BELLINGHAM - Unwilling to settle for a partial victory, American Traffic Solutions has asked the Washington Court of Appeals to reconsider its Tuesday, Sept. 6, ruling that a citizen initiative to block installation of traffic enforcement cameras can remain on the November ballot.
In the earlier ruling, the three-judge appeals panel - Marlin Appelwick, Ronald Cox and Michael Spearman - agreed that the citizen initiative has no legal force because it infringes on the city's authority to install the cameras. Bellingham has that authority under state law approved by the Legislature. But the judges also denied an ATS request for an injunction to knock the measure off the November ballot. Since the initiative has no legal power, it cannot harm ATS or undo the firm's contract with the city, and therefore poses no threat of harm to ATS, Appelwick wrote on the panel's behalf.
Bellingham traffic camera initiative not legally valid, appeals court says
Because Whatcom County Auditor Shirley Forslof says noon Friday, Sept. 9, is the deadline for getting the ballot to the printer, ATS attorney Vanessa Soriano Power has asked the court for an emergency reconsideration of the injunction issue, with a final ruling before the printing deadline. It was not clear whether the court would grant that request. In a motion filed with the court on Wednesday, Power argued that in past cases, state appeals courts have acted to keep initiatives from the ballot when they were found to be legally invalid. "If an injunction is not entered, the people will be asked to participate in an illusory vote," Power's motion says. "Citizens will be asked whether they want to 'enact new law' that in reality has, as the court has already ruled, no legal force. ... An injunction would preclude such an illusory vote." The Bellingham City Council has scheduled a closed session for 12:30 p.m. Thursday to discuss the situation. State law allows a closed session to discuss pending court cases. Mayor Dan Pike said he did not support the last-ditch effort by ATS to keep the initiative off the ballot. "We want to let it go forward and let the community have a voice," Pike said. ATS officials have asked the city to join them in the effort to get the initiative off the ballot, Pike said, but he doubts that the City Council will agree.
Pike also said he thinks there is a chance that a majority of voters favor the cameras, and the vote on the initiative will reflect that, but "the actions of ATS have made it less likely."
Pike declined to discuss what legal steps the city might be able to take to get out of the existing contract with ATS, if the anti-camera initiative stays on the ballot and gets overwhelming support. "Let's go ahead ... and see what the outcome of the vote is before we contemplate any further steps," Pike said. "I'm not advocating that we abrogate that contract."
Among other things, the contract would obligate Bellingham to pay Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions $4,750 per month for each traffic-enforcement camera, a total of about $342,000 per year for the six cameras envisioned, according to the contract the city signed on May 6. Traffic ticket revenues from the cameras were expected to be well over that amount, and Pike and a majority of council members contended that the deal with ATS would provide much-needed revenue for the city while improving traffic safety. But a citizen group, the Transportation Safety Coalition, argued that the safety benefits were dubious, and cameras could not determine who was driving an offending car. They gathered thousands of signatures to meet the legal requirement for an initiative measure intended to force Bellingham to remove any traffic-enforcement cameras, although none have yet been installed. The measure also would have required voter approval of any plan to re-install them and limited the fines imposed under the program to the equivalent of the lowest-cost parking ticket, currently $10.
Reach JOHN STARK at 715-2274 or john.stark@bellinghamherald.com . Read his Consumer Protection Blog at blogs.bellinghamherald.com/consumer.Read more: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/09/08/2174287/ats-still-seeking-to-kill-bellinghams.html#ixzz1XMgr6ax2
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Traffic Cameras: Money Pit for Some, Gold Mine for Others
In October 2008, Aventura made history when it became the first municipality in South Florida to install red-light cameras. Now, as the third anniversary of Aventura’s “Intersection Safety Camera Program” approaches, more than 65 Florida cities have red-light cameras.
That trend disturbs traffic attorney Bret Lusskin. “The idea of government surveillance and cameras flashing away all night is terribly Orwellian for me,” says Lusskin, founder of the Ticket Cricket law firm.
But Eric Soroka, Aventura’s city manager, has no plans to remove the nine cameras that snap photographs at five intersections in Aventura. “People take red-lights more seriously now,” he says.
