I am confused. Do you still have the car? Was someone in your family driving it? If so, the ticket is valid. If you sold/gave away the car then you would have a basis for fighting it. I don’t think you can ignore this if the car is still in your possession/use.
It sounds like the ticket went to the registered owner with no attempt to determine the driver. In my state, like others have posted, the ticket goes with the car since it is not possible to determine the driver from the camera. According to someone that got a red light camera ticket, there were no points only a fine.
“for a $500 ticket, it must have been some violation” = probably not.
Red light camera systems are very expensive. They are marketed to towns & cities as “revenue generators”. These expensive tickets often get paid because the surprised driver is relieved to learn that no points will be generated against one’s license. Tickets have to be expensive in order for the town to make a profit from these expensive red light photo systems.
D was driving a car registered to myself. D got a photo ticket. I circled her face and and the date on my drivers license. Clearly the driver was NOT middle aged. Simply stated ‘wrong defendant’. Ticket was dismissed. This was in California.
You, the registered vehicle owner are NOT obligated to identify the driver in order to prove your innocence. I would think a death certificate sent with the appeal would drive home the point.
A $500 ticket in California is the going rate. I recently received a ‘running a red light’ violation and the full amount was closer to $600. (I fought it in court an won).
California law requires a clear photo of the driver, and if the photo doesn’t match the DMV photo of a registered owner of the car the citation will ask you to provide information on the driver. Simply select the option stating that you cannot identify the driver. To be extra thorough you can include a copy of a death certificate if you have that, and send it by registered mail.
We had a similar experience to dietz199, we received a photo ticket (rolling right on red) in which the citation requested contact information for the driver since they could not match the photo to the registered owner of the car. We returned the citation without providing more information and never heard more.
In Chicago they snap a photo of the car license so the ticket goes with the car and NOT the driver. This way I can drive my wife’s car and ask her “why are you getting so many tickets”? ?️?. It also have the date /time etc… So she knows it’s me… Lol…
If the ticket is in a deceased person’s name and not your own then as stated see if you can just write a letter and send with death certificate. If not go to trial and it will be dismissed. No judge is that hard up to pay for that ticket. They will be sympathetic
@dietz199 - I think your situation that you described is fairly close to mine, which is what I am asking about. If I return the ticket stating that the person is deceased with proof, wouldn’t the processor simply do a bit more research and then resend back the ticket to the “correct” person? Unfortunately, the actual driver does have the same address as mine on her driver’s license. Since my house has had other females with drivers licenses, it probably would take a couple of minutes to figure out who it is, but it probably wouldn’t be rocket science. This is the part that I am trying to weigh the odds - my trustworthy friends have mentioned to me to leave it alone and let the ticket processors figure out things without me prompting them at all - i.e. don’t even bother to respond to the ticket. Apparently there’s also a time limit as to when they are supposed to issue/reissue a ticket as well.
They ticketed your car. They don’t know who was driving. Administratively, they aren’t going to pull your whole family’s records. The ticket goes to the registered owner. You left your wife on there. Same as if your neighbor had borrowed the car that day.
WHat makes your friends “trustworthy” on this? You want to risk fines doubling or whatever?
Why not just visit the clerks? Nice widower, genuinely confused about the ticket, with DC, asking for help. If they ask, who was driving, you don’t know.
An attorney can explain/confirm points. The actual driver (you’re hinting it’s a family member) should pay the ticket or reimburse you, if this isn’t dismissed.
Btw, much as I love CA, my homestate caught-on-camera running a red light cost $85. I paid it. No points.
I am sure this varies by state, but my brother had to clear up his red light tickets when refinancing a mortgage and later when I sold my deceased mother’s house. He was listed as one of the heirs in the probate filing, and the new red light tickets surfaced. There were also a handful of tickets that were not his, but belonged to someone with same name.
We just got one of these tickets in the mail yesterday. Car registered in my and H’s name, the ticket was mailed to him (not me); our D was driving the car (in another state.) The photo shows the car and license, no face. It is time-stamped and the violation clearly indicated. The language says “under (local jurisdiction) law, the registered owner of a vehicle is liable for payment of the fine for violations recorded using an automated traffic enforcement system. POINTS WILL NOT BE ASSESSED.”
The ticket clearly outlines avenues to proceed (Admit to it and pay, deny the ticket, or Admit with explanation (for possible reduction in fine.) If none of those actions are taken by the due date, the fine doubles.
OP, if your jurisdiction’s law is similar, I would say it’s not advisable to ignore and risk further penalty, and, whoever else is included on the car’s registration (presumably that’s you) is most likely still responsible for the ticket. Then it’s your choice whether you pay or make the “other female” pay.
In our case, D will be responsible but will Admit with explanation and hope for a reduction. She will mail a letter rather than taking time for an in-person hearing.
It wasn’t a red light violation, it was speeding. She was re-entering the highway after pulling over to the shoulder to consult her GPS because she missed an exit, and accelerated to make sure she was safely entering the flow of traffic. Happened to be a Work Zone (barrels set up along the shoulder) so that’s what she got nailed for. There were no workers in the work zone, only barrels.
Traffic courts often offer alleged offenders a chance to plead “Guilty With An Explanation”. Usually, this is just a way to encourage guilty pleas while letting offenders say their piece. So I find “Admit with explanation for a possible reduction in fine” to be interesting.
Some effective explanations might involve emergency situations such as driving a co-worker or family member to the hospital emergency entrance for immediate treament.
I hope that your daughter’s explanation works & results in a reduction of the fine.
@Publisher She’s knows she made a mistake and she’s prepared to pay for it, no need to be snarky. The ticket clearly says “a hearing examiner will review your explanation and consider reducing your penalty for fines that have been doubled” (due to work zone violation.) None of us expect that the ticket will be forgiven, but we will certainly take them up on their offer to provide explanation and possibly receive a reduction.
I live in a state with only rear license plates so these types of tickets never show a face.
@MaineLonghorn - we had sold a car, moved to a new state, and still had the old plates. H didn’t want to send them back through the mail to the old state, but we started getting bogus camera tickets. The camera misread the license plate and nobody checks these things. In one case, a red Acura didn’t pay a toll, in another it was a tour bus! And they sent the tickets to our former beige Civic, lol. Your parents’ old car must have had the old plates.
Here in AZ I’ve seen photo radar tickets that just said pay up and no points assessed, and some that say you can do traffic school and pay a fine and get it dismissed for a little bit less money than just paying the fine. They are attached to the driver, not the car and all the ones I’ve seen have a photo. Most recently S got one while driving my car. He’s not the registered owner of any car, but the ticket got sent to him, with his photo, in my car. We made him do traffic school to keep points off an 18 year old male’s record, and it cost him over $200.
I think if you have the car property registered to just you (OP) you can do that. Personally, I’d mark the envelop ‘Deceased’ and return it to the DMV. If the car isn’t property registered and still has both owners on it, I’d do more.
As it stands right now, they have ticketed a deceased person.