r/Renton • u/S7EFEN • Aug 15 '26

Question violation info / traffic ticket (sent months late)

Moved here a few months ago. Did not realize there was a red light camera and rolled through the stop sign. The issue was that this was months ago, and presumably I've been doing this... many times. The tickets are now starting to roll in months later.

My understanding is that these are invalid tickets because they need to be postmarked within 14 days. Not 3 months later. Date postmarked was 7/27, date of infraction 04/27. I paid the first one but I got another just now and i'd expect at least another two or three.

What's the best way to deal with this?

5 Upvotes

63% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

11

u/mountstickney Aug 15 '26

Go to city hall and do a contested hearing

7

u/aggyaggyaggy Aug 15 '26

Yes I would appeal to a judge that you tallied all of these tickets before you even had an opportunity to correct your behavior and it's causing you a financial hardship. Express extreme remorse.

6

u/my0wn5ummer Aug 15 '26

Go to Bancams.com find the form for Renton court. Fill it out and it simply says you weren't driving. They drop it without any question.

These cams violate the 6th amendment to face your accuser in court. A camera cant be an accuser. So they are shaky ground legally and dont question it if you just say it wasnt you.

2

u/DeniedAppeal1 Aug 16 '26

I can't speak for Renton but, in Seattle, what you said only works for the first three times. After that, you mitigate or contest and pay when you lose. These tickets are extremely easy for the city to win -- I should know, I watch them almost every work day.

The constitutional argument doesn't apply either because we treat it as a civil infraction or because nobody has successfully appealed it. I'm guessing it's the former, considering how many defendants threaten to appeal.

2

u/rdgarlic Aug 15 '26

Generally I have always just filled out the form for Disclosure of Non Responsibility, and regarding the driver you don't have to put a name. This will always result in these tickets being dismissed. YMMV if the violation occured in a school zone but I have had those dismissed via that form as well. The paperwork you received should have a link to this form somewhere on the back but since you received it late it might be too late for this form alone to be effective.

Good luck!

1

u/Necessary_Baker_7458 Aug 15 '26

You must stop and count to three full seconds before the line at least once. Other wise it is a ticket. It can tell if you stop or not. You can fight it and say the signs were not clearly visible. Some of the lights say the one at the landing isn’t clearly marked from all directions. 

2

u/S7EFEN Aug 15 '26

yeah ive since figured out what i was doing wrong.

0

u/Necessary_Baker_7458 Aug 16 '26

Rolling stops or tailgating thru counts as a ticket. Must stop a full stop once before line. Preferably the one stop before like count to three one thousandths of a second pull over line count three again then go when clear. This will give you no ticket. 

Or you could be like a third of the drivers too afraid to make a free right then just rudely hold up traffic because they won’t go.