New York cyclist fined $1500 after running red lights in headphones
October 15th, 2012
A cyclist in new york has had to learn the rules of the road the hard way after getting four violations and a $1,500 fine from one traffic officer.
The bike, who has asked to remain anonymous, was riding home from Bushwich to Williamburg last month when the police officer stopped him.
The offence was running three lights and at the same time wearing headphones.
A cyclist in new york has had to learn the rules of the road the hard way after getting four violations and a $1,500 fine from one traffic officer.
The bike, who has asked to remain anonymous, was riding home from Bushwich to Williamburg last month when the police officer stopped him.
The offence was running three lights and at the same time wearing headphones.
The officer “cut me off in the bike lane and I stopped,” said the cyclist.
“He began asking me what I thought I was doing and we discussed everything that happened.”
The officer revealed that he had been following the cyclist for some time and saw him blaze through several sets of red light while listening to music in his headphones.
The cyclist was told that he would get four tickets for running three red lights and wearing headphones which would come to a total of around $700, however when the violation arrived he had been given a $190 fine for the first set of lights, $375 for the second and $940 for the third. A fine of $50 was also added for the use of headphones.
“I was guilty for sure of going through the lights and wearing headphones so naively I pleaded guilty and sent in the tickets” he said.
However he said that he thought the fines handed to him were harsh:
“$1,500 seems pretty excessive, especially for a 24-year-old where $1,500 is a little less than 10 percent of my yearly income, ” he added.
There is some good news for the young rider though. A local solicitor said: “Many traffic court judges will treat multiple violations issued this way as ‘double-dipping’ and dismiss some of the duplicative charges”
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