Excessive Traffic Citations ??? (Denver, Littleton: law, legal, safety)

[hammertime33]

Originally Posted by Dirty-Mill

Entering an intersection when the light is yellow is illegal. It's up to the discretion of the officer to determine if you had enough time to stop. I entered the intersection when the light was yellow, but had enough time to stop.

Entering an intersection in Colorado on yellow is not illegal.

What was your ticket really for?

[BarryK123]

Originally Posted by Dirty-Mill

Entering an intersection when the light is yellow is illegal.

Do you have a reference for this?

[Dirty-Mill]

No, can't find one. I was pulled over about 7 or 8 years ago for the same thing and given a warning. Cop told me he could legally write me a ticket as long as my tires entered the intersection when the light was yellow. He might have been full of ****, although he could argue that I was ignoring the yellow light warning by continuing through the intersection when I had time to stop.

The yellow light legal info for Colorado/Denver is vague. The ticket was for "Disobedience to Traffic Signals".

One thing I am curious about is how he could even tell when my car entered the intersection. He was at a 90 degree angle to me. He had to look left to see the light and look right to see when my car entered the intersection. I do know that the light turned red before I completed through the intersection. I stopped at a customer site very close to the intersection and heard the cop pulling over someone else minutes later. He must have been trying to ticket as many people in as short of a time as possible.

The ticket was 4 points for not having my insurance info with me (I have insurance), 4 points for going through the light, and he checked that it was a construction zone.

On the bottom of the ticket he wrote 11 points which doesn't really make any sense. The 11 kind of looks like a 4, maybe he wrote 4? He then x'ed out the bottom part of the ticket and told me I needed to go to court to get the insurance thing dismissed. Also, I can't read the day part of the court date, it kind of looks like a 16 or an 11.

I am absolutely not going to fight it. If you fight a traffic ticket and loose you get charged court costs on top of the full ticket and you loose all the points. I would rather plea to a lessor charge.

For the past week I have been slamming on my brakes whenever the light turns yellow.

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by Dirty-Mill

No, can't find one. I was pulled over about 7 or 8 years ago for the same thing and given a warning. Cop told me he could legally write me a ticket as long as my tires entered the intersection when the light was yellow. He might have been full of ****, although he could argue that I was ignoring the yellow light warning by continuing through the intersection when I had time to stop.

The yellow light legal info for Colorado/Denver is vague. The ticket was for "Disobedience to Traffic Signals".

One thing I am curious about is how he could even tell when my car entered the intersection. He was at a 90 degree angle to me. He had to look left to see the light and look right to see when my car entered the intersection. I do know that the light turned red before I completed through the intersection. I stopped at a customer site very close to the intersection and heard the cop pulling over someone else minutes later. He must have been trying to ticket as many people in as short of a time as possible.

The ticket was 4 points for not having my insurance info with me (I have insurance), 4 points for going through the light, and he checked that it was a construction zone.

On the bottom of the ticket he wrote 11 points which doesn't really make any sense. The 11 kind of looks like a 4, maybe he wrote 4? He then x'ed out the bottom part of the ticket and told me I needed to go to court to get the insurance thing dismissed. Also, I can't read the day part of the court date, it kind of looks like a 16 or an 11.

I am absolutely not going to fight it. If you fight a traffic ticket and loose you get charged court costs on top of the full ticket and you loose all the points. I would rather plea to a lessor charge.

For the past week I have been slamming on my brakes whenever the light turns yellow.

As others have pointed out, driving through a yellow light is not illegal. Zero points for that. This is what you were sighted for:

Failure to observe traffic sign or signal ................4 points.
Failure to maintain or show proof of insurance.......4 points.

And probably:

Driving through safety zone................................3 points.

That would be 11 points total.

[Dirty-Mill]

Are any of you lawyers?

[Teckeeee]

The one ticket I got in Denver in 10 years I showed up and they took speeding down to malfunctioning lights and less points, but it was reported to insurance.

[Teckeeee]

Originally Posted by Dirty-Mill

Are any of you lawyers?

No, but I can tell you Martino did a good job of exposing photo radar as the scam it is. Get one of those, deny it was you in photo, good to go. They aren't legal anyway.

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by Dirty-Mill

Are any of you lawyers?

No, but some people actually study the Driver Handbook.

[Sobe Itsavized]

That's odd. Boulder and Lafayette traffic violation tickets have the reason why the police stopped you and what you did wrong stated right on the ticket somewhere. The Denver police don't use the same or a similar kind of traffic ticket format?

[chilicheesefries]

Originally Posted by Teckeeee

The one ticket I got in Denver in 10 years I showed up and they took speeding down to malfunctioning lights and less points, but it was reported to insurance.

And insurance companies are smart - they know that malfunctioning lights are really moving violations that were pleaded down and rate them accordingly.

Speaking of yellow lights/red lights, what about the intersections where you are turning left and you actually enter the intersection on green arrow and it turns from yellow to red before you are through the intersection? Any opinions on those? Especially ones with the red light radar? Do they only trigger if you cross the line after red is turned? Especially the bigger intersections like Littleton Blvd/Broadway, Santa Fe/Bowles, etc?