On my way to check out some music in DC, and my reckless driving was captured on film. I’m driving a Nissan Murano, in the left turn lane headed away from the camera.
A few weeks later I received a ticket for $150 for running a red light. The still photos showed my vehicle, but something looked wrong to me. I didn’t see any evidence of going through the light. Fortunately there was a link to video of the incident, which I downloaded (and posted here)
It didn’t look like I went though the light, so I contested the ticket online.
A month later I received a second notice that my objection had been reviewed and was found to have no merit. No merit! The traffic rules in DC state that if you proceed beyond the stop line and into a crosswalk you have gone through the light. I followed up with research online and discovered numerous other similar cases of red-light-robbery done by DC cameras. It appeared that fighting any further would likely result in costing me even more time and money.
This “violation” shown in the video cost me $150. If you notice, there is a police officer that pulls up right behind me at the end of the video – and you would think that if I was operating my vehicle in an unsafe manner, the cop would have pulled me over. No, that did not happen. Hmm…. I wonder if the pedestrian in the crosswalk was cited for jaywalking, as they could not have had the “walk” signal…
The moral of the story is – make sure you stop behind the stop line, or get out your checkbook.