Soroka credits motorists’ newfound respect for traffic lights with a 15-percent drop in car accidents throughout the city between January 2008 and August 2010. At intersections with red-light cameras, accidents fell by as much as 60 percent during that period, according to statistics provided by the Aventura Police Department.
Aventura’s traffic education comes at a cost -- to drivers. As of last month, more than 62,368 tickets had been issued. Between September 2009 and July 2011, Aventura collected nearly $3 million in fines. About $100,000 per year in red-light ticket fines are funneled to Aventura’s charter school, with the rest of the money going to the city’s general fund.
But the cameras aren’t there just to make money for Aventura, Soroka insists. “The intended purpose is to improve safety at intersections,” he says, adding that the fines are a tiny portion of Aventura’s $47 million annual budget.
Lusskin argues that red-light cameras are not about safety, but revenue, especially for American Traffic Solutions (ATS), an Arizona-based company that operates traffic-camera systems in 300 municipalities across North America. Lusskin claims ATS enticed Florida cities with promises of easy funds through traffic tickets just as the state sank into a recession. “The whole background on it is quite nefarious,” he says. “They [ATS] waited for the opportunity when all municipalities were strapped for cash in 2007.” As a result, ATS is Florida’s largest provider of red-light cameras, a fact that has Lusskin fuming: “They really are an evil company.”
But ATS did not take the initiative to approach Aventura.
Aventura City Commissioner Bob Diamond says his wife was almost killed in a car accident at an Aventura intersection caused by a motorist who ran a red light. After reading that car accidents were slashed by half in New York following the installation of cameras, Diamond contacted ATS and other traffic-camera companies. “My only interest,” he recalls, “was saving lives.”
ATS spokesman Charlie Territo asserts that his company is making Florida safer even as it complicates the work of traffic attorneys. “In South Florida, 97 percent of the violations issued are eventually found guilty,” he says. Territo claims an even more impressive record in Aventura. Of the 19,325 tickets issued from July 2010 to May 2011, only 330 were found not guilty, he reports. “These violations come with video and pictures of the violations, irrefutable evidence that the driver of the vehicle has broken the law,” he says.
Except that it’s not the driver of the vehicle who is ticketed. It’s the owner. That is because red-light cameras photograph the license plate of a vehicle, which then mails the ticket to the owner or lessee. “Technically speaking, you’re not violating the law by running a red light. It is the registered vehicle,” Lusskin maintains. He also claims that 90 percent of camera tickets go to vehicles that fail to make a full stop before turning right on a red light.
Tickets for right turns on a red light are given only to vehicles traveling in excess of ten miles per hour, Territo insists. He adds that car owners can contest a charge by providing the name and address of the driver at the time of the infraction.
Commissioner Diamond contends the subject of revenue rarely came up during his five-year quest to get red-light cameras in Aventura. Interpretations of the law, however, were a constant sticking point. In 2006 he asked state Sen. Gwen Margolis to introduce a red-light camera bill in the Florida legislature. “A year and a half later, she told me: ‘I can’t get it through. There are right-of-privacy concerns,’” he recounts. That answer frustrated Diamond, a former judge: “There is no right of privacy when you are driving a car!”
While Margolis tried again, Aventura officials installed their cameras and took a cue from Gulf Breeze, Florida, issuing tickets not as traffic violations but as code infractions. Automobile owners wishing to contest the tickets had to appear before a city-paid special master. From January to July of 2009, Aventura issued 15,875 code violations with fines ranging from $125 to $500.
Though the state had yet to legalize red-light cameras, at least 11 other Miami-Dade County municipalities, including Miami Shores, North Bay Village, and North Miami, followed in Aventura’s footsteps and installed ATS cameras.
That chapter ended in February 2010, after Lusskin sued Aventura on behalf of Richard Masone, a Hallandale Beach resident cited twice for turning right at a red light without making a full stop. Lusskin argued that state law only allowed sworn police officers to issue red-light tickets. Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Jerald Bagley agreed.
