I received a "notice of infraction" while driving my rental car. I was visiting my brother (first time in Federal Way, WA) because his son (my nephew, age 19) committed suicide. I mainly drove to and from my brothers home, and have no knowledge of the school zone my photo ticket is referring to. It says "the school zone is fully posted with school speed limit signs." "Enforceable times are 8:25-8:55 AM, 11:35-11:50 AM, 12:20-12:35 PM and 3:15-3:45 PM for ..." My ticket says 12:24 PM. I did not even know there was a school on this road, much less that there were signs. My photo ticket says going 40 in 20 mph speed area. I don't know where this was, etc. I think I remember the road (only one way to get to my brother's), but have no idea there was a school there. Can anyone help me?
First, I'm sorry for your families loss. Second, because you are out of state you essentially have 2 options (I will ignore a mitigation hearing as you would have to be present). 1) You can admit you committed the infraction and mail in the fine. This will likely affect your insurance rates and depending on if KY assigns "points," it could affect your home state license (though usually it does not). 2) Hire an attorney to contest the ticket. An attorney can fight the ticket in many technical and legal ways. Fighting a photo ticket involves arguments dealing with specific rules of evidence dealing with the accuracy and reliability of the photo machine and admissibility of that evidence.
You can contact any of the attorneys who answer this question or use the search function above. Most if not all attorneys will charge a flat fee to handle the infraction and you shouldn't have to travel and be present at the hearing. Hope this helps.
Automated camera school zone tickets are not reported to the Department of licensing or insurance companies. They are the equivalent of a very expensive parking tickets. Because of that, it really doesn't make a lot of sense to hire an attorney. What you will pay an attorney is probably more than the fine and there is little real benefit to a dismissal. Most courts will allow you to mitigate these by mail. You can send a letter to the court explaining the circumstances and ask for a reduction.
The notice should have a web address for you to go look. The website will have photos or videos of the vehicle allegedly involved in the incident. In WA, the statutes prohibit taking pictures or videos of the persons inside the vehicle. So, you should not see the faces of anyone in the photos or videos. You should be able to see the license plate, the vehicle, and the surrounding area. There should be time and date stamps. You can look over the videos and photos to see whether you recognize anything.
Because you were driving a rental, the rental company was the one that provided the government with your name and address after receiving the ticket from the government.
If there were other drivers using the car at the time indicated on the notice, you may possibly get out of the ticket by using RCW 46.63.075 (Safety camera infractions — Presumption). On another hand, if you were the only person authorized to use the rental car at that time, admitting that there were unauthorized drivers may not be good for you.
RCW 46.63.170 (Automated traffic safety cameras — Definition) has almost all the information about traffic cameras in WA. The statutes are at http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=46.63 .
