as you loan your car out very often. If its a another person from your family the courts may contact the DMV and get pictures of other licensed drivers in the home. I am not sure if they have legal authority to do this or not. If its a friend and you feel like you need to do a good deed for the courts then fill out that paper and tell the courts who the driver is. By law your not required to say who this driver is. If the courts can’t get the correct driver for the violation then they have to dismiss the case.

There are many companies out there that will fight tickets for you. One company is called, Mr Ticket and another is 2fixyourtrafficticket. The costs varies between 90.00 to 180.00 depending on who you choose to fight the ticket. Can you fight a ticket that was given to you legally? Yes you can. Is it legal to issue a $450.00 fine for a rolling right turn? Yes its legal but not fair by any means! After reading reviews I choose to go with the 2fixyourtrafficticket company and pay 180.00 for my fight which was not a guaranteed win. In fact as I agreed to pay the money I knew I had a 30% chance on winning. It was a tough decision and during this period while my case was presented to court without me even making an appearance it played a vital role in my attitude and thoughts. If I lose I am out $450.00 + $180.00 to fight the ticket and I can’t choose to go to traffic school. It happen to be my birthday and I opened the mail and there it was a letter from the court house. I had had a bad day at work and was I opened the letter I discovered I won the case. To my surprise I won the case. I am not sure if many tickets get dismissed or not but I am glad mine was. The $630.00 total loss would have been a nightmare for me! A good nights sleep was needed on my mattress was just what I received after that news.
If there is a red light camera then drive with caution and avoid slamming on your breaks and getting rear ended.