Want to fight that red light ticket? Good luck

Judge Susan Cline stepped into a small crowded courtroom in Prices Corner full of drivers hoping to contest red-light tickets.

It was a similar scene she repeats several times some days. And what she told the 20 or so people there was not what they wanted to hear.

She explained, basically, that they were wasting their time. The way the law is written, it is unlikely they will be able to successfully contest a ticket issued via a red-light camera.

"The city does not have to prove intent, or even that you were the driver of the vehicle," said Cline.

Red-light tickets are only dismissed for a few select reasons, and as a result, not many drivers win challenges. The Justice of the Peace Court 10, in Prices Corner, reviewed 850 challenges in 2013, 724 of which originated in Wilmington, according to the most recent data provided by the court. Of those cases, the judge dismissed just 63, about 7 percent.

If a driver was moving out of the way of an emergency vehicle or a funeral procession, then their case could be dismissed, Cline said. Or if a police officer or construction worker directed their vehicle through a red light. Poor weather is not a defense, nor is failing to see a traffic light because of large vehicles that might be blocking their view, she said.

After listening to Cline, Jim Murphy, a project manager, who lives near New Castle, decided not to fight. On a snowy day in February, he had crept through a red light at 13 mph on Pennsylvania Avenue in Wilmington, he said, fearing that he would skid into another vehicle had he tried to stop.

"I could have gone to trial with the judge, but she said she wouldn't accept these [weather] defenses," he said.

Murphy said the acceptable defenses should be listed on the citations that are mailed to drivers. Not only would he not have wasted his time at the courthouse, he said, but he would not have had to pay $35 in court costs.

Although Delaware's Justices of the Peace oversee red-light infractions across the state, most of the drivers at the Prices Corner courthouse were there because of tickets issued by Wilmington. In 2014, the city shortened the grace period granted to motorists after a signal switches from yellow to red, which has increased the number of citations.

That same year, Wilmington officials said that they expected to boost revenue from its 33 red-light cameras by a third to more than $4 million by dismissing fewer violations.

The city earned $3.1 million from its red-light cameras in the fiscal year 2014. Its total revenue during that year was $146 million.

The state of Delaware's red-light program, which manages most cameras in the state outside of Wilmington, took in $1.5 million in 2014. It also contended with far fewer in-court challenges than the city. In 2014, 260 drivers contested tickets, and 30 of them were dismissed, according to a report from the Delaware Department of Transportation.

The report also attributed a decrease in "angle crashes" to red-light cameras that had been implemented at 30 intersections around the state.

Researchers from the University of South Florida, in 2014, evaluated national data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and determined red-light cameras did not cause reductions in fatal crash rates.

In February, Reps. Ed Perlmutter from Colorado and Albio Sires from New Jersey, sponsored a resolution to ban red-light cameras across the country, stating that the increased use in the United States had not reduced crashes.

"Police officers are the only sure way to apprehend seriously impaired, reckless or other dangerous drivers," Perlmutter said in a statement.

Jim Prendergast, a construction worker from Virginia, thinks it's unjust that he has to pay court fees to contest his ticket, which occurred when he turned right onto North Scott Street from Fourth Street in Wilmington. He had driven all the way to Prices Corner from the Washington, D.C., area on Tuesday.

"They charge you more if you want to have your fair day in court," he said.

Sitting across from Prendergast, when Judge Cline entered the room, was the city attorney, a retired police officer and a representative from the Xerox Corp., the company that oversees the camera systems in Delaware. Rather than a ticket issuing-officer, it's the video and images from the Xerox's red-light cameras that are the main witnesses against the motorists.

The company earned $2.7 million in 2014, from the red-light cameras that are overseen by the state of Delaware. Xerox's cut of the revenue from Wilmington was $1.5 million during the fiscal year 2014.

Xerox's government and transportation operations worldwide accounted for 17 percent of its services revenue, or about $ 1.8 billion in 2014, according to its annual report.

David Bowie, a Wilmington resident who works at the University of Pennsylvania, called Xerox after receiving a ticket for making a right-hand turn through a red light on Lancaster Avenue, near I-95. Perhaps surprisingly, the company recommended that Bowie contest the ticket, he said. Although he appears to have a case, Bowie knew when he passed through the light that a ticket would soon arrive in his mailbox.

"I slowed down at the light, then the camera went 'flip, flip,' " he said.

Contact Karl Baker at kbaker@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2329. Follow him on Twitter @kbaker6.



