The judge said that “the entire case against the motorist is stacked because the speed monitoring device is calibrated and controlled by Optotraffic.”
Elmwood Place is engaged in nothing more than a high-tech game of Three-card Monty," Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Ruehlman wrote in his Thursday decision. "It is a scam the motorist cannot win."
I know this topic has been discussed before, but to hear a judge call them a scam is kinda funny and sad
interesting. I believe there is a certain amount of truth in what he says.
Why should a Maryland corporation make $750,000 off speeders in Ohio? If I’m going to pay a $105 fine, I want my money going into a local cops pension fund, not to the stock-holders of an out of state corporation…I like my speed-traps run the old fashioned way…
Here in Calif we have red light cameras, and the company that owns the photo equipment gets part of the ticket revenue as a profit. But for a legal conviction, the car’s license number must be visible, and there must be an identifiable driver in the photo.
Some of these companies aren’t satisfied with that though. They want more $$$. So they go through the photos and even if the driver isn’t clearly identified, they’ll send a letter to the owner of the car, a document that looks like a real ticket. And cross their fingers and hope the car owner pays up. Many owners do, as they think it is a real ticket. But there’s no actual legal requirement to pay, as without a clearly indentified driver, no court conviction is possible.
Good job. I agree these things are a scam. They took them out in Minneapolis and had to pay back mucho money on them. There’s a guy in Sioux Falls waiting to go to battle on them in Sioux City I guess too. I saw the soft drink restriction was thrown out too for the same reasons.
Really there are people that will go to any lengths to control the behavior of others and think nothing of it. It really has to be squelched in the bud.
I could understand if it was run by local police stations, but to have an out of state company in charge…
@Caddyman: If I’m paying a fine, I’d be happy for it to go to road construction, public schools or other works, a shelter for wayward hamsters, pretty much anything local is fine except a police pension fund. Sounds like too much incentive for the cops to me…
I too think these are a scam. In my area they have them at intersections and a couple on straight stretches of road. There are warning signs but they are easy to miss. A better warning is watching a sea of brake lights come on in front of you.
Well, you could choose to stop at red light.
Speed cameras are a scam. Scam is the very first word that popped into my head when I first heard about them years ago. They are completely about the money and have nothing to do with safety.
"Well, you could choose to stop at red light."
You can do that, but it does not guarantee that you wont get a ticket. The camera is not a video camera, it is a still camera that takes a snapshot about a second or two after the light turns red. They send tickets to anyone who is in the intersection or has just cleared it. Unless there is a dedicated left turn lane, they can’t tell if the vehicle is intending to make a left turn and just got stuck by oncoming traffic nor can it determine if the driver in the right lane just turned onto the road while making a legal right turn.
Sometimes if the traffic is slow and the intersection is wide, it turns red before you can get through it.
good defense. the pic shows my car in intersection. i can say i was stopped. waiting to turn. the judge cannot determine if i was moving forward at 30mph or stopped. i hope the pic does not show my lack of turn signal. i can tell the judge the pic was snapped while the bulb was blinking on-off.
good defense. the pic shows my car in intersection. i can say i was stopped. waiting to turn. the judge cannot determine if i was moving forward at 30mph or stopped.
The whole idea behind the system is that it doesn’t take a pictuer unless you are speeding. The radar detects a car speeding and then triggers the camera to take a picture.
IF done correctly it can be useful…but obivously it’s NOT done correctly.
We are talking about stoplight cameras. When light is red, camera takes pic of intersection. Ur car is in intersection? Light is red? U got some explaining to do. Btw, I am all in on red light cameras. Put them in e Rey intersection in town.the sooner the better.
“The camera is not a video camera, it is a still camera that takes a snapshot about a second or two after the light turns red.”
Some of the cameras may be still cameras, but not all of them are!
How do I know that?
Because I was ticketed (by mail) for a “rolling stop” on the morning after Hurricane Sandy.
I was out & about in my car, looking for a place to get some breakfast, as I had no electricity at home. As I approached an intersection, I spied a Burger King that was open–the only business in several square miles that was actually open! I was apparently so excited about finally being able to get something to eat, that I did not make a full stop at the intersection.
How can they prove that it was a rolling stop?
Because on the summons that they mailed to me, in addition to a very clear photo of the back of my car, there was a link to a website where I could view a brief video of the situation. When I visited that site and entered the password that was provided, sure enough, there was a video of me doing a “rolling stop” at that intersection.
I guess that it depends upon which profit-making entity is running the local red light cameras for the government. Many of them may be merely “still” cameras, but I know from experience that some are actually video cameras.
Incidentally, I wound up paying $85 extra for my breakfast that morning as a result of my rolling stop and that damned video camera.
:-((
But, as others said, there are two different issues here–speed cameras are apparently different from red light cameras.
The argument in MN is u cannot prove who was driving ur car. BS. Ur car goes thru red light, uh, u r probably driving ur car. Maybe a stranger used it? So, bring ur “friend” to traffic court and have him pay ticket.
I would no call it a scam. Before I would suggest that it is a scam, I would want to see evidence that in some way it is detecting a violation, when there was none.
I would like to see a independent (not the state or the company making money) I would suggest that if there is evidence that the company or government staff, then the one who is providing bad data should be punished.
Don’t cry if you were not following the law.
Pretty close to storm troopers in my view. Maybe they could do something useful and come up with a meth camera instead. Oh, no money in it?
Meth, cocaine, and heroin for my town.
Though, they’d probably have to ship half the town to jail/prison if that happened.