Need advice

[diamondrules]

your word vs. his and your probably not gonna win that one

not if it was on video

[Bowhunter004]

Let it all go. His question could have been sincere right? Or at least that is what he would tell his boss I am willing to bet.

Absolutely not. He was being a smart arse, He was well aware I did not need the ticket in spanish. You would think he would ask me that BEFORE he wrote the ticket. I was very perfessional and expect the same from him, thats NOT what happend. I will talk to the LT and express my thoughts

[Bowhunter004]

The sunlight in the eyes is not an excuse and will mean nothing to the judge. Drivers are responsible to adjust their speed according to whatever the conditions are at the time. It doesn't matter if that's rain, ice, snow, fog or sun in your eyes. If you couldn't see the light clearly, you were supposed to slow down to the point where you wouldn't run the light no matter when it changed. Sorry, but that's just the law.

Understood

[Rusty]

Given the information, I'm not sure his comment was intended to be offensive. Alot of people are quick to judge that it was, but have apparently never been faced with someone from the Hispanic community who can speak English, but can't read English. Bowhunter4, I don't know if you are Hispanic or not, or look Hispanic, but when he saw you reading over the ticket, it may have appeared to him that you were having trouble reading it. As for the ticket, DD is probably the best route.

[metalmangeorge]

I would let the higher ups know. If they do not do something about the light someone is going to get killed. And if the officer gets away with a smart a** comment like that it might make him think he can get away with more. I think you will have to pay the ticket but they should know about the danger it is causing.

[TxSuperDad]

go out to the light with a camera at the same time of day, when the sun is directly behind the light, take a few pic's and show them to the judge, he might let you off.

You BEat me too it. THis is exactly what I was going to tell you to do..

I thought about that too. Im sure they will say it doesn't matter what caused me to run the light. Only reason I might do that is to show that it IS a safety hazard and something needs to be done about it. Maybe they could put a light on the side of the light pole so it wont be in direct sunlight. Ive seen this done in bigger cities quite a bit.

You know for a fact there was no way to know that light had changed because of the sun in your face. This is what you need to do. Get your camera make sure it has time and date stamped correctly. Go back out to the intersection and take pictures from several differnt angles during that half hour. 15 mins before the ticket was written and 15 mins after. Make try to take pictures as close to the exact angle at time as the ticket. Also take pictures from where the officer was stationed veiwing the light so you can see what his line of sight was as well.

You also need to bring up the fact the he made a comment bragging about how many tickets he has written in the last hour at that redlight.. They can pull this info to see exactly. They can also veiw his dash cam for the comments that he made including be rude about the spainish comment althought that would be the least of my worries.

It can be fought and it can be won. I have had many tickets dismissed that were not my fault or I had no control over.

Ive had this same situation with a stop sign that was completely covered ( pole and all) and couldnt be seen no matter what. But becuase the office knew it was there he wrote the ticket and told me to take it to court. I did and I won after taking pictures.

The officer has to show up as well. If he doesnt its dismissed. Often times they are scheduled to work at the same time and cant make it.

I have had a couple of bogus EXTRA tickets written by writting the judge a letter and explaining the situation and what had happened.

There are alot of Judges that will look at the circumstances and see if you were right or wrong and will do whats right.

It all comes down to if you want to spend the day at court. IF not then pay the fine and do the time in defensive driving.

But if it was me and I knew 100% there was nothign I could have done then id be in court for sure.

[Cotton]

So you approached an intersection that you could not tell if you had a red light or not and you were traveling at a rate of speed that once you could tell you were going too fast to stop?

Sorry the fact the sun was in your eyes is not a defense.

Ask for DD, express your concern for the safety of others, make your suggestion about a side light and suggest a little research be done on accidents/red light tickets during that time of the day would most likely show the dangers of the intersection.

[Bowhunter004]

The more I think about it I don't really care about paying the ticket , its just a very dangerous intersection. Something has to be done to prevent a big accident

[Hot4huntin]

Deferred adjudication...

[jacobm24]

If you are going to take defensive driving,try to find a class to take.Don't do it on the
computer,you'll go crazy with that cr....p.

I disagree. Online was really easy. just copy and paste what youre supposed to read in a word document then take the quiz and you have the answers in the word doc. Piece of cake