Originally Posted by
biggestbopper
Well, IMHO, not exactly. I have been involved in several of these red light camera matters (not in AZ, I admit) and everyone has gotten theirs dismissed, if they choose to fight them.
The photos are often very unclear, or are of someone other than you. The officer at the Court, when you contest the ticket (there is usually no lawyer for the State prosecuring, just a cop) will try to bully you into identifying the pictured driver, then, after you don't, the Court will dismiss the charges with prejudice and that's that.
I, personally, do not want to pay camera tickets for some guy at the dealer's shop I never met who was taking my car for a test drive when he blew a light.
I realize the laws vary from state to state and the clarity of the photos can be an issue. However I have seen the photos from AZ cameras. They are clear as day as if you were standing still. The shot is from the front and the back of the car. How you chose to deal with this is up to you. "I'm just sayin'"...in AZ, they are pretty serious about the photo radar...speed cams and the red light cams.
But as I said before...if you don't speed and don't run the lights you don't have anything to worry about. There is a 10 mph grace on the speed cams and when the majority of the speed limits are 65 mph on the freeways around town and you feel you need to exceed that...you have a problem in my eyes. And my gosh...I don't think there are enough red light cams. Too many ppl die here in Red Light collisions. Plan ahead and leave more travel time. There is no excuse in my book to ever try to beat the light...it's just not worth it. The result it can cause to your family or someone elses is just to devistating.
I personally have witnessed a baby and an adult die from someone running a red light and had to stick around and give my statement as to what I saw to police. It's awful. I don't want to have to EVER have to do that again.