so, the story is as follows......

my cousin was driving my car........run a red light and a ticket was sent to me for $446 + traffic school?

can i just go to court and say it was not me? the photos clearly show it was not me....but im afraid they going to want all information on who was the driver.

any experience?

 

its your cousin not your brother! (dont take the fall!) and you do not want to go to driving school! Go to court and see what happens, worst case scenario gotta let them know.

 

Depends on jurisdiction. Check with the 1 800 traffic shysters in your area.

 

Don't know about where you live but up here in BC if the driver does not agree and signs a responsibility form for a red light ticket it falls on the RO

 

I had 2 of them from my buddy driving my car.. He had to go to court with me and admit to it. He paid the fines.

 

Just do the response saying it's not you. They can't force you to turn in your cousin and the evidence shows is not you.

 

$446 AND traffic school?!?! Jesus man, how fast was he going?!

 

And this is why I never lend my car to anyone.

 

Yeah I'd bring the cousin along, just to be on the safe side, he was the person that committed the violation not you, so it's not your fault. And he might be able to say he was in the intersection when it changed, I know a lot of red light cameras around denver and even fort collins will ticket you if youre in the intersection when green and it changes (ei waiting for a left turn) though state law specifically states you have to go.

This right here

 

The fines can be pretty outrageous, the cameras don't do much to prevent accidents in most area and in many cases most of the money goes to the camera operators for whatever jurisdiction they're in. If your cousin is in the LA area also, I want to stress that you have to be extremely careful and do your research, but if it was a city camera I don't believe Los Angeles City has the ability to levy points on your license and they don't have a means to enforce collection (basically they can't do anything to you) and generally hope people just pay up but I also thought they were pulling most of the cameras.

If it was another city or county camera or in other area you'll be on the hook but it shouldn't be too bad to fight. If you have to go to court you can sometimes argue that there wasn't an officer to cite you at the time of infraction took place or state that you weren't driving (if you really weren't and the picture clearly shows that). They may try to compel you to testify who was driving (so they can send them the ticket) but usually stating you don't know or can't remember on that date or it might be multiple people will get it thrown out. If it's not worth the time and hassle a traffic lawyer might be another option.

 

So the way I've handled them and so have my folks, when you receive the letter on the ticket, just hold onto it and don't respond to it at all. I was basically told by a highway patrol friend that they can't really press charges in court against you as there was no officer present when you made the violation. No one actually wrote you a ticket and said appear here on this date.

Technically you should be fine with ignoring it. I have yet to receive any further information about it and I haven't had any phone calls, letters or rate increases. I've been able to register my vehicle just fine too. Again, my advice, just ignore it.

 

This^^^^^^^. They will send you to a credit collector though

 

First off, it is not the duty of the individual to identify the driver of the car - that's the basis of habeus - it is the city/state's responsibility to identify the driver, have the appropriate records to implicate the individual, and the means to reach them. If you're willing to go that far in terms of court appearances, you can push them to jump hoops. It is not your responsibility to tell them who its guilty - it is theirs. That's the very basis of law enforcement, and too many people are willing to 'fess up' and help the process!

As far as the "ignore" stuff, I don't know how far you can go - I heard that it was a couple years ago, but maybe not now.

Red-light camera tickets? You can ignore them, L.A. officials say - latimes.com

California Court of Appeal Throws Out Red Light Camera Ticket

Home - Fighting Red Light Camera Tickets

 

What terrible advice. That is just not true at all. And OP you can either take the fall or your cousin can. Go and say it wasn't you driving, they'll ask for you cousins info and if you don't give it to them they can charge you for obstruction if they really wanted too, or say since you don't know who was driving the car must have been stolen.

 

$446 + traffic school for running a red light?

 

I once got one with my dad driving my car which I didnt ignore on purpose, I just forgot to response to it. It never came up on my record. This happend in arizona though.

 

Unfortunately the state and a lot of municipalities like the use the vehicle code as a revenue stream vice primarily being about safety. The actual state baseline fines aren't too bad but a lot of counties and other jurisdictions add on fees that raise the price to some pretty outrageous amounts.

I know a few law enforcement officers in various agencies and while most of them don't know how much a fine is going to be they go to court appearances and have a pretty good idea the general range they run and a majority of them aren't too happy how the vehicle code and other traffic laws are being used. That's why it's always good to be nice and polite on a stop. Many times if you were breaking the law they'll write it up as something saving you some money or not tack on charges like people get when they start getting an attitude. You can always fight it later but some of the fines you could be hit with are really bad. Like many things $400-900 range for some of the bigger violations.

 

maybe u guys will learn now, pays for itsseltf

 

So you are supposed to click this at every stop light?

Guaranteed that you would be screwed if you ran "smoked" in my area!

 

It would just be so much easier not to run a red light ^