This week I finally received my citation regarding my red light traffic violation. Let’s just say, I’m in shock. Serious shock. When I Googled “red light violation” I found some information that said the ticket was going to be $351.00, but when I received the citation notice it was much worse. The actual ticket is $456.00 and traffic school is another $54.00. I’m no math genius, but that’s A LOT OF MONEY!!
After reading the notice, I could not move. How does the average person afford a ticket like this? This is serious cash we’re talking about here. I know I did something completely illegal, but on a scale ranging from careless to total idiot, I rank as just being careless. When I went through the intersection, all of the other cars coming from other directions were still stopped and everyone saw me. It’s not like a blew through an intersection driving 50 miles an hour and caused a major collision. I’m not sure that anyone, besides that traffic camera, even realized I ran a red light.
Now I see how people get in trouble for not paying their tickets. They can be so expensive that people can’t afford them. Although, if you have a friend named Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover, maybe they can help you. Hopefully you are close friends and you have not used and abused them over the years. Fortunately, my husband is going to help me out so I don’t need to ask my plastic friends to give me a hand. Which is a good thing, considering I’m a stay-at-home mom and I don’t have a penny to my name to pay off my friends if I had to.
Anyway, this whole thing makes me ill. I can’t believe I made such a stupid mistake. An expensive stupid mistake at that. So friends, let this be a lesson learned the easy way. Let me be an example of what not to do. Be very careful when you’re approaching traffic signals, especially the ones with those crazy little cameras!
