They take photos from both front and rear, showing the red light and car plate, as well as a pic of the driver's face. The photos, unfortunately, are pretty clear.
Sure about that?
All the red-light camera installations that I've seen in Ontario:
- Only monitor traffic on one approach direction to an intersection (despite having signs present in all directions).
- Only have a camera and flash unit on that one approach direction.
- Only take photos from the rear of the vehicle (which show the traffic signal and the vehicle in question before it enters the intersection and then another photo with the vehicle in the intersection - thus illustrating that the vehicle entered the intersection while the light was red).
It isn't necessary to show the driver's face because the ticket goes to whoever owns that vehicle's license plate and it's just $, it doesn't go on anyone's driving record (because it can't be proven who was driving).
The original poster should be in the clear if the situation is as it was described:
- camera and flash would have been facing the other direction (for someone else going the other direction).
- if the light turned red while you were in the middle of the intersection, the photos can't prove that you entered the intersection on the red.
The photos that these units take, make it pretty hard to refute what happened. In some jurisdictions, people have fought these tickets on the grounds that the duration of the yellow light was not appropriate for the traffic circumstances at the intersection. It's not uncommon for organizations operating these cameras to inappropriately shorten yellow light durations in order to increase ticket revenue. Some of these camera installations trip inappropriately when someone makes a right turn on red at the intersection, but generally that's clear from the photos, and those situations typically get tossed without a ticket being issued. 'Course, if you make a right turn at a red light without stopping (which happens a lot), then that ticket is well deserved ...
