My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: California
I think I was in the city of Ontario here, and it checked off "Rancho cucamonga superior court" at the bottom of my citation.
It says "CVC 21453(a) Red Light" on my citation. I guess it clicked in my mind a little too late that it was a red light-- it was very late at night, I was tired, I was also very sick last week so kind of recovering from that-- and I hit my brakes. I stopped a bit into the intersection. The other two cars had saw and stopped, and it seemed like it would be lengthy and more complicated for me to back up, so after a second, I felt it would be safer and faster for me to just continue on. Right when I did, sirens blared, just my luck.
The officer said, It was completely red!
And all I could say was I know... I tried to stop.
I'm 20 and this was my first offense and it scared the * out of me. I really can't have my parents find out about this. They are so stressed out with finances and their business that I would feel terrible for making them worry. Can I change the address that they send the courtesy notice to? Will they send anything else in the mail? I just need to prevent my parents from seeing it. It seems that as long as I can pay the ticket off and then go to traffic school, they shouldn't be able to find out.
I am a student, and I don't have any money, but I am okay with giving up my weekends to work to pay it off. I need a little time to save up money though. I feel pretty guilty. I don't know how I would contest the ticket. Can I ask for a payment plan or community service? Can I do so without having to appear in court? I don't actually live in that area so it is actually a bit of a drive for me to go to court over there.

