Red Light Ticket

I had a nice surprise in the mail in February. Apparently, I ran a red light in Tucson (Kolb and Speedway) in December and I was served with a Red Light ticket two months later. I don't remember running a red light, but there was my ugly mug right there captured on the ticket. My first ticket ever (well not including the one for 5mph over that really didn't count for much).

I did some research about tickets you receive in the mail, and everywhere I read said to not do anything about it because it is not a legal ticket if an government official (aka Policeman) did not personally hand you the ticket. Online advice said to take a chance that no one would come and serve you a ticket, that the court would forget about it, so that is what I did...nothing.

It was about two weeks before my court date when there was a knock at my door at 9pm. I opened the door and there was a man there to serve me the ticket. Ugh! I gambled and I lost! I had to scramble and go the court house in Tucson (I took off early from work to go, and got pretty lost in downtown Tucson...what a crazy area!!). I had to get my court date extended so I had time to go to Defensive Driving School. I had to pay a fine for the man to come to my house. And I had to pay a fine to get my court date extended. What an expensive gamble to have lost. My ticket was over $300, so I didn't want to pay that. With the fines and the admission fee for driving school, I still saved about $100 from the ticket.

On April 30, I went to the boring Defensive Driving school. I learned a lot, and I fulfilled my obligation and the ticket points did not go on my insurance. The most important thing I learned was that you cannot enter the intersection and stop to wait for oncoming traffic when turning left. You have to wait at the white line and then make a full turn. If you are stopped in the middle of the intersection, you are a hazard. Everyone does that, I've noticed...especially in Arizona. Now I will wait at the white line until the coast is clear and I can make my turn safely, even if it means people behind me honk at me.

I will also now try to avoid red light cameras. :) However, I just read that Sierra Vista is about to get four cameras in the near future. Yuck!

What I learned from this experience...don't trust the online advice about these tickets. I would have saved about $100 if I had just done what the ticket asked me to do in the first place. Lesson learned.