Car Camera Fine.......Any Advice?

gatita

My partner received a letter from the Police Camera Dept. today saying he had been photographed passing a red light. I am totally gobsmacked as he is such a law abiding person when driving, I am always urging him to " go on you can make it" but he never does. He cannot understand it at all either. The traffic light in question is at one of the main bottle necks in the S. West, coming off the A38 onto a roundabout. The speed he was going at is supposedly " 16 miles p.h "
The only thing he can think of is that he had passed the light legally, but the driver behind him triggered the camera, and as he waas stuck in the traffic ahead....was penalised. I know this must sound very far fetched............ but I KNOW he would never go through a red light!

Can anyone offer any advice as to how proceed.......... should he just pay up, which really galls me to do this, can we ask to see the evidence?
Any comments or advice would be so welcome.
As he says, if I knew I was guilty I would just pay up........(he is a prison officer! lol) but something about this is not right.

smidge_2

Hi

Hate to say it but as far as i know it is now up to you to prove yourself inocent i tried this my self in Jaunuary and to be honest just pay the fine now before they screw you out of some more money. My story is i got GATSOed for speeding i was doing 50mph in a 50mph zone but because i was driving at 17tonne wagon i was supossed to be doing 40mph my argument being i was on a duel carrageway and the GATSO was possitioned litterally 10 yards after the speed sign that said 50mph i can't slow a wagon down fully loaded in that time and also when i finaly made it to 40mph i litteraly stopped the traffic and had idiots trying to overtake me into on coming traffic (changed to single carrageway). I appeared in court to state my case and guess what i ended up with a £450 fine instead of a £60 fine because it was up to me to prove myself innocent. It is not worth arguing cause they have evidence to prove that you did this whether its not like him or not this is what they are going to say pay it now before it becomes a BIG fine

Jo

miss_lisalou

Jo's absolutely right. I've been driving for 15 years and had never had so much as a parking ticket until I passed a red light earlier this year. It was icy and I made a judgment call that it was safer to carry on than brake suddenly...and...zap...it got me. People said I should have disputed it and gone to the Magistrates but I know they don't like "time wasters" and will impose and even bigger penalty unless it really is something trivial (like the chap in Peterborough who was fined for combing his hair whilst stationary at a roundabout, the Magistrates thought the police were time wasting in that instance...but we're not all that lucky)

You can ask for a photograph but bascially, they've got you. If it happened at night, as mine did, your partner might have noticed the 2 flashes the camera takes. The positioning and timing of the camera is very specific so that it's not likely to be triggered by follow on traffic. Not impossible I guess, but the courts have heard every excuse in the book and if you go with that as your defence then I wouldn't hold my breath. Sorry

MarkyMarkD

I'm a bit confused by your wording about him going through the lights legitimately but then being held up in traffic. Are you sure he didn't go through the lights on (say) amber, really slowly, and THEN trigger the red light camera by passing over the sensors (a few feet past the lights) when they were red? Or did the rear of his vehicle cross the line when the lights were red (which is still an offence).

If that were the case, there are two points:

(1) he shouldn't have gone past the lights if there was a big pileup of traffic immediately beyond them and hence he wasn't very sensible; and
(2) he didn't actually pass the line whilst the lights were red and hence he's innocent.

You can ask to see the photos proving that he passed the line on red ... but you won't necessarily get these before going to court, from what I've heard. And then, as the other posts say, you will tend to be fined more if found guilty than if you just paid up now.

From my reading of the situation (which may be wrong for which apologies) I would pay up as the situation seems somewhat doubtful.

IvanOpinion

As a policeman friend of mine always says ... he will let anybody off if they can come up with an original excuse. I was always taught that you never go beyond a traffic light unless you can reach the far side of the junction (not sure if this is in the highway code or just what I was taught).

The other possibility is that your partner simply had a lapse in concentration and, due to other things on his mind accidently went through a red light (I have done that - fortunately I did not cause an accident).

Ivan

miss_lisalou

unfortunately if it's a camera that caught you, there's no discretion on the part of any individual as to whether ot not you get the fine and points. And you're right, the highway code states you should not enter any junction, be it roundabout, T-junction, traffic lights etc, unless your exit from it is clear. One of the least obeyed rules I've found

surfcat

..and in this thread we've had the old chesnut of "but the camera was only ten yards after the speed sign...it's so unfair"

The law states you must be obeying the speed limit as you pass a sign. If you can't see a sign from far enough away to slow down, you shouldn't be driving IMHO.

Murray

Hello,

If I were in your position I think I would ask for the photographs (just to make sure there wasnt a mistake, that they read the reg number wrong etc). If its unlikely that the photos will arrive before the fine deadline then I'd offer to drive to the police station to see them. If this isnt possible then I'd pay the fine and hope that if I could prove my innocence once I'd paid the fine then I'd be refunded.

If the photos confirm that it is your partners car, I think that it's highly unlikely that you would get away with it with any excuse/reason. I know of someone who crossed the line while the light was on red to make way for an ambulance and he still got fined...ridiculous IMO!!

RedOnRed

You can do what I did and request a photo, ask to see evidence of the callibration and just basically try and bore them into submission. It worked for me caught doing 93 in a 70...allegedly.

However, these traffic light ones are a different kettle of fish really. They seem to be clamping down now on petty driving offences.

They're now using the London Congestion Charge cameras to catch people stopping on the yellow no entry grid squares. Which is a £100 fine, reduced to £50 if you agree to be ripped off quicky.

Stonk

They're now using the London Congestion Charge cameras to catch people stopping on the yellow no entry grid squares. Which is a £100 fine, reduced to £50 if you agree to be ripped off quicky.

This does not constitute being "ripped off". If you do not want to pay the fine, then do not commit the offence. Everyone on the road, except those who shouldn't be, knows it's against the rules to stop in yellow box junctions.

HeMan_3

you can stop in thr box if your exit is clear buy is being blocked by oncoming traffic.