Community Corner

Quiz Answers: 'Red Light Cameras Target Tooth Fairy Skeptics'

A pop quiz about how to get snagged by a red light camera gathers interesting remarks from your neighbors.

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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Chris Morgan dont buy the spray that goes on ur LP that prevents the camera from reading your license plate.

Marie Bilardello Schluntz Turn on red without stopping for at least 5 seconds.

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Melissa Ann if you go over the stupid line

David Cook Drive with no pants on

Lauri Lane If your front wheels are not across the white line at the end of the yellow.....if you don't come to a full and complete stop before the white line when making a right on red!

Audra E Schutte-Balcuns If you...Register your car!!! Duhh. Lol

Colleen Mooney Brickman Don't stop for right on red for 20 or more seconds before turning.

Jacqueline Malenda stop believing in the tooth fairy

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.”

    Sharing is easy. Just visit the “Road Rage” blog here, and click on the open text box under the heading to create a post.

    Or, 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.”

    Beep, beep!




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