Steve Lopez: Are you ticked off by a traffic ticket?

Have you gotten a traffic ticket lately?

If so, did you choke when you saw the fee?

Traffic camera tickets, issued when you're caught on video running a red light, used to cost a few hundred dollars. But in the last couple of years, some are as high as $500-$600, says Steve Miller of Ticketbust.com, which tries to knock down the fees or get tickets dismissed altogether.

"Business is booming," said Miller, who told me that Californians are also ticked off about speeding ticket fines that run as high as several hundred dollars. "In the last two years, we've seen over a 100% increase in business each year."

Look, if someone's blowing red lights or barreling down a highway 90 miles an hour with a phone to the ear, I don't have much sympathy. But for questionable or relatively minor infractions, working folks are being hammered by fee increases imposed to fill budget gaps. Is it fair to charge someone half a month's rent, or the cost of a month's supply of food, for a slow-rolling turn as a light goes from yellow to red?

"They're dinging every single person then can," said Susan Novacoski, a registered nurse who opened her mail one day in November to find that she'd been hit with a $556 fee for allegedly running a red light in Loma Linda.

Novacoski didn't recall running a light, but didn't want to have to lose a day of work proving it. As a widow with a teenage daughter and a fulltime job at "a short-staffed hospital," she said, "I do not have a lot of time to play Perry Mason." She reluctantly decided to pay $219 to Ticketbust.com to handle the ticket, only to find a few days later that the ticket had been dismissed because of technical problems with the video camera ticketing system.

In fact, Loma Linda has since gotten rid of all its cameras because of complaints by citizens. Novacoski said that didn't do her any good. She's still out $219 for a violation she claims she didn't commit, and she struck out after wasting hours trying to get Loma Linda to cover that cost or at least give her an apology.

Do you have a horror story of your own?

If so, court is in session.

--Steve Lopez

Photo: An intersection in Costa Mesa. Credit: Marc Martin / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[lwps]

One more reason to park the car, and seek alternative transportation. Bike, bus or walk -- don't contribute to this madness.

[Mac]

Ah Steve, the can o'worms you have opened. TV critics were attending the summer press tour at the Beverly Hilton last year. About four of us (that we know of) were dinged by the camera light at the turn in off Wilshire, to get into the Beverly Hilton.

The tickets were all around $500 plus traffic school. There's apparently no right on red at this light, and to me it wasn't marked clearly. None of us were speeding, we just made the mistake of stopping, looking and turning red at this light.

Now, TV critic writers (especially the Internet type) are not paid lavish sums of money to begin with, so it left a mark for us.

I actually will not shop in Beverly Hills, Santa Monica or WeHo because of these camera lights, I stay clear. Viva Agoura, Calabasas and Westlake Village! I find everything I need there, thanks to fear of venturing to West LA for anything.

[Auto-de-fe]

yea, 185 for crossing when light was flashing red on foot!
the officer said that I should not cross when it begins
to flash! i told him it starts flashing ....
immediately!
185 is extremely excessive for a non-

[anonymous]

Red light camera tickets are atrociously expensive, but many people do not think they have the time to fight them. Without taking a day off work, you can fight an unjust traffic citation. California allows Trial by Declaration - a process in which a written statement is submitted by the defendant. If the defendant disagrees with the ruling, the case can still be taken to trial. The best website on fighting red light camera tickets can be found at highwayrobbery.net. With advice from this site, I was able to prove the yellow phase at a traffic light was too short and had my case dismissed.

[My view means nothing]

What's the matter, Steve, did you just get a ticket?

[Kent Mc Creary]

My mother got a ticket in Buena Park for not stopping for a school bus. The ticket including fees was $726. The worst part was that it could not be reduced. Talk on your cell phone, a judge can bump it down or dismiss it outright. Oh, and it was more expensive to go to traffic school to have the ticket removed from her record.

[MH]

My husband crossed a small, completely empty side street in Pasadena and was cited for jaywalking. Even though it was his first offense, the fine was $180. He's currently not working so instead did 18 hours of community service, but he still had to pay various fees amounting to $65.

In Sierra Madre, where the local police department has declared an all-out war on the city's residents and visitors, it's common to see a police car parked at any of the major four-way intersections and totally ready to pounce on anyone who fails to stop before the limit line. They nail you even if you're so much as an inch inside the crosswalk, even if there are no pedestrians around. It's predatory and infuriating.

[RICK]

Steve. I have been saying this for a long time. Please keep up the work on this issue. This has become a defacto tax and politicians do it because they can. When is enough enough? I'm not even close to a tea party member, however, on the taxed to death issue they are 100% right. On everything else they're usually crazy:) Keep up the good work. This is a very important issue. The punishment doesn't fit the "crime"

[shadowpark]

How much wasted resources and hours lost for work go to this traffic fine system I really think it would be an iterseting study is it really raising revenue or actually hobbling the citys income ie lost wages ect.

[RyGuy]

I got one of these friggin' ridiculous tickets a few months ago. Over $400, plus you pay roughly $60 for the "right" to attend traffic school, then you pay the school itself for the class. I now simply avoid that street altogether. If you own a business that has a "red light camera" near it... you should complain, complain, complain until they remove it!!! It's hurting your business as much as my pocketbook!

