Most of the time running a red light will be treated as if the driver was speeding 20 miles per hour over the limit. It involves a fine, and it also comes with the expectation that your insurance rates are going up.
With camera evidence it is nearly impossible to overturn a conviction in court. Of course, no system is foolproof, so a very slim chance that someone witnessed that a violation did not occur can still happen. However, it is very unlikely.
This is where the camera can be a two-sided coin. While it can condemn the driver, at the same time it can be the best witness for getting a conviction overturned. A camera can prove that the driver was in the right.
If a traffic ticket for running a red light is received by mail, the offender probably was captured on a video-enabled camera place at an intersection. In many cases, depending on what state the offense occurred, these types of citations are handled a bit different from the ones handed out by actual officers. The effect of traffic ticket on insurance varies from state to state.
The traffic ticket effect on insurance in CA has become very controversial. There has been a new scrutiny in this area. As a result, there have been many tickets given out due to these cameras at intersections, that simply do not hold up in a court hearing.
A lot of these tickets get thrown out even before they are sent out. There are so many questions about their accuracy that it doesn’t pay to even pursue the offender. This has raised even more questions as to whether they are worth installing at all.
One of the largest of all the red-light camera manufacturers, American Traffic Solutions, states that over half of all violations get thrown out while the review process is taking place. This begs the question, ‘what should be the traffic ticket effect on insurance in CA?
It has gotten to the point where getting the small number of convictions is putting a real strain on the local coffers. Running this program and enforcing it is very taxing on the court budget. This budget has also suffered a 1/3 cut in funding.
The effect of traffic ticket on insurance will be expected to raise the rates by most drivers. However, things may not be as bad as they seem.
The good news is this. When it gets down to it, all tickets are recognized as being civil penalties. Dave Roush, the CEO of Insurance.com, states that these incidents usually DO NOT result in any points against anyone’s driver’s license, nor do they impact their car insurance rates.
This means California drivers can breathe a sigh of relief, and can calmly focus on challenging the accuracy of these tickets. Many times the cameras capture the license plate, and someone else may have been actually driving the vehicles. This will vary from state to state as well. There are states who allow a challenge to this when the owner of the car was not actually driving, and other states that claim the owner of the car is responsible regardless.
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