The kids’ mom ran a photo camera, but I was sent the citation since the car was registered in my name. It clearly showed her driving and the plate number. I contested it, it was thrown out once I showed I wasn’t a woman.
Clarification: Illinois requires you to have front and rear plates, last I checked. They don’t require photos of both plates for red light camera violations.
Since it’s akin to a parking ticket rather than a moving violation, they don’t care if it was you or your brother-in-law driving - there was a violation and the registered owner is getting mailed the ticket. The owner can shake down whoever was actually doing the driving for the money.
The deal-sealing photo in the ticket I got was from the back of the car. You could see my rear plate AND the light, and the rear of my car just in the intersection. My memory is that I was tempting a yellow light and that it turned red right when I entered the intersection. From the picture, that may have been the case, or it may have been red for 30 seconds. Either way, my hand was in the cookie jar.
I can’t find the exact news story, just this blog about short ambers on red light cameras. The article I read said the company that makes the cameras requires the city to have short ambers or those entering the intersection on the amber won’t be caught.
Nope, I don’t know what you mean by that.
I’ve no idea whether you have $300 lying around.
Either you think you did it or you don’t. If you don’t, then defend yourself against it legally, by all means. If you do, just pay the piper and move on. The amount is not relevant - it’s supposed to sting, or it would be pointless.
I just get the impression your stance is between the two - “I know I did it, and want to avoid the consequences”. I may be misreading you.
Yeah, “the stork approach” is to claim you were rushing to the hospital while in labor.
Entering on yellow doesn’t trigger the camera, though. It’s alleging that shorter yellow lights get more people who assume they’ll be entering on amber but get red instead, leading to more red-light tickets - and accidents. The city of Chicago asserts (via the link I posted above) that lengthening yellow times further would just encourage more people to push the envelope and does not lead to more accidents.
Ok. If they get a picture of my face, I will concede guilt. 
But I understand that many red light cameras don’t do that.
Slight hijack. In most (all?) states it is only a crime to cross into the intersection when the light is red. If it is yellow when I cross and turns red while I am in the middle of the intersection, no violation has occurred.
So, they send me another pretty picture of my vehicle, my smiling face and me holding a placard with my social security number on it. My vehicle is in the intersection with the red light on. Can’t I argue that it was yellow, I proceeded, and it then turned red?
Here in Chicago, they have video, so no. Also the still photo they send you also has information like how fast you were going and how long after the light turned red the picture was taken. Don’t know what it’s like elsewhere.
Geez, I got nailed by one of these cameras nearly 2 years ago. Here in SoCal, it was something like $465 (!!!) for the ticket, plus traffic school. It was well over $500 when it was all said and done. It was my first (and currently only) ticket in 20+ years, so I was hoping for a little leniency, but the camera doesn’t issue warnings apparently. sigh
It definitely is a point on the record if I hadn’t done the traffic school, so, boo.
Alice, when we bought our new truck, I was so tempted to run some of the red light cameras around here and flip them off…but tempting as it is, I don’t want to drop another $500. I think you should be okay.
A few weeks ago, hubby and I drove by one of the red light camera intersections and saw someone had hit the pole and a camera knocked down–official folk were there fixing it. We cheered the camera’s temporary demise.
I mentioned upthread that my wife got caught by one of these about a year ago, and the fine was similar. She also went to traffic school, and the majority of people in the class were there for red light camera tickets.
It’s definitely NOT just like a parking ticket in California. It’s a moving violation with a significant fine, and a significant effect on the traffic courts and traffic schools.