My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: Ohio.

I drive around 30,000 miles per year. I have zero tickets in the past 12 years.

Last night after eating dinner across the street from my church I entered the road, and there is a large area between the intersection and a road next to the gas station. The light turned yellow, and with my experience driving I knew I had time to make it across safely.

I didn't have time to stop and stay behind the white line, since it is so far back from the actual intersection.

So I looked both ways, (cars stopped in both directions) and proceeded through the light. It changed to red as I was passing through the intersection, I saw it change and I was already more than halfway through as it changed.

I forgot that there is very often a police officer sitting in the other gas station lot (out of business) and sure enough a car pulled up behind me and pulled me over... Right in front of my church...

The officer gave me a failure to stop at stop sign ticket. Which is a $130 fine!

I almost fell out of my pew when I read that. So I went outside and video taped the light cycle.

Here is what I found.

Traffic Light at US 127 and State Route 725

The traffic light turns yellow at 15:07
The traffic light turns red at 18:06

Total time of yellow light 2:59 seconds

The other light turns green at 19:06

Dwell time between red and green 1 second

Total time of cycle 3:59 seconds


As I said, there is a police officer pulling people over at this location quite often. This time is much shorter than most of the lights I encounter. I went down the road to a similar intersection, and found these results.

Similar intersection Hamilton Richmond and Trenton Oxford

The traffic light turns yellow at 17:02
The traffic light turns red at 22:02

Total time of yellow light 5 seconds

The other light turns green at 24:06

Dwell time between red and green 2:04 seconds

Total time of cycle 7:04 seconds


I have video of these locations and pictures that show the timing. But, I am not sure how to proceed.

Here is the link to the video of the light in question. I was coming toward the light down the hill.

<embed width="600" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullscreen="true" allowNetworking="all" wmode="transparent" src="http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid668.photobucket.com/albums/vv50/FreeEnterprise/trafficlight.flv">

http://s668.photobucket.com/albums/v...afficlight.flv

Also, I didn't have a copy of my most recent insurance paper. I had the previous 4 copies, but forgot to put the current one in my car. The officer said don't worry about it and marked on my ticket that I had shown proof of insurance. When I hadn't.