You’re lucky: My wife got a red light camera ticket about a year ago, and the fine was almost $500.
I just heard on the radio that there’s a scam going around (in North Texas, at least, maybe elsewhere too) where you get a phone call and the person on the other end says that they are a police officer and that you have recently been caught on camera running a red light. Then they ask for your personal information (SS#, DL#, DOB, credit card info for ticket payment, etc.). Probably not something a lot of us would fall for, but apparently many people are getting taken by it.
A red light camera ticket is not a moving violation (at least not in Illinois). It doesn’t count on your insurance, and you’re not required to even show up to court to contest it. You can do it by mail, just like with a parking ticket.
As others have said, don’t worry until you get an actual ticket in the mail. That ticket will have photos, and possibly a link to a video, that shows you running the red light (presuming that’s what you did). Quite a few times I’ve seen the flash but then I get nothing in the mail.
If it happens, just man up to it.
This line really takes away from your original pitch of “it was just an honest mistake”. I kinda had sympathy, till you started asking how to avoid justice.
It won’t kill you. If the process server turns up at your door, own up, get it out of the way, be a man (is that really how it works there?)
I think it is a moving violation in California, that’s probably why the fine is so high here.
Answer 2 is correct, sort of. The proof is just to show that you are not the person in the photograph sitting in the driver’s seat. Then the DMV or whoever will ask who is the driver, and send the ticket to that person.
I was going to say, $300 seems pretty steep for a red light camera. It’s $100 here. Then again, it seems like fines for everything are much higher out there. This guy was just caught doing 182mph in Chicago and his fine was $375 and an order to buy high-risk insurance.
Here in Florida it is treated like a parking ticket. It is a $158 fine and no points. Most of my objections to red light camera tickets went away when the Florida law specified that the company running the camera could only be paid a flat fee and not a percentage of the ticket revenue.
BTW my TomTom GPS actually has a feature that warns you when you are approaching a camera intersection, but you need to sync your GPS to update the database.
You do realize that all this evidence suggests that your friend was in no way the target of a ticket. In all likelihood you friend spent a year hiding from UPS deliverymen and Girl Scouts selling cookies rather than a real process server, and is proud of it enough to tell you about it. 
Ever seen that smilie in MSN messenger that’s just a blank stare back at you? I wish we had one of those.
If you think fine of almost $300 to be “justice” for a very questionable traffic offense, you’re different than me. It’s not like I blew through a solid red light- I barely scotched through a yellow light. No one’s life was in danger. I just bought a car yesterday. Do you think I have an extra 300 bucks lying around for this bullshit?
Plus I’m pretty sure it’s leveled against the owner of the car, rather than the driver, so they don’t care who was driving - just pay them. (Obviously it’s different if your car was stolen shortly before the violation occurred.)
Do these cameras typically take pictures of the front or the rear of the vehicle? In Florida that don’t have front plates, so if a camera in another state situates its cameras to snap the front of the vehicle, they won’t get the plate number.
I think there’s two cameras, one for the front and one for the back. We don’t have front plates, either.
Relevant amusing story, with a rare police chief with a sense of humor.
Chicago gets the rear of the car, since they don’t care who’s driving it. (Illinois requires both front and rear plates, though.)
If it really was yellow, you should be fine. I’ve had cameras flash at me at various intersections for completing a left hand turn when the light turns red and the such. I know they’re not supposed to be triggered, but sometimes they are, for whatever reason. I’ve never gotten tickets in the mail for those. Here in Illinois, at least they show you a video, and they send you a picture of your vehicle in the process of running the red. They clearly show a picture of the instant the light turns red and if your vehicle is just entering the intersection, you’re screwed. If it changes while you’re in the intersection, you’re fine.
Then again, you’re in California, so who knows. I personally wouldn’t lose any sleep of it if I were sure the light turned from yellow to red while I was clearly in the intersection. It’s possible the camera wasn’t flashing for you, but for someone behind you, or somebody making a turn without coming to a complete stop, etc.
In parts of the Bay Area, they have videos of your infraction. My neighbor just got a notice and a link to where she could watch the clip.
The cameras will also go off if you approach an intersection too quickly before stopping. As long as you come to a full stop behind the limit line, you’ll be okay.
Someone told me if you shake your head real fast, you can dispute it in court that that isn’t you. I love that mental image.
The one hubby got shows his face as clearly as his driver’s license.