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Beat a red light ticket?

7K views 32 replies 22 participants last post by  GunshowNick 
#1 ·
Can I? I got one, and yep I'm taking a right turn when it says "no turn on red". Period. But I don't give a fuck, if an officer saw me and gave me the ticket, I'd say "oh well" and go to court and plead guilty. But when it's a bullshit revenue-machine camera, I will take whatever legal means necessary to get out of it - well and what is free, of course.

Anyone have any advice or have beaten it before? I saw this online: http://www.ehow.com/how_2299745_beat-red-light-violation-ticket.html

Legit or crap?

Also, my only angle is that the "red light camera" sign at the intersection is about 50% blocked by tree branches. Couldn't find the prospect heights municipal code (0-07-05/0-07-04) online to check what standards these dirtbag cameras have to live by either.

Thanks
 
#6 ·
Likely.

But i did get a pretty good ticket (by an actual cop) a few years ago, and I decided to show up to court and plead guilty anyway, and they reduced the fines and supervision time by half and cancelled the traffic school, so I'm wondering if showing up will do any good. I did read that the signs must be clearly visible FROM ALL DIRECTIONS and this one isn't, so maybe some chance there? But I can't find Prospect Heights municipal code on the web.
 
#9 ·
You know what ticks me off?....these things are sold as being safety features by reducing accidents...

But...

The city of Westmont threw the company out of their meeting basically, as the company could not produce evidence that these in fact reduced accidents and made intersections safer. Westmont did not want to raise $ from these "tickets" and from my understanding, the heated one way conversation ended with Westmont telling the company no.

Also, I received a red light ticket recently...and guess where you go to pay it....the cityofchicago.org/revenue. And, the ticket comes from "The Chicago department of revenue". So...safety...or revenue? You be the judge.
 
#27 ·
You know what ticks me off?....these things are sold as being safety features by reducing accidents...

But...

The city of Westmont threw the company out of their meeting basically, as the company could not produce evidence that these in fact reduced accidents and made intersections safer. Westmont did not want to raise $ from these "tickets" and from my understanding, the heated one way conversation ended with Westmont telling the company no.
i agree. It's al revenue. Nothing to do with safety. I remember a few years ago that some place in Texas went through the same type of stuff: cameras went up at intersections, and people were so worried about getting a ticket that they'd slam on the brakes at yellows and get rear ended. Less safety, and insurance went through the roof. They got rid of the cameras after that
 
#11 · (Edited)
All tickets generated by an automated cameras fall under local ordinance violations which is why you pay your fines to the town who had the camera not to "the circuit court clerk". Therefore it stays in a local ordinance status and can not go against driving record (only the clerk of a court can send ticket info to the secretary of state and against your driving record). In fact in the Illinois vehicle code it prohibits the use of cameras except in work zones and even then there has to be an officer in the speed van looking at the video when it happens.
These redlight tickets are reviewed by a private company and they only send our department the "close" ones and those are then reviewed by an officer. You should be able (atleast this is our procedure) to contact someone at the village/police dept. And ask if u can review the tape (like stated above most will have this available online). So if you want to fight the ticket you usually go to the village hall not a court and sit infront of some dude (usually the village attorney, not a judge). If found "guilty" the ticket is the same and can not be changed to a "state" violation that can go against you.
The whole point of these is to make the village money and that's why the ticket stays in house cause on a normal ticket the village only gets a small percent of the fine, rest goes to the state of IL. On these redlight tickets, the company that owns and maintains the cameras (they are not owned by the village) gets a small percentage of each ticket (and a monthly fee the village pays so no matter what the redlight company gets their $$$) and the rest goes to village.
Bottom line is you should be able to view the video and go from there. You may get lucky and the ticket was auto-generated by the company (each village sets up with the camera company their own sets of standards of what is a violation and what is not) and you did not violate the law "that bad" and get the ticket dismissed.
And yes they are all about making easy money for the village and have nothing to do with safety. I have complete over a thousand traffic accident reports in my career (since '91) and I can not remember ONE dealing with a vehicle that turned right on red and caused an accident. I know they happen but it's very rare (now running a red light and failure to yield is a different story). Just my 2cents.
 
