Friday 13th May 2005

Red light cameras step back

California court says wait before installing

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Red light camera

Traffic light cameras are on the back foot in California. The state's Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling yesterday that means local authorities must wait 30 days as a warning period before installing each traffic light camera.

It means motorist could mount challenges requesting refunds from cameras that have been improperly issuing tickets for months or years, and some towns may even abandon their implementation programmes.

The City of Costa Mesa has reportedly refunded 779 citations, and it will now have to refund that of Thomas Fischetti, whose case the high court declined to review today.

Fischetti received a $321 ticket for crossing the line 0.6 seconds after the red came on while turning left. He was following an articulated lorry, and so couldn't see the signal in time. An appeals court judge ruled that the town violated the state code by failing to provide 30 days' notice for that intersection, as the law requires. It also found the city improperly allowed another agency to control and set signal timing.

Well, it's a start...

[Sgt^Roc]

Seem s the lure of revenue has the yanks at it as well