Appeal for Red Light Camera Traffic Infringement Notice [ACT] ?

IC on 03/05/2018 - 21:18
Last edited 03/05/2018 - 21:43 by 1 other user

Long story short. I'm in Canberra and just received an infringement of $451 and 3 demerit points. This is my first ever traffic infringement.

Offence description is 'entering intersection or marked foot crossing when traffic light red'. Caught by a camera from the way it looks.

Based on the timing, it was 5.12pm, peak hour and probably bumper to bumper.

I've asked to view images and waiting to see what looks like really.

What are people's experiences with something similar? Any chance of appealing? Success stories?

Automotive

Comments

  • airal3rt on 03/05/2018 - 21:25
    +1

    Well, running a red light is fairly cut and dry. Did you enter the intersection when the light was red, or did you not?

    • IC on 03/05/2018 - 21:30
      -1

      I really doubt I ran the red light honestly, it's very unlike my driving behaviour. I could have stood past the line slightly given the traffic at the time. I wonder what the images will show. Never had a traffic offence so this has caught me by surprise. It's pretty expensive one!

      • the-mal on 03/05/2018 - 21:43

        Red light cameras used to take 2 pictures to show your movement through an intersection so they wouldn't just pick you up for nudging across the lines.

        If you were in the area at the time there's a massively high certainty that you ran the red. Maybe just the complacency of traffic and the end of a work day.

        See what the pictures show, but I'd bet money on the fact that you ran a red (intentionally or otherwise).

      • trustnoone on 03/05/2018 - 21:49

        Any chance of appealing?

        I agree its expensive, more then I agree it should be. I'm not a lawyer but end of the day it all comes down to the law, if you did break it and thats the fine for it (which I think you can actually check online somewhere the cost?) then unless there is some other "law" that gets you out of it (like emergency for an ambulance) its like the above says, its cut and dry, I don't think they will bend the law or ignore it.

        I feel your hope is either you didn't break any law (so this was wrong) or the situation is a grey area, either way hopefully the images will tell you more and maybe help in your decision.

        Also I heard in NSW if you have had a clean record for 10 years, and this relates to a driving offence it /may/ be possible to have it reviewed. I'm unsure if Canberra has something similar to look into?

        • alxr0101 on 04/05/2018 - 07:21

          In NSW, if clean record, cannot get a "warning" for serious offences such as red light or speeding over a certain limit.

  • Godric on 03/05/2018 - 21:35
    +3

    Pay the fine, move on

  • kahn on 03/05/2018 - 21:37
    +2

    Any chance of appealing?

    Invoke the chewbacca defense.

  • JimmyF on 03/05/2018 - 21:38

    Yep black & white, you ran the light. Simple as that. Pay the fine, move on.

  • TheOneWhoKnocks on 03/05/2018 - 21:39

    Wait to see the pictures in the meantime.

  • DogGunn on 03/05/2018 - 21:43

    I'd be putting aside the money for it now. You can write in requesting an official warning, but it's very unlikely to succeed.

    • JimmyF on 03/05/2018 - 22:03
      +1

      No official warning is EVER given for running a red light. They even say so on the website (in vic anyhow).

      • DogGunn on 03/05/2018 - 22:07

        Yes, they do say that on the VicPol website, however I know despite them saying that they have given them in the past.

        That said, this is the ACT - who knows what ACT Policing will do. And if the photo shows them running a red, you might as well try. You've got nothing to lose at that point.

  • ChrisLevo on 03/05/2018 - 22:08
    +7

    Ran a red light, reckoned that I was a d!ckead for doing so, and paid the fine.

    Didn't go on a bargain forum to say that I was a d!ckhead.

  • pegaxs on 03/05/2018 - 22:44
    +6

    Get the photos, have a look at them, confirm that it is you and your car and that it is what they say it is, and if it is, pay the fine. And if you did do it, stop running red lights. Other people want to go home to their families as well…

  • MathNerd on 03/05/2018 - 22:54

    Not guilty by reason of insanity.

  • Cheeper on 04/05/2018 - 01:33

    Do they have an amber light before the red in ACT?

    • alxr0101 on 04/05/2018 - 07:23

      It's the same system Australia-wide….

      • [Deactivated] on 04/05/2018 - 09:07

        It's the same system of lights but it is enforced differently. In Qld you have to stop for a red light, in some States (eg Victoria), you have to stop for an amber.

