Most who fight red-light camera tickets lose – Fox Valley Villages Sun

Temple Wells drives through the intersection of Route 59 and North Aurora Road on her way to work each morning, just as she has for years.

So when the Aurora woman received an automated ticket from the city of Naperville for running a right turn on a red light at the camera-monitored intersection, Wells was shocked.

Wells was one of about 50 drivers waiting to make her case in an administrative hearing this month on automated red-light tickets. The administrative hearing at the Naperville Municipal Center is the first step to fighting tickets that drivers believe were issued unfairly.

“He said the light is red. I said it’s yellow, plain as day,” Wells said of the hearing process. During the hearing, Wells was invited to watch the video captured of her car and make her case.

It’s a difficult case to fight, too. The lawyer adjudicating the hearing, Victor Puscas, said only three or four of the 74 people expected to show had their decisions reversed at the hearing.

In Aurora, the trend is similar. City spokesman Dan Ferrelli said only 195 of the city’s 6,091 red-light tickets issued through Monday have been called for appeal. And, Ferrelli said, that doesn’t mean they all show up.

“Some have requested a hearing and then changed their minds and went ahead and paid the violation,” he said. “Others were no-shows.”

Only two tickets issued were actually reversed, he said. The other violators were advised to pay up or appeal at a later date.

According to Aurora police, since cameras were installed in October 2009 at the first of the city’s three intersections — New York Street and Farnsworth Avenue, New York Street and Commons Drive, and Farnsworth Avenue and Molitor Road — they’ve helped reduce crashes by 43 percent. East New York Street and Eola Road is the city’s latest intersection to receive the camera upgrades.

The Automated Red Light Photo Enforcement Program has been contentious since its inception in Naperville in early 2009, with the Naperville City Council split over whether the cameras are an effort at safety or filling coffers. That’s, in part, because Naperville’s traffic cameras have issued roughly 20,000 tickets since the start of the program last year, each costing drivers $100.

The cameras have been shown to reduce, slightly, some kinds of crashes at the intersections, but are also budgeted to make about $1 million for the city this fiscal year.

And the council recently tangled with the cameras again, this time deciding to no longer enforce violations for right turns made on red lights, unless No Right on Red is posted.

Drivers caught by the cameras seem similarly torn.

“If that’s how they have to get their revenue, that’s sad,” said Naperville resident Leslee Reed, who lost her hearing for a right turn on red at Route 59 and Diehl Road. “I just don’t think it’s appropriate.”

“Actually, I think they’re a good idea,” said Ken Hillblom, who had driven from his home in Mokena to fight his ticket. “But I think it depends on the intersection.”

Hillblom lost his hearing on a right turn on red infraction. He says he stopped at the intersection of Route 59 and Diehl, but just outside the camera’s view. Because the adjudicator couldn’t see Hillblom’s wheels stop, he said, he was fined.

“I made my stop, but it was outside the camera’s view,” Hillblom said.

In Aurora, Ferrelli said tickets are not issued for any violations caught on camera unless the officer reviewing the recording would have written the ticket had they witnessed the infraction in person.

The scope of the cameras was just one of the myriad complaints drivers had of the system and its enforcement. Chief among the complaints were the seemingly subjective nature of the hearings, which are adjudicated by a city-paid attorney and the Naperville Police Department’s traffic sergeant, both on the city’s payroll.

In Aurora, hearings are run by a hearing officer and a traffic division police officer. Both are on the city’s payroll.

But fighting city hall should soon get a little easier. Gov. Pat Quinn signed a new law this month, effective Jan. 1, giving drivers more wiggle room to stop past the white line of an intersection.

That could have a significant effect on the number of tickets that stick to people driving through Naperville, as the majority of tickets were issued for right-on-red violations. Since the program started, only 27 of the more than 18,000 tickets issued through May had been reversed, or about 0.15 percent.

Most drivers interviewed said they planned to appeal. Among them was Wells.

“You’ve got to be fair to the taxpayers,” Wells said.

Staff writer Erika Wurst contributed to this report.

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