Five months later, the state legislature finally passed a red-light bill, called the Mark Wandall Traffic Safety Act, thanks in part to a $1.5 million lobbying effort by ATS. (The law was named after a Bradenton resident who died in a car crash caused by a red-light runner in 2003.) Under the new law, red-light camera tickets start at $158. After 30 days, fines increase to $277 each. Traffic judges, not special masters, now decide the fate of contested tickets. Cities, however, only collect between $45 and $75 for each ticket; the rest of the funds flow into the state’s coffers.
With a cut as high as 53 percent going to the state, red-light cameras are bringing in less money for municipalities. The City of Miami installed ATS red-light cameras last year in hopes of collecting $8 million from tickets. Instead Miami received less than $3 million.
Under the new state law, cities are also required to pay a fee, not a percentage, to red-light-camera companies. In Aventura’s case, that fee amounts to $4750 per month for each camera covering four lanes of traffic, unless the camera costs exceed the fines collected from a camera.
Even with ATS’s fees as high as $513,000 a year, Aventura still manages to make a profit. From September 2010 to July 2011, the city collected $867,126 from red-light cameras. That figure, however, pales in comparison to the $2 million in fines Aventura collected earlier, between September 2009 and August 2010.
Territo attributes the revenue decline to compliance. In Aventura, he says, there has been a 49-percent reduction in red-light-running between 2008 and 2010, adding that 89 percent of those violators live outside Aventura.
Still, red-light cameras continue to cause legal chaos throughout Florida, says Ted Hollander, an attorney with the Ticket Clinic law firm. Broward Judge Fred Breman, for example, ruled that police officers couldn’t legally issue red-light tickets if cameras are also doing so. “The interpretation in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties depends on what judge or magistrate you get,” says Hollander, whose argument that red-light cameras are unconstitutional was recently rejected by a Broward court.
Hollander also claims there’s no clear-cut evidence that red-light cameras prevent accidents. Instead they may actually cause more accidents. He points out that a 2008 study from the University of South Florida warns that rear-end collisions increase in places with red-light cameras because some drivers slam their breaks when approaching intersections.
But Karen Morgan, manager of public policy for AAA Auto Club South, says evidence shows red-light cameras do improve roadway safety. According to a June 2011 study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, cities that installed red-light cameras saw injury-related crashes decline by up to 29 percent.
Nevertheless, AAA urged then-Gov. Charlie Crist to veto the red-light camera bill, fearing the law was more about revenue than safety. “AAA is supportive of the use of red-light cameras, but not without certain safeguards,” Morgan says. Among the safeguards spelled out in a May 2010 letter to Crist is a requirement that all ticket money be used for public-safety purposes.
With the law already passed in the legislature, though, Morgan says AAA is now working to improve it: “We would rather work with the legislature and put safeguards in it -- but not get rid of it.”
Many U.S. communities are opting to get rid of cameras. According to an Associated Press report last month, more than a dozen cities and nine states outright ban the use of red-light cameras. This past May, Florida’s House of Representatives approved a bill revoking the Wandall Act. The measure failed to pass the state Senate.
Cities all over Florida are finding out that red-light cameras are more money pits than gold mines, attorney Hollander says. Hialeah, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, and Pembroke Pines are just a few of the South Florida municipalities planning to ditch red-light cameras because they cost more than they generate. “If it’s all about safety, why are these cities pulling the plug when there is no money?” Hollander asks.
Charlie Territo of ATS argues that more and more cities are seeking out red-light cameras. “This is an industry that has seen tremendous growth over the last five years,” he explains. “As the benefits of the programs become more well known, we expect legal challenges to become fewer and fewer, and we expect support for cameras to increase.”
http://biscaynetimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=952:traffic-cameras-money-pit-for-some-gold-mine-for-others&catid=50:community-news&Itemid=223
That trend disturbs traffic attorney Bret Lusskin. “The idea of government surveillance and cameras flashing away all night is terribly Orwellian for me,” says Lusskin, founder of the Ticket Cricket law firm.
But Eric Soroka, Aventura’s city manager, has no plans to remove the nine cameras that snap photographs at five intersections in Aventura. “People take red-lights more seriously now,” he says.
