Oh, Albany, Albany, Albany. What a city. Like many cities around the country, the city has installed speed cameras throughout the city, but especially in school zones. Never in my life since I started driving in 1996 have I ignored the 20 mph limit here in Albany. Also, I’ve never raced through a school zone. Unfortunately, the cameras beg to differ.
I just got two speeding tickets for allegedly blowing through a school zone for supposedly plowing through a school zone at 35 mph for one and 36 on another, both on June 5th. Problem! The photos show my car supposedly blasting through the zone. Besides the school ticket, they allege that I blew through an another intersection less than a minute later.
The two intersections in the second ticket are not reachable within a minute of each other, even at 35 mph. The two tickets are both $50. For me, it’s not the amount of the money. Right now, $100 is, thankfully, nothing to me. For me, it’s about principle.
There is no way that I went that fast through a school zone, because the other cars were observing that limit. Going over the speed limit like that would not be safe and it would be impossible for me to do that without plowing into the car ahead of me.
Also, what’s interesting about these tickets is that they occurred exactly one minute apart at the exact same speed. That’s nearly impossible in Albany’s traffic. Even if I had been 16 over, I find their allegations to be impossible. Why would I self destruct like that? Why would I put a target on my back for APD’s worst to really make it a bad day?
Yes, the pictures in the violation notices are indeed my car. But the car ahead of me is, to me, clearly driving at a pace where he or she could have been the one who actually did something stupid. In fact, the car appears to be going faster than I was.
One thing about the violation notices is that they zoom in and take a picture of your license plate. I am not denying that the car in the picture is mine. But that’s not the defense here. The defense is that the lapse between tickets is unrealistic.
I know how to behave in traffic and I would never speed in Albany, school zone or not. Sure, people behind me honk, wanting me to go faster, but since they wouldn’t be the ones who would pay me ticket, I disregard them. I did have one confrontation with a driver who followed me into the parking lot of a grocery shop.
Oh, he came at me just as enraged as possible, with what may have been his five or six-year old daughter in the vehicle. However, all I had to do was reach for my hip, concealed by my t-shirt worn that day.
I tapped my hip twice. And as he grew closer, I started to lift my shirt. The little girl was crying about something or the other, but my thought process was that if he wants to endanger his own daughter, then I have no shame in taking control of the situation.
Just like a bully who just found himself found accountable, his cowardly eyes got wide and he ran back to his car like a black man running from paying child support. Now, of course I don’t own a gun and if I did, I’d likely not have a concealed carry permit. There are stiff penalties associated with carrying a gun outside the parameters of the law. That’s prison time right there.
I took a calculated risk that he didn’t have a gun either. The point is that I will not take crap from anyone who wants me to speed just so they can get to wherever they’re going a minute later than they would by adhering to the speed limit.
Just like cops with radar guns make mistakes, the school speed zone cameras are not perfect either, and that’s why I will be contesting them. I truly believe that I am being wrongfully accused.
I will not let the Albany Police Department bully me into paying even one penny that would benefit the city. To me, this is harassment and I will absolutely not bend over and take it up the tailpipe. Not without appealing at every turn.
Look, if I really did do it, I’d man up and whip out the good ol’ credit card. But this is not that. This is a case where something went wrong. I would never go through a school zone, meaning that I was supposedly traveling at more than 20 mph and supposedly 16 mph below. Not safe!
It would also be unsafe for me to blast through the city at 16 mph as the citywide limit is 20. If I were really going that fast, wouldn’t I plow into someone’s car? The pictures do show my car trailing the other car, but again, if I really were going that fast, I would have been on his ass.
What I find interesting is that they don’t show me what was happening behind me. Was that car the one actually speeding? I may never know that because the cameras are conveniently not there to show that. Why? Because they know that if they do that, people would not stand for it.
I know full well where the cameras are around here and I know what they do. That is why I am going to defend myself against what I feel to be serious charges. No points on my license, true, but I will not go down (giggity) without a fight. I will appeal and appeal and appeal because I firmly believe that something went wrong here.
Normally, I’d raise a double jeopardy defense, but the city took it upon itself to allege that I disregarded the speed limit twice. Now, why would I do something like that? I know about the cameras and I know that the APD is heavily enforcing violations of the speed limit, especially a school zone.
When you are cited here in Albany, you simply log in to the portal that shows the photographs, you are also presented with a video clip. Looking at my car, I am definitely not driving 16 mph over the limit. The car behind me, however, may have been.
That raises one question: how accurate are the cameras and still photographs? Are motorists paying the price for the car ahead of them?
How do I know that I didn’t do it? Because I was definitely not in that area on that day. The only other person who operates my car is my wife. I am not throwing her under the bus here. All I’ll says that she’s never gotten a speeding ticket in her entire life.
What would really help here? Cameras pointed in front of the vehicle. That would solve a lot of problems. If cameras were used that way and I’d been in the driver’s seat, there would be no debate. But right now, I am blaming the person ahead of me.
The tickets are due and payable early next month. Fortunately, there’s an avenue by which one can contest the tickets. I’ve availed myself of that process and my hearing is in October. Until then, my fines are suspended.
Again, if I really did the things that the APD is accusing me of, I’d take responsibility for my actions. But I refuse to be bullied!