Ticket for Left Turn at Photo-Enforced Light? (Chicago: law, dangerous)

[where_am_i]

Hello,

So I was in the intersection of Kimball and Diversey, waiting at the light to make a left. I got there just as the light went from green to yellow. Someone from oncoming traffic gunned it through the yellow and the person behind them ran the red, thus forcing me to turn left on a red light. Anyhow, the camera at the light went off, and I am wondering if i will get a ticket as well since this &*^*&% forced me to make a (rather dangerous) left turn on a red light? (I just moved back to chicago recently and almost never drive my car so i had NO IDEA there were these things on the traffic lights!)

[Avengerfire]

Sounds like a personal problem.

[kodaka]

My recollection is that IL law allows you to still turn on the red light, and this link

Illinois Rules of the Road (http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/publications/rules_of_the_road/rr_chap04.html - broken link)

....confirms that under 'Right-of-Way'.

How you prove that with still photographs from a traffic camera, I don't know. If it only took a picture of you turning on a red light, how can it prove that you entered on a red light, and not on a green?

Maybe the camera wasn't taking a picture of you though. It's possible, for example that the camera took two pictures--one facing the other direction showing the position of those two cars that entered on a yellow and red, and the other showing them passing through the intersection illegally. You could have waited behind the crosswalk lines, which would have given safe clearance for pedestrians, instead of making them walk around you, and instead of making cross traffic wait for you to get out of their way.

Even if the picture taken was of your car, I would imagine those cameras record a lot of things that don't turn into tickets. Surely someone reviews the camera's images and decides what to issue and what to discard.

Best advice for the future, though, is to assume that there is always a traffic camera or patrol car watching. Illinois law allows you to complete a turn after the light has turned red, but it doesn't force (your term) you to enter the intersection when you are unable to complete the turn immediately.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by where_am_i

Hello,

So I was in the intersection of Kimball and Diversey, waiting at the light to make a left. I got there just as the light went from green to yellow. Someone from oncoming traffic gunned it through the yellow and the person behind them ran the red, thus forcing me to turn left on a red light. Anyhow, the camera at the light went off, and I am wondering if i will get a ticket as well since this &*^*&% forced me to make a (rather dangerous) left turn on a red light? (I just moved back to chicago recently and almost never drive my car so i had NO IDEA there were these things on the traffic lights!)

The person running the red is who got nabbed, not you (as long as you were already in the intersection before it turned red).

[Lookout Kid]

I've read that you will only get a ticket if you enter the intersection after the light turns red. And if any part of your car has entered the intersection before the red light, you're not supposed to trigger the camera.

[robbedwithoutagun]

I have recently received two tickets. One at Sacramento and Chicago ave. The other at Western and North ave. Both times the light turned yellow as I almost entered the intersection. Then it turned red immediately. I am already struggling financially. So finding these tickets in my mailbox is extremely depressing. I guess from now on I will slam on my brakes so the camera can take the picture with me stopped in the middle of the intersection. I hope I don't cause an accident.

[Manigault]

A Chicago traffic camera is like a female police officer or a short male police officer -- you can argue but it won't do much good because you are getting a ticket. [These are my observations after many years. YRMV.]

[AmosBanks]

Originally Posted by robbedwithoutagun

I have recently received two tickets. One at Sacramento and Chicago ave. The other at Western and North ave. Both times the light turned yellow as I almost entered the intersection. Then it turned red immediately. I am already struggling financially. So finding these tickets in my mailbox is extremely depressing. I guess from now on I will slam on my brakes so the camera can take the picture with me stopped in the middle of the intersection. I hope I don't cause an accident.

There was an article in Car & Driver when stoplight cameras first came on the scene. It was documented that the yellow light is shortened by a fraction of a second in order to get more offenders. If the goal was to reduce people from running reds then they shound INCREASE the time of the yellow. They also said rear-end accidents increase at camera intersections because of people braking hard to avoid a ticket.