Soroka credits motorists’ newfound respect for traffic lights with a 15-percent drop in car accidents throughout the city between January 2008 and August 2010. At intersections with red-light cameras, accidents fell by as much as 60 percent during that period, according to statistics provided by the Aventura Police Department.
Aventura’s traffic education comes at a cost -- to drivers. As of last month, more than 62,368 tickets had been issued. Between September 2009 and July 2011, Aventura collected nearly $3 million in fines. About $100,000 per year in red-light ticket fines are funneled to Aventura’s charter school, with the rest of the money going to the city’s general fund.
But the cameras aren’t there just to make money for Aventura, Soroka insists. “The intended purpose is to improve safety at intersections,” he says, adding that the fines are a tiny portion of Aventura’s $47 million annual budget.
Lusskin argues that red-light cameras are not about safety, but revenue, especially for American Traffic Solutions (ATS), an Arizona-based company that operates traffic-camera systems in 300 municipalities across North America. Lusskin claims ATS enticed Florida cities with promises of easy funds through traffic tickets just as the state sank into a recession. “The whole background on it is quite nefarious,” he says. “They [ATS] waited for the opportunity when all municipalities were strapped for cash in 2007.” As a result, ATS is Florida’s largest provider of red-light cameras, a fact that has Lusskin fuming: “They really are an evil company.”
But ATS did not take the initiative to approach Aventura.
Aventura City Commissioner Bob Diamond says his wife was almost killed in a car accident at an Aventura intersection caused by a motorist who ran a red light. After reading that car accidents were slashed by half in New York following the installation of cameras, Diamond contacted ATS and other traffic-camera companies. “My only interest,” he recalls, “was saving lives.”
ATS spokesman Charlie Territo asserts that his company is making Florida safer even as it complicates the work of traffic attorneys. “In South Florida, 97 percent of the violations issued are eventually found guilty,” he says. Territo claims an even more impressive record in Aventura. Of the 19,325 tickets issued from July 2010 to May 2011, only 330 were found not guilty, he reports. “These violations come with video and pictures of the violations, irrefutable evidence that the driver of the vehicle has broken the law,” he says.
Except that it’s not the driver of the vehicle who is ticketed. It’s the owner. That is because red-light cameras photograph the license plate of a vehicle, which then mails the ticket to the owner or lessee. “Technically speaking, you’re not violating the law by running a red light. It is the registered vehicle,” Lusskin maintains. He also claims that 90 percent of camera tickets go to vehicles that fail to make a full stop before turning right on a red light.
Tickets for right turns on a red light are given only to vehicles traveling in excess of ten miles per hour, Territo insists. He adds that car owners can contest a charge by providing the name and address of the driver at the time of the infraction.
Commissioner Diamond contends the subject of revenue rarely came up during his five-year quest to get red-light cameras in Aventura. Interpretations of the law, however, were a constant sticking point. In 2006 he asked state Sen. Gwen Margolis to introduce a red-light camera bill in the Florida legislature. “A year and a half later, she told me: ‘I can’t get it through. There are right-of-privacy concerns,’” he recounts. That answer frustrated Diamond, a former judge: “There is no right of privacy when you are driving a car!”
While Margolis tried again, Aventura officials installed their cameras and took a cue from Gulf Breeze, Florida, issuing tickets not as traffic violations but as code infractions. Automobile owners wishing to contest the tickets had to appear before a city-paid special master. From January to July of 2009, Aventura issued 15,875 code violations with fines ranging from $125 to $500.
Though the state had yet to legalize red-light cameras, at least 11 other Miami-Dade County municipalities, including Miami Shores, North Bay Village, and North Miami, followed in Aventura’s footsteps and installed ATS cameras.
That chapter ended in February 2010, after Lusskin sued Aventura on behalf of Richard Masone, a Hallandale Beach resident cited twice for turning right at a red light without making a full stop. Lusskin argued that state law only allowed sworn police officers to issue red-light tickets. Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Jerald Bagley agreed.
