Originally Posted by Minicobra1

You will not beat this in court, don't waste your time $75 is cheap. My wife got one here in Ca. and it was $320. Consider yourself lucky. The only way you can beat it is if you time the yellow light, every district has different rules for the yellow, I think here it is 4 secs. There was I guy in Newport Beach that challenged it and won because the yellow was too short.

If you look at your first pic though, when the time is 00, your car is diving in the front and the brakes lights are on. LOL so look like you were trying to stop, but just ran it anyway. Almost 1 sec into it, no SUV showing up in the pic. Any judge would see this and rule against you, saying 3 to 4 seconds of yellow should be enough time to start your stop and get the people behind you to take notice. My good friend is a motorcycle cop and the number 1excusse that they hear daily is the guy behind me was going to rear end me. Pay the fine, and try to get traffic school.

From Press Release:
COSTA MESA POLICE DEPARTMENT

Release Date: June 10th, 2004
Time: 5:00 PM

Subject: Red Light Camera Enforcement at Northbound Newport Blvd. and 17th St.

SYNOPSIS:

The City of Costa Mesa has operated a red light camera program (photo enforcement) since June of 2003. Currently, there are four intersections in the City of Costa Mesa that utilize this technology: 1) Harbor Blvd./ Adams Ave., 2) Bristol St./ Anton, 3) Newport Blvd./17th St., 4) Newport Blvd./19th St. The objective of the red light camera program is to reduce the number of traffic accidents caused by red light violators and other incidents caused by red light running.

On February 11th, 2004 the City of Costa Mesa became aware that the yellow light phase at the signal located at Northbound Newport Blvd at 17th Street, was shorter than required by State law based upon the posted speed limit. The yellow light phase had erroneously been set at 3.6 seconds rather than a minimum of 4.3 seconds. As soon as the City of Costa Mesa became aware of this error, the City immediately stopped issuing citations based upon recorded red light violations for that approach to the intersection. The red light camera enforcement was operational at this intersection since October 3, 2003 until it was shut down for this one approach to the intersection on February 11, 2004. There were 579 citations issued during this five month time period involving the shortened yellow phase at this particular approach. Of this number, approximately 200 of these citations have already been paid, approximately 100 of them were dismissed, and the remainder are still pending.