Greensboro's "stoplight cameras" (photo below) have now unquestionably produced - at least - their first snafu. Joe Spence, a 72-year-old retired Greensboro sales manager, was in a police-escorted funeral procession Saturday, July 28 of 40-50 cars when he went through the intersection of two major Greensboro streets en route from a church funeral service of a friend's to a graveside burial in Rockingham County. At Battleground Ave. at Brassfield, Spence went through along with the rest of the police-escorted funeral procession - through a red light at an intersection that is "photo-enforced." The officer had his blue lights on while escorting the funeral - but left it later at the city limits.
Five days later, Spence got a ticket for $50 in the mail. He called SafeLight - a subsidiary of the company running the system - and was told to send $50 and to send the obituary column if he wanted it considered as an appeal. This really irritated Spence, as did the notice on the ticket's back saying that failure to appeal of within 21 days doubled the fine and waived any right to appeal.
Spence paid the fine - but still has not gotten his $50 back as of Saturday.