Five months later, the state legislature finally passed a red-light bill, called the Mark Wandall Traffic Safety Act, thanks in part to a $1.5 million lobbying effort by ATS. (The law was named after a Bradenton resident who died in a car crash caused by a red-light runner in 2003.) Under the new law, red-light camera tickets start at $158. After 30 days, fines increase to $277 each. Traffic judges, not special masters, now decide the fate of contested tickets. Cities, however, only collect between $45 and $75 for each ticket; the rest of the funds flow into the state’s coffers.
With a cut as high as 53 percent going to the state, red-light cameras are bringing in less money for municipalities. The City of Miami installed ATS red-light cameras last year in hopes of collecting $8 million from tickets. Instead Miami received less than $3 million.
Under the new state law, cities are also required to pay a fee, not a percentage, to red-light-camera companies. In Aventura’s case, that fee amounts to $4750 per month for each camera covering four lanes of traffic, unless the camera costs exceed the fines collected from a camera.
Even with ATS’s fees as high as $513,000 a year, Aventura still manages to make a profit. From September 2010 to July 2011, the city collected $867,126 from red-light cameras. That figure, however, pales in comparison to the $2 million in fines Aventura collected earlier, between September 2009 and August 2010.
Territo attributes the revenue decline to compliance. In Aventura, he says, there has been a 49-percent reduction in red-light-running between 2008 and 2010, adding that 89 percent of those violators live outside Aventura.
Still, red-light cameras continue to cause legal chaos throughout Florida, says Ted Hollander, an attorney with the Ticket Clinic law firm. Broward Judge Fred Breman, for example, ruled that police officers couldn’t legally issue red-light tickets if cameras are also doing so. “The interpretation in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties depends on what judge or magistrate you get,” says Hollander, whose argument that red-light cameras are unconstitutional was recently rejected by a Broward court.
Hollander also claims there’s no clear-cut evidence that red-light cameras prevent accidents. Instead they may actually cause more accidents. He points out that a 2008 study from the University of South Florida warns that rear-end collisions increase in places with red-light cameras because some drivers slam their breaks when approaching intersections.
But Karen Morgan, manager of public policy for AAA Auto Club South, says evidence shows red-light cameras do improve roadway safety. According to a June 2011 study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, cities that installed red-light cameras saw injury-related crashes decline by up to 29 percent.
Nevertheless, AAA urged then-Gov. Charlie Crist to veto the red-light camera bill, fearing the law was more about revenue than safety. “AAA is supportive of the use of red-light cameras, but not without certain safeguards,” Morgan says. Among the safeguards spelled out in a May 2010 letter to Crist is a requirement that all ticket money be used for public-safety purposes.
With the law already passed in the legislature, though, Morgan says AAA is now working to improve it: “We would rather work with the legislature and put safeguards in it -- but not get rid of it.”
Many U.S. communities are opting to get rid of cameras. According to an Associated Press report last month, more than a dozen cities and nine states outright ban the use of red-light cameras. This past May, Florida’s House of Representatives approved a bill revoking the Wandall Act. The measure failed to pass the state Senate.
Cities all over Florida are finding out that red-light cameras are more money pits than gold mines, attorney Hollander says. Hialeah, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, and Pembroke Pines are just a few of the South Florida municipalities planning to ditch red-light cameras because they cost more than they generate. “If it’s all about safety, why are these cities pulling the plug when there is no money?” Hollander asks.
Charlie Territo of ATS argues that more and more cities are seeking out red-light cameras. “This is an industry that has seen tremendous growth over the last five years,” he explains. “As the benefits of the programs become more well known, we expect legal challenges to become fewer and fewer, and we expect support for cameras to increase.”
http://biscaynetimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=952:traffic-cameras-money-pit-for-some-gold-mine-for-others&catid=50:community-news&Itemid=223
Tickets fall 73 percent after traffic camera law
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- In Knoxville, traffic citations fell by 73 percent after a new state law took effect that prohibits using traffic cameras to issue tickets for right-turn-on-red violations.
Knoxville police issued 4,826 tickets in June but only 1,308 in July, after the law took effect, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel. (http://bit.ly/qT1I4a)
House Transportation Chairman Vince Dean was one of the bill's main sponsors. The East Ridge Republican has said traffic cameras can't recognize legitimate reasons for being in the intersection after the light turns red.
