Call Kurtis: My Red Light Ticket Fine Doesn't Match The Sign

She ran a red light and admits she's guilty, but says her fine is not fair.  The West Sacramento woman called Kurtis Ming because the ticket was $100 more than the sign posted.

The fines have gone up, but the City of Davis never changed the signs.  So, should she have to pay any more than what's posted?

"It wasn't like the light turned yellow and I tried to punch it," said Michele Richardson, "I just didn't catch the red light."

Video recorded by the City's red light camera shows her blowing through a red light at an intersection in May.  Richardson says she didn't know what she did until she received a $479 ticket in the mail.

"I just was like, 'Oh my gosh, I'm so lucky I didn't get killed!" said Richardson

While she admits she's guilty, she's upset the ticket is more than one hundred dollars more than the signs at the intersection reading, "red light violation $370 fine."

"It's just like when you go shopping in a store and there's a price. A company has to stand by their price," said Richardson.

Davis Police don't agree with her logic, although they acknowledge the fine has jumped since the signs went up.

"Unfortunately, because the fines can fluctuate every year, it becomes cost prohibitive to change the signs out every year," said Lt. Glen Glasgow.

The law only requires red light camera intersections to have signs saying "photo enforced."

Davis Police weren't willing to do much to help Richardson but after we got involved, they decided to make a change at both of the city's red light camera intersections.

"At this point what we didn't want to confuse the motoring public, so we decided that we were going to go ahead and just remove the signs since they weren't mandated by law," said Lt. Glasgow.

Traffic attorneys we spoke with had mixed opinions on whether they'd argue her case.  Richardson faced a judge on her own, arguing she should pay the fine on the sign but lost.

"I'm pretty upset," said Richardson.

Davis police say they initially posted the fine amount on the sign because they thought it would deter people from running red lights.