Photo Enforcement P1: Denial

For those of us out there who aren’t constantly being hounded by the Paparazzi, the FLASH of a camera from the side of the road is a bit unusual. So there I was, driving East of Payson Arizona on SR260 on my way to spend the weekend at Boy Scout Leadership training (see what a good person I am?). As I left town the speed picked up to 55MPH, but less than 10 minutes later, on a downhill slope, the town of Star Valley posted a speed change down to 45MPH and installed a Photo Enforcement System. That’s when I saw it. The FLASH. I was genuinely surprised and thought that I must have seen something else. I was traveling east bound, downhill, at 7:53 AM, into the sun, on a major state Highway, but I didn’t think anything more about it until the letter showed up.

The Star Valley Magistrate Court of Gila Valley issued a traffic ticket and complaint and summoned me to court on Nov. 22, 2010. I couldn’t believe it. The photo enforcement system claims that I was traveling 56MPH in a 45MPH zone. I was in denial. I didn’t want to pay a $197.00 traffic ticket! Then, a few days later, I got a post card from the Arizona Academy of Defensive Driving. Look at that cute little traffic signal holding the stop sign that says, “Uh-Oh!”. On the back is said, “Got a ticket? Join Signal Simon at one of his next classes in your area.” Really? How did this company get my informations so quickly? Could it be that the photo enforcement company and this driving school are in league together? Now I was in denial AND I was upset. I started to look around on the internet and figured that I’d wait and make them actually serve me the ticket.

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