OHTA.ca

I turned right on a red light and got a ticket. I requested to appear in court and for disclosure and got just a Cert. of Ownership and 3 photos which are the same as the ones on the ticket. Court date is Mar 24, 2011 and I would appreciate it if someone could sghed some light as to how to defend myself in court.

In the 1st photo it showed that the light has turned red for 1.5 sec. My car can be seen still a few feet behind the bold white line with brake light on and steered right. Ther was also a car turning left half way in the intersection.

The 2nd photo showed a time at 3.2 sec after the light turned red, a velocity of 26 Kph and my car was not visible.

The 3rd photo is just a close up of my plate.

I recall having slowed down when I saw the red light (hence the brake light) but was not sure if I came to a complete stop. I did an experiment to stop my car when travelling at 26 Kph and found that i could do so in no time and in a distance of a few feet. That means I could actually have stopped before the intersection anytime with the 1.7 sec. where there was no photo coverage.

There was no way that my 2002 2.5L Subaru, which was decelerating, could clear the intersection in 1.7 Sec. At 26Kph I would have travelled 12 M only and should still be visible in the 2nd Photo if I were going straight.

I suspect that the camera was actually triggered by the left turning car ahead of me.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

IMO the best route is to ask for a first attendance meeting and get a reduced fine. These tickets dont have any demerit points and I think they go to the car owner not the driver so you dont need to really worry about insurance implications. Ask for a plea deal of a lesser fine. and just be more cautious next time going through or making right turns on these type of red lights.