Photo Speeding Tickets

That's one of the most beautiful pictures of my car I have! Montgomery county (the county where I live in Maryland) offers this service at a "fee" of $40. In the past 4 months or so I have been forced to take advantage of this "service" 4 times. The image on top is just one of the three images they sent with every letter. The photographs were followed with "You were doing 47 MPH on a 35 MPH zone" Ironically that has been the EXACT same violation on 3 occasions. After that I learned and slowed down. So they went ahead and sent 3 more photographs of my car for doing 42 on a 30 zone.

By the fourth time I was quite upset about the added $40 to my monthly credit card bill. (One of my friends suggested setting up a direct debit from my bank account) So I decided to contest this ticket. I went ahead and sent them a "Not Guilty" plea. I wrote them a nice little letter which basically said I don't believe I was speeding and their "automatic" camera is faulty. They sent me back a letter asking me to appear in court at 9.00 am on 6/29/2009. Unfortunately my mom opened that letter and freaked. Her son was going to go to court to fight a losing battle. Then he will be declared a criminal in an alien country.

On the internet I found numerous websites on how people think this is the most ridiculous way the state can think of making money. The state obviously thinks this is a brilliant idea! Citizens are obviously pissed off. The cops on the other hand are not quite sure what to make of it. They are not very happy about people slamming their brakes when they encounter the camera zone to go 10 mph UNDER the prescribed speed limit forcing a subsequent traffic backup. The obvious question is IF people knew where the cameras are, how does the state make money out of it (they are legally bound to put up signs on the road if there is going to be a speeding camera) Infact one of my friends also forwarded me a link which mapped out all the areas where there were speeding cameras in DC and Montgomery county. Apparently 40% of the county's "speeding ticket" revenue still comes from these photo speeding tickets.

In any case I dressed up in a suit for my June 29th court date. I honestly believed that I was NOT speeding on the said day. So I was pretty confident that the camera was faulty and I would be able to argue my way out of this. I had no other defense. And I had no clue how I was going to proove that I was not speeding. As usual I was planning to wing the whole thing and make stuff up along the way. I reached the court at 8.40 for my 9.00 am court appointment. There was a LONG (probably 50-60 odd) list on the notice board of people who were awaiting trial for the photo speeding ticket. Outside the courtroom people were visibly pissed at the concept of the photo ticket. People had a whole sheet of paper filled with things they were going to say to defend themselves. "They reduced the speed limit from 40 to 35 for a 200 yard zone and put a camera in there!"

At about 8.45 a.m. we are told that there is no power in the building so they will have to delay the proceedings indefinitely. I couldn't believe it! No power?? Seriously?? Hearing this one guy goes, "Will you reimburse my parking?". A little later they open the courtroom (without the power and any recording equipment). Inside the courtroom, I am in for a big surprise. I find my BOSS sitting there in the court trying to defend one of his own photo tickets. I found out that he had the exact same story. He paid three earlier tickets and was tired of the 40$ monthly fee. So he decided to take this up in court.

The "judge" shows up and starts his opening speech. He tells us that in the absence of building power, we could either wait for the power to be restored (and place our trust the city electricity board who said it will happen in an hour) or we could request a continuance (reschedule the court date). In either case, if we decide to fight the case the chances of our getting out of the ticket are as low as 5%. This is because all the classic excuses like the "camera was faulty" or "Someone else was driving the car" don't ever work. So we might as well go back home and pay the $40 fine. If we loose the case, we end up having to pay an additional $22.50 in court fees.

I rescheduled my court date and went to work. They promised to send me a letter with a new court date. Now I am in a big dilemma. Should I pay the $40 and lose out on an oppportunity to be entertained in the court? Afterall $22.50 is just a little more than two movie tickets. And the entertainment this experience promises to provide seems to be worth much more than two movies!