Can you turn right on red in Orlando

Red-light-camera tickets are issued so erratically in Central Florida that what is considered illegal in Apopka or Ocoee passes unnoticed in Orlando or Orange County.

"This is just ripping people off," Jackie Henry said after she lost an appeal of her red-light citation last month. Her fine was nearly doubled, from $158 to $295, because the ticket was upheld.

Since Florida approved a uniform red-light-camera law last year, tens of thousands of tickets have been written in Central Florida and across the state.

The cameras have caught scores of careless drivers running lights that clearly were red. But they also are issuing citations to motorists who do not come to a complete stop before turning right on red and, in cases such as Henry's, those who stop but past the white line.

That is happening despite a law saying red-light right turns without a full stop are OK as long as they are done in a "careful and prudent" manner. The provision, however, often is ignored in Apopka and sometimes in Ocoee.

State Senate Majority Leader Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, said he did not know there were differing interpretations of the law.

"I definitely think that needs to be resolved and looked at," said Gardiner, a red-light-camera supporter.

This year, the Legislature considered banning cameras outright or prohibiting tickets for right turns on red, but both measures died in the final hours of the session.

The only cities in Central Florida that had cameras operating all of last year — Orlando, Apopka and Ocoee — combined to issue 62,000 tickets, an analysis by the Orlando Sentinel found. It is not uncommon for a citation to be issued to motorists who enter the intersection a tenth of a second after the light has turned from yellow to red.

Monitoring 27 intersections from a variety of angles, those cities mailed out tickets imposing almost $9.5 million in fines, not including court fees added when motorists appeal and lose. Few appeals are upheld.

This year, Orange County, Winter Park and Maitland started mounting cameras at 18 intersections. Winter Springs also has them at two intersections. Oviedo, DeLand and Kissimmee are considering systems as well.

Though opponents argue that extending yellow lights by a second or two would greatly reduce red-light running, the biggest controversy in Central Florida revolves around right turns.

Henry, a 44-year-old assistant manager of a group home, got a ticket Nov. 4 while turning right onto U.S. Highway 441 from Sheeler Road in Apopka.

Her crime: She stopped after creeping over the white line painted on Sheeler, not before it. The cameras, as a result, snapped a picture, recorded a video, and a ticket was mailed to her Orlando home.

The day that Henry appealed her ticket, only one of 34 cases considered by Hearing Officer Carroll Barco resulted in the ticket's being overturned. A woman successfully argued that the car she owned, caught turning right on red on to U.S. 441 without stopping, was on a test drive by someone she did not know.

Most other Central Florida jurisdictions with cameras would not have issued Henry a ticket.

Under Florida law, a driver must come to a complete stop before the white line before turning right on red. But a police officer must actually witness the infraction for a ticket to be issued.

Yet the cameras never stop watching.

To avoid abuse, the Legislature decided last year that drivers on camera-monitored roads would be treated differently when it came to right turns on red. They don't have to stop — a "careful and prudent" move through the intersection is enough.

There is no way to know exactly how many right-turn tickets have been issued. None of the local governments in Central Florida counts how many tickets go to drivers who made rolling right turns. But the Sentinel's review of several days of court hearings found that more than half of all red-light-camera tickets went to drivers who made right turns.

Orlando does not issue right-turn tickets because officials think those violations require judgments that can be too subjective.

"We kept our focus narrow," said Mike Rhodes, who oversees Orlando's system.

Orange County strictly enforces right-hand turns only at the one intersection it monitors near a school.

Ocoee and Winter Springs watch for right turns on red but sometimes refuse to cite drivers who roll slowly around the corner, provided there's no other traffic nearby. As Sentinel reporters watched one afternoon, Ocoee officials rejected more than half of the right-turn videos they reviewed but approved the rest for citations.

"If they attempted to stop, and I can see the brake lights go on," no ticket will be mailed, said Linda Michaelis, an Ocoee community-service aide who reviews citations.

Winter Springs police Capt. Greg Tolleson said he rejects nearly 70 percent of the citations he looks at, the vast majority of them right-hand turns on red.

Apopka's stricter policy of issuing tickets for nearly all rolling right turns is based on the potential danger to a pedestrian stepping off a curb just as the car is to stop, said police Capt. Randal Lautenburg.

"To me, red means stop," he said. "Irregardless."

Barco, the hearing officer, agrees. While holding court recently, he repeatedly referred to the original law requiring a complete stop and dismissed the camera-law wording of "safe and prudent."

"Nobody can really determine what it [safe and prudent] is," he told one defendant. He declined a Sentinel request for an interview.

Critics attack traffic cameras as Big Brother-style invasion of privacy, arguing they are not about safety. The real purpose, foes say, is generating money for cash-strapped governments and private companies that lease the equipment to them.

Safety studies have yielded conflicting results, with some showing a decrease in accidents and others an increase. Orlando maintains crashes are down almost 39 percent in the city. Ocoee reports similar declines.

What is not in doubt is the revenue generated by the cameras, 57 of which are operating in Central Florida, mostly in Orange County. Each camera costs government about $4,500 a month, with that money going to companies such as ATS of Phoenix, one of the largest camera companies in the country and the most popular in Central Florida.

Orlando alone has brought in nearly $7 million in fines since starting the program in September 2008. It expects to pay more than $900,000 to ATS this year.

Once governments make their lease payments, income from the fines is split between the state and the jurisdictions. By 2013, the state expects to take in almost $95 million annually, with local governments getting about $66 million.

If a driver appeals and loses, the court gets a cut, too.

Appealing tickets is largely a waste of time because the chances of winning are minuscule, said Alain Rivas, an Orlando attorney who specializes in traffic-related cases. And if a driver loses, the $158 fine jumps to $295.

"It's a losing proposition," Rivas said.

That was a lesson learned last month by Danielle Lewis, a 35-year-old teacher from Winter Garden. She received a ticket in Ocoee and went to court to fight.

"It's a joke," snapped Lewis after a hearing officer turned down her appeal and ordered her to pay $295 in fines and court costs for turning right without fully stopping.

Henry, too, maintains she did nothing wrong. She said she had to inch past the white line to check for traffic.

"I'm not a troublemaker," said Henry, who was on her way to buy a birthday cake for her 15-year-old son. "That's a hefty fine."

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