The first question I asked Charles Callari of ATS last Wednesday was what is the maximum amount of time the government has from the day of a red light offense being recorded to when the ticket is received by the car’s owner. I was astonished to be told it is 90 days. Think about that. You could still get a ticket for something that occurred before last Thanksgiving! I was told most of the time the delay is weeks and not months but even a few weeks is too long, and still, it could take months.
Most of us have driven through probably more than a thousand lights in the last three months. Do you remember all of them? Do you remember the details of any of them? Even from last week or two weeks ago? Of course not. How can you defend yourself against allegations of some minor traffic error from weeks or months back?
When you get pulled over by the police you know what just happened. You know if the car behind you was following too closely for you to stop short without risking being rear-ended. You know if you were on a patch of ice and risked skidding if you braked too forcefully. You can’t be expected to remember this stuff weeks later. Are we supposed to take notes about every action we take on the roads so we can later defend them?
This is why the voters of Baytown, Texas passed a referendum stating that red light camera tickets could not be issued unless a uniformed police officer was present at the intersection at the time of the offense. (Baytown was promptly sued by camera operator ATS and had to settle the suit pay paying ATS $1 million!)
This problem alone is sufficient grounds to reject the imposition of red light cameras on the people of Belmar.
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