In case no one has noticed…..the Police vehicles are out in mass lately. Everywhere you go, people are being pulled over and given tickets for even the most minute offenses. The realities are that community, county and state budgets are stressed. Our various police and fire agencies are being encouraged to control their budgets, as other parts of government are being pressed into furloughs, lay-offs and many times merging a variety of agencies or departments in order to meet the shrinking input of revenue.
Since the police are sensitive to their various pension and retirement programs, management and officers are pushing the envelope literally to get more revenue into the system. Recently, we got a very “iffy” ticket for failing to stop for a Stop Sign in a Residential area. The Officer was 220 feet from the intersection and unless you had 20-10 eyesight, he would have just blended in to the countryside. Since we fight each and every ticket in court….it was very educating to discover that of 15 tickets being fought in court…..NONE were being dismissed. (Even though, a few got a slight reduction in the fines!)
Hopefully, “the citizenry” will take this warning very seriously. The boyz in Blue are out there in mass! One issue in particular might require a little remedial thought during these tough budget times. When approaching an intersection with a RED light showing, with NO signage that says: “No Turn on Redlight”, you are still required to come to a complete stop and access that it is safe to proceed to then make that Right Turn from the lane closest to the the right curb. One caveat to that may be, if a bike lane is there. Pulling into that bike lane might still get you a ticket if you get the wrong Police Officer…..even if you haven’t seen a bicycle for three years in that lane. A complete and full stop! Remember that we told you that!
In addition, if that intersection happens to be covered by a Red Light Camera…..Blocking the Intersection is going to cost you $500 bucks too! So, even if you enter the intesection under yellow…the camera could still catch you under red, if say, your pal in the van ahead is dawdling, rather than proceeding smartly through. That right turn on a red – without an enforcement sign – still can be coming “if” you forget to come to a full stop. And don’t forget to not impede any oncoming traffic – and enter that intersection in a very safe manner!
Let’s just say……Economic times are tough. Most people cannot afford $500 dollar tickets anymore than they can those around $140 dollars. The important thing to remember is: Pensions and retirements are not going to be cut back or phased out….without the citizenry also paying a price!
If you’re driving through Mission Viejo, be careful. We have lots of hills around here and the radar cops love to sit at the bottom of the hills and nab people who didn’t decide to ride their brakes all the way down. There are lots of popular spots – Muirlands near Alicia. Alicia above Jeronimo, Marguerite south of Alicia, and Santa Margarita south of Marguerite. Watch out.
What part about “stop at red light” is so hard to understand?
The maximum posted speed limit, means MAXIMUM. (Not minimum)
Rolling though those right hand turns at stop signs and stop lights is a violation subject to ticketing and a hefty fine.
The time and gas you save by not following the rules of the road is not worth the risk.
So next time you go someplace, leave a bit earlier and enjoy the drive, instead of taking risks with everyone else’s lives.
Good. If the police agressively issued citations to those careless drivers on a cell phone, aggressive speeders and all the rude and reckless drivers that change lanes regularly without signaling, then our budget problems could be greatly reduced and the streets would become much safer.
“If the police agressively issued citations to those careless drivers on a cell phone, aggressive speeders and all the rude and reckless drivers that change lanes regularly without signaling”
The problem is most citations are not just for “agressive speeders… reckless drivers”. Most are for your typical average Joe. And to get hit with a $500 ticket can be devastating and sadly, many citations for as the Winships said, “IFFY”.
It’s easy to say, “if you don’t want a ticket, don’t break the law”. But I bet most if not all of us at one time or another break a traffic law, whether going over the speed limit or not making a complete stop. And I bet most of us not up to date on traffic law.
“The maximum posted speed limit, means MAXIMUM. (Not minimum)”
Cook, do you know for sure your statement above is true??
Yearly, up go the fines & surcharges.
LA City & others are adding more red light cameras.
The governor wants speeding ticket cams, which will up the number of tickets five-fold, to one per year per family.
To cope, one thing to learn about right now – because we already have red light cameras – is Snitch Tickets, fake/phishing red light camera tickets sent out by the police in an effort to fool the registered owner into ID’ing the actual driver of the car. (He doesn’t have to!) Local cities using this “social engineering” tactic are Bakersfield, Corona, Garden Grove, Gardena, Hawthorne, Inglewood, Laguna Woods, Los Alamitos, Loma Linda, Maywood, Moreno Valley, Riverside, Santa Ana, Santa Clarita, South Gate, and Victorville.) Snitch tickets have not been filed with the court, so they don’t say “Notice to Appear,” don’t have the court’s address and phone # on them, and usually say, on the back (in small letters), “Do not contact the court about this notice.” Since they have not been filed with the court, they have zero legal weight. You can ignore a Snitch Ticket. If in doubt, Google the term.
Finally, ff you have a pre-December red light camera ticket in Santa Ana, fight it. Take it all the way to a trial – the judge is dismissing all pre-December Santa Ana camera tickets, at trial. But you have to put up the bail and take it all the way to trial – asking at arraignment won’t do the trick. This is happening because of recent appeal decisions.
Lam Pho – you are very right. It used to be that Speed Limits were guidelines to be used and represented the safe speed on a dry, clean surface and with good lighting. They used to call these limits: “Prima facia” speed Limits. Meaning..on the Face of it for example that 30 MPH at that particular location would be considered safe. Many times actual traffic would travel at 45 to 50 MPH safely and Patrol Officers understood that the conditions and the actual speed were probably just fine for general traffic. Only Marge Simpson look alikes actually drove at 30 MPH and certainly stood out like a sore thumb. With budgets the way they are: Sadly, those days are evaporating quickly. Rigid enforcement of posted speed limits are finding support in the traffic court judge venue and with Police Chiefs desparate for cash.
Yikes…