Arizona Man Sues For $8 Million Over Photo Radar Ticket

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Full disclosure: This report is from ABC15 in Phoenix, my fulltime employer.

Post Title → Arizona Man Sues For $8 Million Over Photo Radar Ticket

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L.A. City Council Exempts Red Light Cams From Arizona Boycott

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A few weeks ago, the city where I was born and lived until age 9, Los Angeles,  made a great big hairy deal about boycotting the state where I live now, Arizona, over its passage of SB1070, which requires police to enforce laws on illegal immigration identical to those in both California and federal law.  The boycott meant the city of L.A. refused to do business with Arizona, its cities and businesses based in the state.

But that's not important now. At least when it comes to the city's red-light cameras, supplied and operated by American Traffic Solutions of....Scottsdale, Arizona.

Standing by the boycott would have meant shutting down the cameras. And if that had happened, and someone had been killed at an intersection with a formerly working red light camera, city councilman Richard Alarcon said "the media would have a field day".

So, the council voted 13-0 to temporarily exempt the red-light camera program from the boycott.

Full story with a fascinating insight (no matter which side you take on the immigration enforcement issue) into politicians unanimously voting to sustain a program that loses the city money and is of dubious success in terms of accident reduction from The Los Angeles Times.

Post Title → L.A. City Council Exempts Red Light Cams From Arizona Boycott

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Elderly Driver Hits Gas Instead Of Brake, One Dead

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A tragic accident in Peoria, Arizona (suburban Phoenix). An 87 year old driver parking at a Walgreens hits the gas instead of the brake, jumps the curb, hits and kills a store employee on break.

Two remarkable things...the car was a Honda, and there was no discussion of unintended acceleration...just an admission from driver and police that it was a case of standing on the wrong pedal.

This incident has a lot of similarities to all the Toyota incidents that have fueled the unintended acceleration frenzy the past few months. And when properly investigated, the end result is the same. If floormats aren't trapping the gas pedal, it's usually driver error.

Post Title → Elderly Driver Hits Gas Instead Of Brake, One Dead

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VIDEO: 911 Call From Crash Victim; Help Takes Two Days To Arrive

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Your car goes off a highway down a ravine, out of sight of traffic. Your cell phone works and you call 9-1-1.


But...GPS only narrows your call down to the nearest cell tower and the Highway Patrol can't see the wreckage from the road.

Betcha think they'll launch a chopper, given the terrain and what's at stake.

But watch this video and you'll hear the Arizona Department of Public Safety say they can't and won't do that.

And so the man on the phone and his young son died waiting for help to arrive....their bodies found when it became a "missing persons" case two days later and the helicopter finally went up.

Story from ABC15 (KNXV-TV, Phoenix...my day job).

Post Title → VIDEO: 911 Call From Crash Victim; Help Takes Two Days To Arrive

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Redflex Under Fire

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The state of Arizona is letting its contract with the Australian photo radar camera company end on July 15. And now, an Arizona judge is blasting Redflex over its filings in preparation of a lawsuit filed by competitor ATS (American Traffic Solutions).

Full story from TheNewspaper.com.

Post Title → Redflex Under Fire

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VIDEO: Speed Camera Van Tarred And Feathered

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Posted last night on YouTube. Poster says it's Phoenix and those are Arizona temporary tags. The vehicle's unmarked, but it's new (the temp tags).

Could be legit...but it's also April Fools' Day.

A civilian employee in one of these vehicles with DPS markings was killed about a year ago when someone pulled up and opened fire. The suspect is on trial now.

Post Title → VIDEO: Speed Camera Van Tarred And Feathered

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Speeding While Standing

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See the guy standing up through the sunroof?

He's also driving...at 78 in a 65 mile per hour zone...with one hand on the wheel and his left foot on the gas pedal.

His name is Richard Anthony Flores, Jr.  He's 25, lives in Chandler, Arizona (a Phoenix suburb) and according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety, he's been showing up on their photo radar cameras a lot.

As in 14 times from mid-October to mid-November, at speeds up to 90 miles per hour.

This photo, taken on November 11, was just one of two where he did it while standing up through the sunroof. The other one was about two minutes earlier on the same stretch of the US 60 Superstition Freeway in Mesa...at 79 miles per hour.

The guys in the pickup trucks behind him had to be having a good laugh...probably while dialing 911.

It took DPS until this week to catch up with him...partly because he has a California license plate (under a louvered cover, which is supposed to help obscure it from photo radar). But after lettting family know they were looking for him, Flores turned himself in the next day.

He's been booked on two counts of reckless driving and one count of criminal speed. He's also been served with seven civil speeding citations.

Post Title → Speeding While Standing

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