Another Road Hazard

The article on March 30 encouraging your readers not to ignore traffic citations was well intended, I am sure, but failed to address a problem that my experience suggests may be quite serious (“Avoiding Jam: Act Fast on Traffic Tickets” by Lynn Simross). A few months ago I received notification that I had illegally parked in San Francisco and was ordered to pay the appropriate fine. This notwithstanding the fact that I had not been to San Francisco for some years and on the day of the alleged offense my car was at least 500 miles away from the site.

I called the court of jurisdiction and was informed that such errors were frequently made and that the record would be corrected.

I still have not received such confirmation.

My concern was triggered by the experience of my stepdaughter who by mail received a similar citation from the City of Oakland, a city she has never had the pleasure of visiting and on a day when she and her automobile were both here in Southern California. She attempted to correct the error by mail and after receiving no reply to numerous letters she assumed the matter was over.

Much to her surprise when she attempted to register her automobile she was told she had outstanding warrants and would be unable to do so until the fines and additional penalties were paid. After pursuing it as far as she could without incurring further expense and inconvenience, she finally gave in and paid the total amount in order to register her vehicle.

In the course of my phone calls to San Francisco, I was told that 5,000 to 10,000 parking citations are issued daily and that approximately 1,000 to 1,500 of them are manifest in error. No mention was made of efforts to correct these errors on the part of the authorities and my questions about that were left unanswered. One wonders how many thousands of dollars are being extracted from innocent motorists who lack the time or knowledge to seek justice. The lack of concern about my inquiries makes me wonder if these citations are truly errors or perhaps part of a scam perpetrated by people in the court offices or by the cities themselves who know that correction of these erroneous tickets will not be pursued.

PATRICIA S. SILVER

Claremont