>
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 16:09:14 -0800
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.609)
> I am looking for any experience with traffic tickets. Apparently I
> crossed a flashing red light, although I could have sworn it was
> yellow. But red is bad, and if it is flashing and you cross it it's
> like running a red light. So I got a ticket for close to $400
> altogether (which I find outrageous, because what I did was perfectly
> safe in my judgement), and apparently have to go to traffic school to
> wipe my record clean.
You don't have to go, AFAIK, you just risk that you insurance rates go
up.
> I am wondering whether it is worth fighting the ticket in court,
> pretending that I saw a yellow light, not a red one.
Probably not. There's a quite interesting book, "Fight your Ticket...
and win!: California"
that I can highly recommend. Michael Rys is right that if the Police
Officer doesn't show up at the court date, the case is automatically
dismissed, and the chance of that happening is quite substantial.
However, if I remember correctly, in order to have a trial, you have to
plead not guilty, and if you do that and lose, you no longer have the
right to go to traffic school.
To get an idea of the process, it might be a good idea to attend a
session of traffic court. The proceedings are public and moderately
entertaining. You'll probably find (as we did) that IF the officer
shows up, your chances of prevailing are virtually zero. In particular,
the officers seem to be familiar with the strategies recommended by the
above book and typically are able to counter them easily.
Ultimately, the question of red vs. yellow comes down to the officer's
word against yours (speeding tickets can be a lot more complex than
that, and therefore might have more avenues of argument). I don't think
the legal system of any society in the world will take a defendant's
word over a policeman's.
> Has anyone been to traffic school? Any experiences that make this less
> painful?
If you're confident in your ability to pass traffic tests, you can
actually take traffic school online (at least in Santa Clara county).
Matthias
P.S.: Our ticket was for speeding (cheap) and then pulling over to the
left (median) of the highway instead of the right when the police car
stopped us (veeery expensive).
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Received on Wed Jan 07 2004 - 18:24:32 PST
