Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/31/3133.asp

5/8/2010

Georgia, Oregon, Texas: Innocent Drivers Mailed Photo Tickets
Oregon driver accused of running green light, Texas man falsely accused and Georgia motorists trapped by illegally short yellows.

A red light camera accused a man of running a red light in Portland, Oregon even though the light was actually green. Mark Ginsberg received the $287 ticket that had been mailed by Affiliated Computer Services for the alleged February 2 offense, The Oregonian reported. Instead of merely paying the citation, the attorney took a closer look and noticed the ticket claimed the light had been red for 24.9 seconds when the camera flashed. The red phase of the traffic signal only lasts 25 seconds, meaning the light was green by the time he had entered the intersection. The prosecution dropped the case to avoid having the Multnomah County Circuit Court issue a ruling.

A man in living in San Antonio, Texas received a ticket in the mail for a crime allegedly committed in Houston. Douglas Bond was nowhere near that city when the incident happened, KENS-TV reported. Although Bond drives a Chevy Silverado, the Silverado in the citation photograph was distinctly different from his own. Houston police did not care that Bond was falsely accused and said he should just pay the ticket, threatening to place a hold on his vehicle registration if he did not. Only after KENS reporters got involved did American Traffic Solutions and the city relent.

In Atlanta, Georgia and its suburbs, three out of four signals tested by WXIA-TV had yellow signals shorter than the amount required by law. Signals with short yellows generated thousands of citations. The intersection of Freedom Parkway at Boulevard in Atlanta had a 4.2 second yellow when 4.7 was required. It generated 49,322 citations worth $2,404,010 in revenue. In January, the Georgia Department of Transportation ordered the city to shut down the red light camera as a hazard.