South - speed trap South Carolina

Well it happened.... I got my first speeding ticket in 8 years...via MAIL! I am from Florida, passing through Ridgeland, South Carolina, interstate last week 70 mph zone. ticket says 81 in 70????? Well being from out of State, they expect out of staters will pay it, instead of demanding there day in court... cheaper for driver. SPEED TRAP!

You may want to read this article about Ridgeland and then check out the other two links. http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/32/3226.asp

http://www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/docs/2010/sc-junecam.pdf

http://www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/docs/2010/sc-julycam.pdf

Great post s_jennings !

Thx for the info !

Well it happened.... I got my first speeding ticket in 8 years...via MAIL! I am from Florida, passing through Ridgeland, South Carolina, interstate last week 70 mph zone. ticket says 81 in 70????? Well being from out of State, they expect out of staters will pay it, instead of demanding there day in court... cheaper for driver. SPEED TRAP!

Welcome to FT, wallyjacks8!

If I am driving up I-95 from Orlando to Charleston (and do not exit I-95), do I have anything to worry about?

Do the Ridgeland cops patrol I-95?

Welcome to FT, wallyjacks8!

If I am driving up I-95 from Orlando to Charleston (and do not exit I-95), do I have anything to worry about?

Do the Ridgeland cops patrol I-95?

By all accounts, yes, the speed cameras monitor traffic on I-95. I hope this doesn't give any ideas to the already-notorious speedtraps of Waldo and Lawtey up here in N. Fla...

As a regular I-95 traveler between Florence and Jacksonville, I find Ridgeland is only one of several small SC municipalities who annex sections of the interstate solely for revenue generation. Others are Yemassee, Hardeeville, and Summerton.

Received a photographic ticket from Ridgeland, SC. I did not respond.

South Carolina Code Section 56-5-70, effective June 11, 2010 states “A person who receives a citation for violating laws relating to speeding or disregarding traffic control devices based solely on photographic evidence must be served in person with notice of the violation within one hour of the occurrence of the violation.”

Prior opinions from the South Carolina State Attorney General’s Office dated March 11, 1996 and October 31, 2002 stated that photo enforcement is illegal in South Carolina. South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford signed a law banning the use of red light cameras and speed cameras in the state of South Carolina in June 2010.

The Attorney General’s Office also ruled that it would not be legal “for a law enforcement agency to send citations to a registered owner by certified mail” since “no state law authorizes the use of such process.”

When you receive a speeding ticket under normal conditions, you receive it in person from a Law Enforcement officer and you sign the citation promising to appear in court or pay the fine prior to the court date. When you get a photo camera radar ticket by mail, you never sign anything. No one knocked on my door and told me what I was being accused of or charged with nor did I sign a ticket thereby agreeing to pay the fine or appear in court.

If they do not send these types of tickets out via "certified mail" there is no way to prove that you ever received it. Remember, these types of speed traps are a business.

You've done your research! ^

Are you saying you weren't speeding or shouldn't have gotten a ticket because you were going just 9 mph over the posted limit? If you had your day in court, what would be your defense? Any chance you were caught by a camera? Such tickets are typically mailed, at least in some areas of the country. We're currently in northeastern Brazil, where cameras are routinely used to catch both speeders and red-light runners (though there is a law, at least where we are, saying that there needs to be a sign advising drivers of such cameras, so people see the signs, at least regarding the speed cameras, slow down until they pass the camera, and then resume speeding). Notices are mailed.

You probably shouldn't speed on 95 if you want to avoid a ticket.

Sen. Larry Grooms, is introducing a bill in the 2011 S.C. legislative session to outlaw Ridgeland's use of traffic cameras to ticket speeders on I-95.

If I am driving up I-95 from Orlando to Charleston (and do not exit I-95), do I have anything to worry about?Not if you drive the speed limit. ;)

Am I the only one who finds it... interesting ...(to say the least) that people who are apparently happy to ignore one law (posted speed limits)..

...will demand that another law (serving citation in person) must be rigidly adhered to!

Seems a tad hypocritical to me!!

South Carolina's whole "legal system" with respect to traffic tickets is a joke. The officer is the prosecutor, in front of a magistrate or city judge. How do those trials come out? No need to ask.

Ridgeland's cameras used to trigger at 85 mph; looks like they have adjusted them.