Failing to stop before a right turn on red is still illegal, but an officer must witness the violation in order to issue the $50 ticket.
Knoxville Police Capt. Gordon Catlett said he expects the new law to result in an increase in rear-end collisions.(of course they do, it's lost revenue so they have to say that).
http://www.volunteertv.com/news/headlines/Tickets_fall_73_percent_after_traffic_camera_law_129411693.html
Knoxville police issued 4,826 tickets in June but only 1,308 in July, after the law took effect, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel. (http://bit.ly/qT1I4a)
House Transportation Chairman Vince Dean was one of the bill's main sponsors. The East Ridge Republican has said traffic cameras can't recognize legitimate reasons for being in the intersection after the light turns red.
Failing to stop before a right turn on red is still illegal, but an officer must witness the violation in order to issue the $50 ticket.
Knoxville Police Capt. Gordon Catlett said he expects the new law to result in an increase in rear-end collisions.(of course they do, it's lost revenue so they have to say that).
http://www.volunteertv.com/news/headlines/Tickets_fall_73_percent_after_traffic_camera_law_129411693.html
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Another court blow for Victoria's traffic cameras
Semi-retired businessman Graham Docker's win in the Ringwood Magistrates' Court comes on top of police officer Faye Pitman this week beating her EastLink speeding fine in the Dandenong court.
Barrister and traffic camera law expert Michael Kuzilny expects the Pitman and Docker wins to prompt thousands more motorists to contest fines in court.
"These two cases come as a breath of fresh air to Victorian drivers because it shows courts, for a change, are starting to listen and if there is reasonable doubt, defendants are starting to win cases," he said.
Ringwood judicial registrar Angela Soldani ruled in favour of Mr Docker, 65, after he defended himself and successfully argued there was no proof the camera that snapped him had been tested for accuracy as the law demanded.
"This creates sufficient doubt as to the reliability of the images taken and I therefore dismiss the charge," Ms Soldani said in court on July 15.
Prosecutors in speed and red light camera cases produce the photograph taken by the traffic camera, as well as a certificate to say the camera has been tested.
The serial number of the camera appears on the certificate but doesn't appear on the actual photograph.
Mr Docker argued this meant there was no proof the camera that took the photo of his vehicle as it turned right from Stud Rd into Ferntree Gully Rd, in Scoresby, was the same camera certified as accurate.
"You can't say that that camera is the camera that is referred to in the certification document," he said.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/another-court-blow-for-victorias-traffic-cameras/story-fn7x8me2-1226130929747
Barrister and traffic camera law expert Michael Kuzilny expects the Pitman and Docker wins to prompt thousands more motorists to contest fines in court.
"These two cases come as a breath of fresh air to Victorian drivers because it shows courts, for a change, are starting to listen and if there is reasonable doubt, defendants are starting to win cases," he said.
Ringwood judicial registrar Angela Soldani ruled in favour of Mr Docker, 65, after he defended himself and successfully argued there was no proof the camera that snapped him had been tested for accuracy as the law demanded.
"This creates sufficient doubt as to the reliability of the images taken and I therefore dismiss the charge," Ms Soldani said in court on July 15.
Prosecutors in speed and red light camera cases produce the photograph taken by the traffic camera, as well as a certificate to say the camera has been tested.
The serial number of the camera appears on the certificate but doesn't appear on the actual photograph.
Mr Docker argued this meant there was no proof the camera that took the photo of his vehicle as it turned right from Stud Rd into Ferntree Gully Rd, in Scoresby, was the same camera certified as accurate.
"You can't say that that camera is the camera that is referred to in the certification document," he said.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/another-court-blow-for-victorias-traffic-cameras/story-fn7x8me2-1226130929747
Knoxville red-light camera tickets fall sharply because of new state law
Knoxville traffic citations fell 73 percent from June to July as a result of a new state law regulating red-light camera use, figures show.
Beginning July 1, when the law took effect, the Knoxville Police Department stopped issuing $50 violations for improper right turns recorded by cameras at 15 city intersections.