#15 ·
Actually there is some data that suggests that accidents in camera intersections
increase due to rear end collisions with people who slam on the brakes for the
yellow light trying to avoid a ticket.


In addition .... the most relevant thing to the number of citations issued is
the length of the yellow light ..... reduce it a little bit and the violations go
off the CHARTS because people don't expect it to change so fast. Lengthen
it just a little and almost nobody violates .....


It's all about the revenue.


Tom
 
#18 ·
As for the camera's making money vs making an intersection safer....

The village of Bolingbrook had the cameras up for one year. Since the accident percentages didn't go down the mayor took the cameras out. He gave a statement that they weren't for revenue, but to help make the streets safer, since they didn't do that, they took them out. Plain and simple.
 
#19 ·
I just got one of these, and had to pay to the state, not the city. It was a right turn on red, not a "no turn on red" intersection. I had a car in front of me that was at a comeplete stop, went, I rolled up but didn't come to a complete stop before going.

The video was pretty clear. Essentialy that would be no different than rolling through a stop sign. Still a ticketable offsense.

If you were in a "no turn on red" and you turned, pay the ticket and move on.

Ciao,
Lupi
 
#20 · (Edited)
Anyone have any advice or have beaten it before?

Yeah, I've beaten one before. I just refused to pay it.

For one, they don't send you anything certified, so therefor they have no proof you received anything.

Secondly, you need to obtain 5 of these tickets before they can do anything to your actual driving status and from what I heard is they have a total crap way of keeping track - meaning almost impossible to track. (from what I've been told)

I threw mine in the garbage. It's been almost a year since I haven't heard anything from them. Sure, for the first few months you get the good old credit scare tactic, then you get some driving privileges scare tactic...etc

I said F them... come get me. I haven't heard from them whats getting close to a year now. I stand by what I've said long ago. I'll NEVER pay any ticket from one of these bull shit machines.
 
#21 ·
so what happend? i got three of these fucking things in a week. they are 100 and if not paid after 3 weeks or something says 200. its not like i blew a fucking red light. one was for not counting to 5 one fucking thousand on a right turn on red. wasnt a no turn on red or anything just a reg light. other two were for completing my left turn when the light turned red on a fucking red arrow. there were like three other fuckers in the pic with me in the intersection. how much fucking money do they generate in a day? snowed only one fucking time this year and they couldnt be bothered to hardly clean the streets up here. money fucking well spent...

and pwrmad ur i love the fucking bro attitude. if it was up to me id tie that red light camera to ur bed post and let u deep throat it to death.
 
#22 ·
I'd recommend saving a copy of the video's. They have been known to be deleted prior to court dates.

Sorry can't help you beyond that.

Get a GPS, and load the Redlight Camera POI (point of interest) file. This will give you an audiable tone prior to entering an enforced intersection.
 
#23 ·
i mean if i would have gotten one in the mail i would have learned my lesson. if i see a red light camera now ill drive around the mother fucker three blocks to be safe. and now every non red light camera intersection is see im blowing the lights like a mother fucker. if there is no one in front of me im fucking pinnin it. fuck em
 
#24 ·
btw thanks scout. im really heads up for these fucking things now. ill prolly smash into someone coming to intersections looking round for em on the reg.
 
#26 ·
dont nerds have the power to do something to these fucking things. like destroy them from the inside out or something? fuck supa and pupa. nerds need to worry about the red light cameras right now. and if they could hack the system and make mine disappear that would be sweet.
 
#28 ·
im just going to assume oldskoolmc ended up getting raped by fines hence the silence. ill just raise the funds by increasing the price of my drugs
 
#33 ·
its prima facia evidence
does not effect DL
can not be used against your INS for rate increase
proceeds split differently depending on company
they do decrease violations OVER TIME when people know they are present but not directly compared to having police present
they generate income for municipalities ("city hall") and it costs the municipalities NOTHING to install them, maintain them, review them..etc.
 
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