    • pjcook on 04/05/2018 - 07:54

      Yes they do, when I was living in ACT the Amber light was form more generous in time then NSW. I nearly got pinged in NSW due to the short period it lit compared to ACT.

      • EightImmortals on 04/05/2018 - 08:06

        There's been a few counties in the U.S. that have been busted recently for lowering the yellow light timings in order to raise more revenue. Wouldn't surprise me if our local snakes were doing the same thing.

  • Gotchas on 04/05/2018 - 05:23

    100% camera error

  • Gandalf the Thrifty on 04/05/2018 - 08:03
    +1

    Based on the timing, it was 5.12pm, peak hour and probably bumper to bumper.

    Sounds like OP is one of those people that blocks the traffic lights in peak hour by not waiting for a free space on other side of lights

  • EightImmortals on 04/05/2018 - 08:06

    If you have a dashcam you could line up the times with the fine?

  • jacross on 04/05/2018 - 08:21
    +5

    You should have posted this after you got the photos.

  • driver33b on 04/05/2018 - 14:26
    +1

    Everyone knows that the yellow light BEFORE it turns red means STOP, don't they?

    • Quantumcat on 04/05/2018 - 17:40
      +1

      Unless you're too close when it goes yellow that it would be unsafe to slam on the brakes.

    • pegaxs on 04/05/2018 - 21:40
      +1

      Where I live, I swear from how people drive, it means “all bets are off, speeding is allowed and encouraged, braking will end in disqualification…”

  • Ryanek on 04/05/2018 - 14:51

    In NSW you can view the infringement online with pictures. Is that not available in Canberra?

  • eggles01 on 04/05/2018 - 16:38
    -1

    well it is quite simple,you did the crime so now you do the time,go to act rta there may be somewhere you can see the photo by entering your infringement number,it is very hard to get any satisfaction from this greens/labor money hungry party in Canberra,when I came over from NSW I had a disability permit and I had ran out of my blood pressure pills and trying to get to the chemist before they closed I parked in a "permit zone" but it turned out to be a government medical permit zone as I said I had only been living in act for 4 days and did not know anything about act permit zones,I wrote a letter asking for leniency explaining my situation and included that the only traffic offence I had was a speeding fine whilst crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1962 for exceeding the limit of 30 mph and was booked for doing 33 mph the letter I received back vertually said the department has decided to continue with the illegal parking offence,I rang a number I was given and was told over the phone that I should have kept an eye on my medications as it was my problen not the governments problem that I had run out and I could not get another word out as the phone was immediately hung up,that should give the Canberra population a bit of a see through into what a slime ball of a Territory Government we have,I was 61yrs on a disability pension I am now 75 and still only have had that 1 traffic offence fine,best of luck

    • Baysew on 04/05/2018 - 17:57
      +2

      Congratulations on your 100th comment.

  • ShannonN on 04/05/2018 - 18:23

    If you still have the footage from your dash cam ( haven't overwritten it. Check that to see if the light was red when you came to it or turned red after you entered that kind of thing. If you have no evidence you are unlikely to get leniency, Check red light pics to see if you have a semi up your arse in pic, then say hey had to move or get hit, semis fault etc

  • IC on 04/05/2018 - 20:46
    +1

    Thanks for all the responses.

    Unfortunately I don't have a dashcam installed.

    For anyone interested in the rest of the story, I have obtained the images and it shows that the lights turned red when my back wheels crossed the line. The time it has on the photo says 0.8, I assume it's 0.8 of a second? So it came down to bad judgement.

    • pegaxs on 04/05/2018 - 21:54
      +1

      It’s usually the reference to how long the lights had been red for before the photo was taken.

      To put it in perspective, if this light was in a 60 zone and you were doing the speed limit, the light was red when you were about 15m back from the light. If the yellow comes on, it comes on for about 3 seconds, you were about another 45m further back. So, at an estimation, I would say that you were between 50 and 60m away from the intersection when the light went yellow. Given that you were not driving a fully loaded B-Double truck, it should have been plenty of time to stop in that distance.

      To put another version of it out there for interest, let’s say this was on an open road and the speed limit was 100km/h, you would have had a little over 100m to bring your car to a stop from the moment the yellow light came on.

      You tried to run the amber and you got caught, all trying to save a few measly seconds off your life.

      Pay the fine and be thankful you didn’t kill some other innocent road user…

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