Crime & Safety

Traffic Commissioner Upholds Red Light Ticket, Contrasting Ruling Last Month

Officials hope the recent decision will put the matter to rest.

A traffic commissioner last week upheld a red light ticket issued at the intersection of Cedar Boulevard and Mowry Avenue, going against another commissioner’s ruling last month that the City of Newark failed to give proper notice before installing the red light camera in 2006, according to the Fremont Argus.

The issue began last month when Fremont traffic court Commissioner Karen Rodrigue rejected motorist Keisha Dunleavy’s red light ticket due to the wrong direction of Cedar Boulevard being written in a public notice, according to KPIX 5.

Red light camera protestors were hoping the ruling would set a precedence and deem all previous violations invalid, which would have cost the city millions in refunded tickets.

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That hope took a crushing blow on Wednesday when traffic court Commissioner Sue Alexander upheld a ticket issued to a motorist who tried to play the improper public notice card.

According to the Fremont Argus, the City of Newark’s representative presented a 2006 city email with the wrong direction of the streets during the June hearing, causing Rodrigue to dismiss the case.

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Alexander, however, determined last week that the city had given adequate, correct notice in Newark’s official news release issued in Aug. 2006, the Argus reports.

Newark’s city manager John Becker told the newspaper that he was pleased with Alexander’s decision.

“We knew we had proper notification,” Becker told the Argus.

But the issue may not be over.

Anti-red light camera activists are pushing the legislature to pass AB 612, a bill that would add a second to yellow lights and curb the number of red light tickets being issued, the Argus reports.

Read the full Argus report here.


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