Thousands of red-light camera tickets are issued in Orlando each year, but the owner of the vehicle is not always the one behind the wheel.
Regardless, the owner is the one who gets the ticket, even if there was no way they could be the driver.
The situation is not uncommon.
Recently, Markeith Loyd, who has spent months behind bars after being charged with killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend in December and Orlando police Sgt. Debra Clayton in January, was issued a red-light ticket.
It was the second he has been issued since being behind bars.
Driver Amanda Bedinghaus said she was in the same situation when she received a red-light ticket in the mail three years after her car was stolen.
“I was like, ‘Well, my car is gone. It wasn’t me,’” she said.
She fought the ticket using the police report from when her car was stolen as proof.
“We just said it wasn’t us and they looked at the time frame,” Bedinghaus said. “It lined up and then we got (the ticket) waived.”
Ticket Clinic attorney Brian Sandor said these types of situations happen quite often.
There is a way for a vehicle owner to fight a ticket issued when they weren’t driving, he said.
To fill out an affidavit saying someone else was responsible for the ticket, a vehicle owner would have to have the actual driver’s date of birth and driver’s license number, Sandor said.
Without that information, you can request a hearing in front of a judge, but it comes with a risk, he said.
“You are actually opening yourself up to a $500 fine, maximum, plus any court costs that would be assessed when you originally got a $158 notice of violation,” Sandor said.
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