Texas House votes to ban red light cameras

[brucesvt]

Here in El Paso it causes more accident than helps. People are always slaming on there brakes not to get a ticket.

+2 i can attest to this i see this happen on a daily basis.

 

[L8APEX]

We don't have them here, but we get what the WPD calls "Speed Enforcement Zones." They are usually carried out on Kellogg (US 54-400) and involves an entire police substation lining up on the onramp of an overpass 20+ cruisers and a few officers before the crest of the hill with lidar and a radio calling in all speeders including those doing just 1 mph over. The next mile of highway looks lke a parking lot. When they are done writing tickets they circle back and line up again. The city council has made special rules for Kellogg that make the tickets cost more as well as prevent you from using diversion or any other legal tactic designed to help mitigate the longterm costs from insurance rates increasing.

 

[TexRob]

They had one in Harlingen when I was out there last week. A friends wife got caught. She got a ticket mailed to her with a digital photo of the back of her car and license plate. My question is how do they know who was driving?
I guess the car owner gets the ticker :shrug:

Send them a Photo of some Cash and see it that will satisfy them.

 

[Mike's_98_Snake]

Speed Camera Operator Is Shot in Arizona - Wheels Blog - NYTimes.com

 

[sharkbite]

I'm glad to see 'em go. It may not be prevalent, but it seems that I see more people mashing the accelerator so they can make it through the intersection than there are people playing it safe. The cameras have succeeded in more pedal mashing in my limited experience.

 

[NyteByte]

That is right, if you own the car, it can be your dog driving the car, but it will be you, the registered owner, who gets fined.

The question is: How can this legally stick when they don't have a picture of the driver? They have absolutely no proof that the registered owner was driving the car.

Also, most of these red light cameras are operated by private, for-profit companies. What kind of legal recourse could they possibly have to collect money from you? They are not law enforcement.

They can send it to collections? With what proof? Seems pretty weak to me.

 

[txyaloo]

The question is: How can this legally stick when they don't have a picture of the driver? They have absolutely no proof that the registered owner was driving the car.

Also, most of these red light cameras are operated by private, for-profit companies. What kind of legal recourse could they possibly have to collect money from you? They are not law enforcement.

They can send it to collections? With what proof? Seems pretty weak to me.

The ticket isn't for the driver. It's for the owner of the car. Due to this, there are no points assessed, etc. There is normally a municipal ordinance in place that covers the cameras. If you weren't driving the car, you can provide the court a notarized statement identifying who was driving the vehicle at the time. Normally once that is done, the court will dismiss the ticket and issue it to the correct driver.

While the companies may not be law enforcement, the cities they contract with provide them access to law enforcement databases to identify the vehicles running the lights. Also most statutes and contracts provide them the ability to collect on the fines. Yes, they can send it to collections, and that's usually what happens.

 

[Sinister04L]

The same applies for toll roads too.