PAPARAZZI or CAMERA LIGHT FLASH?

I just got my first camera light ticket. Better a $75.00 camera light ticket than a $285.00 ticket from a policeman, I thought. It was in my own neighborhood, so if it were from an officer, I would just have driven to my house and ran up to my porch and yelled “BASE!” they hate that. I knew they put a camera light in that particular intersection because I have seen it in action around 2:00 a.m. I’ve been sitting at that red light when no one else is around, and those strobe lights are just going off arbitrarily. Just flashing away…kind of like the Paparazzi…so I always smile when I’m going through that intersection because you never know…it could be the Paparazzi. It could happen to me. Someone said they had seen me on T.V. around 4:00 in the morning and asked me “Didn’t you used to be somebody?” I love that line and am considering putting it on a business card. But I’ve really never had an encounter with the Paparazzi. I remember when Princess Diana was killed by the Paparazzi. My sister Karla called me, very upset, and she said “I don’t understand why that big Italian opera singer wanted to kill Princess Di.”  Duh…that’s Pavarotti, silly. So, I had noticed the camera light in that intersection at night, with the lights flashing, but it was not as noticeable by day. And that’s when I got my camera light ticket. Most camera light violations are issued because someone is taking a right on red and they don’t come to a complete stop. By complete stop, they mean your car has to settle. So, if you have spinners on your wheels, I guess it looks like you never stop. That could get very costly. But not mine, I was blowing through that intersection at a yellow light. I know that because they send you a link to their website where you can watch a video of yourself performing that violation. I don’t know if it was me, though. It could have been my daughter or my boyfriend. They cannot show the images of the passengers since there are too many people having affairs in my town (no kidding…it’s apparently been a problem so they blur out faces). Many cities have chosen to ban the use of camera lights. In my city, they installed more last fall. Some people believe camera lights prevent accidents, while some believe they cause more. Most of us think a solid yellow light means speed up. That’s why there are such high impact crashes in intersections. And, if there’s a camera light in that intersection, you don’t want to be in that Kodak Moment!
Until next week…
Daun Thompson