Let App WinIt fight your red light ticket.
Red light tickets cost a pretty penny. But before you go breaking piggy banks, there are a few things you should know: Not all red light tickets are the same and not all red light tickets are final.
In this article we will break down the different types of red light tickets and their costs.
Costs of Running a Red Light in New York
Running a red light in New York is punishable by serious financial and non-financial penalties. This includes fines, fees, surcharges, insurance increases, and points on your license. It also includes a long list of secondary penalties, like having your license suspended or revoked.
Fines
If a police officer catches you running a red light, you could be fined up to $150. This fine comes before any applicable fees or surcharges that you might also have to pay.
Fees
Fees are any kind of costs, charges, commissions, or penalties associated with the legal process. They could come in the form of attorney fees, court costs, filing fees, late fees, and more. How much you will pay in fees depends on your past driving record. For example, if your license is suspended, you will have to pay a suspension lift fee to get it back.
Surcharges
Surcharges are hidden costs that most people don’t even know about until after their conviction. Most surcharges for New York traffic tickets cost just under $100. The surcharge for a red light ticket in New York is between $80 and $85. Add that to your fines and fees and you get a total financial penalty of at least $230.
High Insurance
When you are convicted of a traffic violation, that violation goes on your driving record abstract. In New York, insurance companies can see your abstract until the end of the current year plus three additional years. That’s up to four years of higher insurance premiums.
According to the Zebra 2019 State of Auto Insurance Report, a ticket for running a red light can increase your insurance premiums by roughly 22.7%. If you’re paying the average New York prices for insurance ($1,688), you’ll have to pay an additional $383.18 each year.
Points
New York uses a point system to keep tabs on peoples’ driving habits. The penalty for running a red light in New York is up to two points. If that brings you to 6 or more points, you’ll have to pay the Driver Responsibility Assessment (DRA) fee. For more information on the DRA fee, check out our blog!
Different Types of Red Light Tickets in New York
There are eight different kinds of red light tickets in New York. This is not counting red light camera tickets, because those are treated more like parking tickets than traffic tickets. Every one of these violations can come with the same penalties listed above. But not every ticket is the same. Knowing the common and uncommon laws is key to avoiding or beating a ticket.
One of the least known red light laws is §1117: Failure to Stop at a Malfunctioning Traffic-Control Signal. If a stop light is broken or otherwise offline, you are required to stop as though it were a stop sign. All too often, people drive right through as if the broken light were a green light, breaking the law and getting themselves a ticket.
| VTL Code | Charge Code Description |
| §1111-d.2a | Failure to Yield Right or Left on Red |
| §1111-d.2b | Failure to Yield Right or Left on Red |
| §1111-d.3 | Passing Red Arrow |
| §1111-e | Failure to Obey Traffic Signal Ahead |
| §1113-a | Passing a Flashing Red Light |
| §1116-d | Traveling in a Lane Controlled By a Red Signal |
| §1117 | Failure To Stop at a Malfunctioning Traffic-Control Signal |
| §1111-d.4 | Pedestrian Crossing On a Red Signal |
| §1111-d.5 | School Bus with Passengers Making Illegal Right or Left Turn on Red |
Ways That You Can Get a Red Light Ticket in New York
There are two ways to get red light tickets in New York: from a police officer and from a red light camera. The severity of the penalties vary greatly depending on which of the two ways you got your ticket.
From a Police Officer
If a police officer pulls you over to write you a ticket for any of the eight violations mentioned above, you’re in for a bumpy ride. Traffic tickets issued for red light violations come with steep fines, fees, surcharges, and other penalties. These traffic tickets will stay on your New York driver abstract for up to four years, plenty of time for insurance investigators to raise your premiums.
From a Red Light Camera
If you get a red light ticket in the mail from a camera, you’re probably not going to be very happy about it. On the bright side, however, getting caught by a camera is much less awful than getting caught by a police officer.
Red light cameras issue tickets to the registered owner of the vehicle. That means they’re more like parking tickets than traffic tickets and carry significantly lower penalties. You cannot get points on your license for a red light camera violation in New York.
Can You Plea Down the Cost of a Red Light Ticket in New York?
Unfortunately, most jurisdictions in New York do not allow plea bargaining of any kind for non-criminal traffic or parking tickets. Instead, you’ll have to plead either guilty or not guilty. The best option is almost always to plead not guilty and let a lawyer fight your ticket for you.
How To Fight a Red Light Ticket in New York
You can hire a lawyer through the WinIt app to make this process as easy as possible. Depending on how you got your ticket, whether from a police officer or from a camera, the rules and regulations will be different. To ensure you have a fighting chance, you’ll want to hire a lawyer who understands those differences.
Lawyers on the WinIt app are chomping at the bit to beat your tickets, so what are you waiting for? Download the WinIt app today and get started fighting your tickets.
