New Red Light Camera Rules To Make It Easier To Tow

As reported this week in the NY Post, effective September 13, 2010, New York City Marshals will be allowed to tow any vehicle with a combined $350 owed for parking tickets and red-light camera summonses. Previously, fines owed for red-light camera convictions were not added to a motorist’s parking violations records and, therefore, couldn’t put a motorist over the $350 threshold for towing. Now, red light camera violations dating back to 2003 will be added to a driver’s total.

The new rules are designed to help collect the roughly 664,000 unpaid red-light camera tickets which  represent $47 million in lost revenue for the city.

Most people plead guilty and pay their red light camera tickets because they are near-impossible to beat. Two photographs depict your car approaching and then crossing the intersection while the light is in the red phase.

Although these tickets carry only a $50 fine (a moving violation red light traffic ticket starts at $250 and carries 3 points), in 2009, the city generated $32.3 million from 150 hidden red light cameras.