KPD Capt. Gordon Catlett, who oversees the photo enforcement program, said violations decreased from 4,826 in June to 1,308 in July.
Catlett said KPD officers continue issuing violations for drivers captured on camera running straight through a red light or improperly turning left.
Only right turns on red are exempted from the cameras' $50 gaze.
"The real story is going to be in about four months when people realize they don't have to stop before making a right turn and we see an increase in rear-end collisions," Catlett said.
In Farragut, Traffic Enforcement Manager Ben Harkins deemed the new statute "a bad law." Farragut also ceased July 1 issuing $50 right-turn-on-red violations based on camera evidence.
Records show Farragut issued 2,504 red light camera violations in April, May and June, an average of more than 800 violations a month. Farragut has a contract with RedFlex Traffic Systems to provide eight cameras at four intersections.
"We're still sending out more than 300 violations a month on the left turn and straight-through violations," Harkins said Tuesday.
"We have reduced the number of people running red lights," Harkins said. "Now that the public knows we have to have an officer out there to enforce (stopping for righthand turns), we're going to be less safe."
The new law was the result of an outcry across the state about the cameras. Opponents of the devices argued the cameras were merely a revenue generator for cities and had little to do with safety.
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/sep/07/new-laws-effect-no-more-tickets-for-illegal-on/
Beginning July 1, when the law took effect, the Knoxville Police Department stopped issuing $50 violations for improper right turns recorded by cameras at 15 city intersections.
KPD Capt. Gordon Catlett, who oversees the photo enforcement program, said violations decreased from 4,826 in June to 1,308 in July.
Catlett said KPD officers continue issuing violations for drivers captured on camera running straight through a red light or improperly turning left.
Only right turns on red are exempted from the cameras' $50 gaze.
"The real story is going to be in about four months when people realize they don't have to stop before making a right turn and we see an increase in rear-end collisions," Catlett said.
In Farragut, Traffic Enforcement Manager Ben Harkins deemed the new statute "a bad law." Farragut also ceased July 1 issuing $50 right-turn-on-red violations based on camera evidence.
Records show Farragut issued 2,504 red light camera violations in April, May and June, an average of more than 800 violations a month. Farragut has a contract with RedFlex Traffic Systems to provide eight cameras at four intersections.
"We're still sending out more than 300 violations a month on the left turn and straight-through violations," Harkins said Tuesday.
"We have reduced the number of people running red lights," Harkins said. "Now that the public knows we have to have an officer out there to enforce (stopping for righthand turns), we're going to be less safe."
The new law was the result of an outcry across the state about the cameras. Opponents of the devices argued the cameras were merely a revenue generator for cities and had little to do with safety.
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/sep/07/new-laws-effect-no-more-tickets-for-illegal-on/
Red Light Ticket Class Action Lawsuit Notices To Be Sent
METAIRIE, La. -- A class action lawsuit over red light cameras is officially on the books in Jefferson Parish.There have been a number of challenges to the red light statute in Jefferson Parish even after the cameras were turned off nearly two years ago.Sources tell WDSU that residents should begin receiving notices in the mail if they received a red light camera ticket and paid it in Metairie. The notices will be sent automatically and no action will need to be taken on the driver’s part.
Also included in the paperwork is information about how to opt out of the class action lawsuit.
The lawsuit names the defendants as Jefferson Parish and Redflex Traffic Systems -- the Arizona based company which runs the cameras.
Also included in the paperwork is information about how to opt out of the class action lawsuit.
The lawsuit names the defendants as Jefferson Parish and Redflex Traffic Systems -- the Arizona based company which runs the cameras.
The lawsuit claims that the red light camera program is illegal because it violates the U.S. Constitution and Louisiana State law.The suit seeks to reimburse all fines paid.By remaining a class member, drivers won’t be able to file their own lawsuit.Those who take part in the class action won’t be responsible for any costs or attorney fees.
Read more: http://www.wdsu.com/news/29098687/detail.html#ixzz1XGVv20We
Read more: http://www.wdsu.com/news/29098687/detail.html#ixzz1XGVv20We
Monday, December 14, 2009
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