Monday, November 17, 2008

#891 Lights Camera

So the other day I was driving up to an intersection. Suddenly there was a bright flash of light. I flinched and accidentally jerked my wheel.
The light was really bright. Blindingly so. Like when you get a flash of sunlight in someone’s rearview mirror and it leaves one of those spots in your eyes.
Anyhow, here I was partially blinded and beginning to jerk over into the lane next to me because I had reacted so violently to the flash and was spazing out. Fortunately, I was able to bring my car under control in time.
I’m just glad the guy in front of me hadn’t been as big a spaz as I was.
Traffic was pretty thick and eventually, after a couple more blinding flashes, I was able to determine that the source of these retina searing flares was the camera mounted to catch people running the red light.
I hope drivers more easily distracted than me don’t pile into each other at the intersection.
I had a friend show me a ticket he got because of one of those red light cameras. Funny thing. It had been sent to his wife. Because he had been driving her car. It noted the violation and then asked if she or someone else in her family had been driving the vehicle that day.
So the camera only catches the license plate and not a photo of the driver...
Hmm.
So what if you wanted to get someone in trouble? You could hotwire his car when he’s sleeping, take it for a joyride, run the red light, and get a ticket sent to him. He’d have all the hassle and have to pay the fine because he wouldn’t be able to convince anyone it wasn’t him in the car at the time of the infraction.
Oh sure, you’d run the risk of grand theft auto, but still, what a cool prank to do against someone you think is really annoying.
Anyone know where Tim Eyman lives?
I hear he wants to give red light photo fines to solve our traffic problems...
America, ya gotta love it.

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