Community Corner

Do You Know What to Do at a Red Light Camera?

Both Nassau and Suffolk counties have installed a “Red Light Camera” program which they say is aimed at changing driver behavior by capturing drivers that run through red lights at busy intersections. The cameras take an instant photo of a vehicle when it passes through a red light and traces the owner of the vehicle through the license plate information. Owners whose cars have been photographed going through the red light receive a ticket with the photographic evidence in the mail.

But what is considered a violation? We asked our readers on Facebook: “You can get a ticket from a red light camera if you ___________”

The responses we got from readers were sometimes accurate, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes hilarious. Here are some samples:

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"Just ask my husband since he has done it with my car twice and then tried to pin it on me. But I had proof, the store receipt with the time on it when he took my car shopping...," Sharon Ellenberg Demelas wrote on the Mineola Patch Facebook page.

"Will you stop trying to blame me for your red light ticket. Your car, your ticket," replied Anthony Demelas.

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"If your front wheel rolls over the white line so you can see the street sign in the dark... even if it clocks you as moving 0 mph, you are 'in the intersection," wrote Amy Van Driessche Wofford on the Syosset Patch Facebook page.

"If you to the right thing and make a complete stop!!! you still will get a ticket!! they need to be removed," wrote on the Plainview Patch page.

"Drive," Stefany Coulter wrote simply.

So...what’s the answer to our quiz? You can get a ticket from a red light camera if you:

  • Enter the intersection and turn left after the light turns red

  • Enter the intersection after the light has turned red and continue straight through

  • Make a right on red, but fail to make a complete stop before proceeding

  • Blatantly ignore the red light and pass through it.

You will NOT be ticketed if you pass beneath a light that is green to make a left turn and while waiting for oncoming traffic to pass, the light turns red.

Ever get caught with a red light camera? Guilty as charged, or did it make you see red? Share your thoughts on our open blog “Road Rage.”

From the homepage, follow these steps:

- Sign in to your Patch. (Click “Join” if you don’t have an account yet.)

- Click the "Blogs" tab, near the top of the homepage and then locate the Road Rage blog in the left-hand column. Click on it.

- Click in the box that says, “Write a new post” and then click on “Article” at the top.

- Give your post a headline, enter the body of the story and upload your photos.

- Click “Post now.”


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