Posted on 07/20/2010 7:42:20 AM PDT by Daffynition
COLUMBUS, Ohio — For Columbus drivers, each new day brings a new round of traffic headaches.
For the city, each day brings a new batch of $95 tickets. More and more, the traffic cop responsible for the tickets is a camera, 10 Investigates' Paul Aker reported.
The cameras catch people in the act, blowing through red lights and turning right on red without stopping. The numbers show the program works. According to the city, the red lights have drastically cut down on serious crashes.
Drivers like Al Quinn said that it has also cut down on fairness.
"I can't make a safe right turn unless I've determined there's no traffic coming," Quinn said.
A camera snapped a shot of Quinn last August. The city claimed that he drove through a red light but Quinn denies it. He attended a hearing but when he got there, a traffic officer told him that he had to pay a bond equal to the offense amount so he could have a hearing.
According to Columbus policy, a driver has to pay $95 to have a hearing. If the driver does not pay, he or she loses. If he or she pays late, the payment rises to $120 and the driver could wind up at collections.
Reluctantly, Quinn paid the fee. The hearing officer found that he was not guilty.
"(The hearing officer) said, 'I don't find Mr. Quinn liable for this offense,'" Quinn said.
10 Investigates wanted to know how often the policy catches innocent drivers and forces them to pay just to get a hearing. We found plenty of cases.
In 2009, we found 60 cases. There were 71 cases the previous year. That is about 14 percent of the people who contest their tickets just are not guilty, Aker reported.
10 Investigates tracked down several of them and brought them to our studios.
"I feel like its highway robbery," said Janice Henry, who was found not guilty. "It's just not fair."
Dorothy Stills said that she had to use her child support credit card to prove that she was innocent. She said that she had no other money.
"It's totally unfair," Stills said. "It's unfair to anyone, even if you've got a good paying job."
Even more insulting, some drivers said, is what happens after you prove you're innocent. The city keeps your money for at least 60 to 90 days, Aker reported.
"I think the City of Columbus should be ashamed of itself," said Joshua Dressler, a nationally renowned law professor, who has authored volumes of articles and textbooks on criminal law.
According to Dressler, the system violates a fundamental concept of American justice.
"This system turns everything on its head," Dressler said. "It basically requires a citizen to prove himself or herself innocent of the infraction and requires them to effectively pay the penalty just to get themselves into court."
The concern has sunk in with some other communities. While we found a few Ohio cities have the upfront policy, 10 Investigates discovered other cities, like Cleveland, do not.
Toledo had a similar policy but changed it because it was considered legally questionable.
Columbus City Council President Mike Mentel was asked why he sponsored a law that required the upfront payments.
"We are assuring people show up (to court)," Mentel said. "If they have the adequate evidence, then the money will be returned to them."
Early on, Mentel seemed to think anyone who got a ticket must be guilty.
"If you don't want to face this problem at all, don't run a red light," Mentel said.
After Aker told Mentel of cases like Stills, Mentel seemed to have a change of heart.
"Let's get it done," Mentel said. "Let's not have a debate and talk about it. Let's get it corrected. Let's help this lady. Let's help other people in her circumstance."
If Mentel follows through, he might be able to put the brakes on criticism coming from people who had to pay for their day in court.
George Speaks, the city's Deputy Public Safety Director, said that there are benefits to the system. He said that red light tickets don't cost drivers any points against their license and there are no court costs.
Does it work....There are times when going through a light is the better alternative than hitting your brakes with someone on your tail or when it's slippery....
I've gone through a couple. I had control of my car....but what about the other guy.
Follow the money.
Machines, computers, etc should never be used to enforce the law. While they may understand the letter, they will never understand the spirit of it.
There’s also the situation where the car(s) in front of you going thru their turns stop or slow down and leave you stranded in the intersection. What else can you do at that point? The camera snaps you anyway and it makes you look like you are REALLY running the light.
Voters in Ohio, you are stupid for tolerating this.
In Maryland I know where the cameras are so I stop for those. They removed a number because drivers stopped running those specific lights so they were not paying for themselves
Then there’s the damn trailer truck in front of you...blocking the view of the lights....
Bull Shi@. If you believe in anything any form of Government says, I have some real desert property to sell.
said it will prevent repair costs for collisions....these have to be minor accidents because I can't even remember when we had a car death or even a bad accident in the city...It's 30 MPH and I certainly don't remember anything at the proposed intersections....
Bull....It’s 30 MPH in our city
“’I can’t make a safe right turn unless I’ve determined there’s no traffic coming,’ Quinn said.”
CAN’T make a safe turn? The wording implies he’d rather just make the turn, traffic or not. No sympathy for someone with that attitude
“Then there’s the damn trailer truck in front of you...blocking the view of the lights....”
Obviously you are following too close. Otherwise you’d have time to brake.
It appears that there are some problems with the enforcement end of the program, but I’ve seen far less red light runners with the cameras. And I appreciate the improvement.
These are all over in Britain and the locals are doing something about it. Typically involves a tire, gasoline and a fire. Crude but effective and won’t be long before it starts to happen here if this kind of BS continues.
It’s just training the folks to be sheep and accept whatever their fascist government tells them to do.
The red light cameras dont bother me because they are easy to spot, sometimes even have warning signs. The trick is to not let them shorten the yellow light time to boost revenues. They got caught trying that here.
Now MD has speed cameras, that has me more worried. Especially if they try to hide them. These systems are so expensive they only serve a tiny fraction of areas.
Back in the day a few well meaning kids with some pellet guns would have rendered this abortion of liberty asunder. That was back when the spirit of America was to resist tyranny and not beg for it.
If you're within that stripe...you can make the light before it turns red.
I've tried it....seems he's right...at least on our county/state roads.
I remember those days. But here in my part of Maryland the voters are trained Robots (County Motto :”Promote Civility”), the only rebels are those on Section 8 trying to break into my car at night.
Here in MD they have traffic cameras on almost all traffic lights to spy on drivers. Not sure what they are used for, maybe just traffic patterns.
$95? In the some areas of Calif the fine for this is $410!
$95? In the some areas of Calif the fine for this is $410!
“CAN’T make a safe turn? The wording implies he’d rather just make the turn, traffic or not. No sympathy for someone with that attitude”
’ “Then there’s the damn trailer truck in front of you...blocking the view of the lights....” ‘
“Obviously you are following too close. Otherwise you’d have time to brake.”
It appears that there are some problems with the enforcement end of the program, but I’ve seen far less red light runners with the cameras. And I appreciate the improvement
So you agree with “guilty until proven innocent” so long as you like the end results?
You have no problem with the police continuously monitoring your activity until they have something to penalize you with? You have no problem with being penalized without due process including a personal summons, eye witness identification of both he crime and the perpetrator, and the right to confront your accuser in court?
Who gets the ticket in Columbus the car or the driver? If it is the driver who identifies the driver? You know the part were someone looks at a face and puts a name to it? It doesn't happen with the system you approve of. A camera cannot put a name to a face so the only way it happens is for the camera victim to identify himself. But I suppose self incrimination is ok too as long as we are safer.
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