Red Light Cameras

So last week Jess was stuck behind one of those huge trucks that blocks your entire forward view coming up to the intersection of Bouquet Canyon Rd and Newhall Ranch. They both got into the left turn lane and proceeded to make their turns. What Jess realized too late though, was that the truck had made his left turn at the very end of the yellow light, and as a result, Jess went through on a full red. Since she couldn't see the lights until the truck had turned out of her view, she didn't realize that she probably should have waited for the next green light. Sure enough the "photo enforced" intersection caught her, and took pictures of her license plate, the outside of her car, and even right into her windshield showing her behind the wheel (somewhat fascinating if it wasn't so awful).

Within a few days, her ticket arrived, and she owed $381! Wanting to just get it out of the way, she called the number on the ticket and paid over the phone. What we think happened was that she may have accidentally opted to pay the ticket without requesting traffic school, and so after she paid it, we were trying for hours to figure out how to request it from the court. She ended up having to take a morning off of work to go down to the courthouse. She got it all taken care of, but that $381 still hits hard.

What's funny is that we recently renewed our auto insurance, and when I did so, I updated our profile to our new address. What with moving to a safer neighborhood, and having a garage, our premium was less than it had previously been. But I guess whoever I spoke with didn't calculate everything correctly at the time, because we've now received three rebate checks for various profile changes in our insurance (safer neighborhood, garage, etc.). The first check was for $9, and the second check was for $120, but the third was for $260!

Jess was so worried about our insurance rates going up, and now it's our insurance who has paid for her ticket!

God is funny like that. :)