[Jim H]

Sorry Steve, but I'm all for charging people who fail to stop before turning right on a red light the same as those who run it.

In fact, this problem is now so pervasive, I'd be willing to suspend the right-on-red privilege completely for a year or two until people remember that you have to both STOP at a red light and YIELD to oncoming cross traffic before turning right.

[jay]

Why haven’t people taken base ball bats to these cameras or spray painted the lens? There's lots of thing people can do to ruin these 100,ooo$ cameras.

[Camticketed]

$219.00 is cheap by my comparison. My camera ticket for failure to stop on red while turning right cost me 355.00 plus $20.00 traffic school court process plus $45.00 traffic school.

[public service announcement]

Camera tickets are fairly easy to beat.

Your "Notice to Appear" must be RECEIVED within 15 days of the infraction. If you can prove that it was not received within 15 days (example - postmark was 14 days after the alleged infraction), the ticket will be dismissed in court.

Also, your court date must be within 45 days of arraignment (by CA law). You are entitled to a public and speedy trial. If the court does not offer you a court date within 45 days of arraignment, the case will be dismissed.

CA traffic courts are swamped these days and you will most likely NOT be offered a court date within 45 days of arraignment.

[Efrain Rojas]

In my Altadena neighborhood, the California Highway Patrol ambushes motorists at stops where drivers are not expecting to see the CHP-in quiet residential streets with 25mph speed limits. Having been nabbed myself, and stuck with elevated insurance rates for the next three years, I have absolutely no sympathy for soon to be laid off state employees and state employee unions.

[Raffi]

The price tag of these tickets is not where it ends, it ends with either forcing you to take traffic school, paying for it, and paying the state for the privilege of being able to take it, and sitting through a class, OR paying higher insurance premiums. They know we have no time for their games and most people will shell out.

I recently went to fight a ticket and the court treatment of the crowd was clearly meant to send a message. First they gave us a judge who was not a judge and gave the whole room 5 seconds to decide if they were willing to let this guy hear their case or exercise their right to a real judge, with NO details whatsoever on what either option meant. One guy decided to go with a real judge but decided a few seconds late and was chastised for it publicly. He still didn't know what it meant, but it turns out he had to wait hours for every other case to be taken care of before being taken to a different courtroom.

Everyone was given the "opportunity" to pay for traffic school once again after check in. You were warned very clearly that if you did not take this opportunity now, you would not ever be allowed it again. One guy asked after making a decent case for himself and was angrily told no by the fake judge.

The judge almost always of course went with the policemen, even in cases like mine where he would have had to be superman to explain how he can merge onto oncoming freeway traffic without ever losing visual sight of a car that had already passed him and was supposedly going way too fast.

It was a joke, and a sad one at that. They do NOT want you to fight your ticket, and do all in their powers to discourage it.

[G-Dub]

Got a ticket for crossing a double yellow and had to pay $300 (including the extra fee for traffic school). With my husband out of work, I really feel $300 dollars. I got a ticket for something I see at least 4 cars do every morning I'm at that intersection. Lame.

[Nathan]

There is definitely some abuse going on. I received a rolling right turn ticket (went through the red at Beverly and Wilshire in Beverly Hills). The offense was legit - but the fine with court fees plus $60-some for the privilege to do traffic school was over $500.

I had a coworker that went through the same red light going straight through the intersection paid the exact same fine.

The fine is clearly not commensurate with the magnitude of the offense.

[Chas]

It's really quite easy to foil the red-light cameras...just remove your front license plate. Even better, you can determine if the cameras are even operating by riding a bike through the intersection just after the amber light changes to red. Just be careful you don't get flattened by a lead-foot teenager.

[uncle_charlie]

Quit whining. Just pay the fine and do not do it again. It is only money.

[GrammarRules]

I would really like someone to look into those intersections with the countdown and camera. Oftentimes, the countdown is at 0, with light being yellow, and stays yellow for quite a few seconds. Do you try and stop, risking someone rear ending you or honking their horn because you should still go, or speed up to only realize the light turned red while you're in the middle of the intersection and get a ticket? I think once countdown is at 0, yellow should turn to red immediately. There are a lot of these on Washington Blvd. in Culver City. Another that comes to mind is at Santa Monica & La Brea.

[phil]

they need to charge that much for a ticket to pay scumbags like Rizzo hundreds of thousands dollars per year.

[mocus11]

Yeah, according to people like Slow-pez, budget deficits should be filled by tax increases, not increased traffic fines. He votes liberal Democrat so everyone gets a handout from government, then goes ballistic when he gets charged too much for a traffic ticket. Lopez wants half your paycheck to go to city, state and Federal taxes, not traffic tickets.

[mocus11]

Slow-pez must be one of those "greedy" people who thinks his money belongs to him, and not the government.

[times reader]

First of all, SHAME on you Steve for plugging ticketrip.com, are you getting a kickback? The answer is simple, DO NOT PAY IT. Tell the judge you will not pay, will not preform trash pick up or anything else... say send me to jail. You will walk in and out in about 20 minutes. Done deal. The punishment does not fit the crime. Let's all protest.