BajaNomad

Rosarito changes ticket and fine process ****

BajaNews - 1-10-2009 at 01:06 PM

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jan/10/1m10ticke...

By Sandra Dibble
January 10, 2009

ROSARITO BEACH — U.S. visitors who commit infractions such as speeding, running a red light or parking by a fire hydrant in the tourist-oriented city of Rosarito Beach now receive tickets printed in English and Spanish.

The city also now allows drivers to pay fines by mail to a U.S. postal box rather than follow the officer to the police station and face a municipal judge.

Mayor Hugo Torres said the measures are intended as a convenience for foreign visitors, but also to decrease the possibility of an encounter with a dishonest police officer who demands payment on the spot.

The tickets list 23 common infractions and the fines they entail, in both pesos and dollars. Driving without headlights, $17.50; parking in a taxi zone, $21.90; rolling through a stop sign, $43.85. The city cuts the fines in half for visitors who pay within 15 days.

The fines are the same for Mexican drivers. Only members of Rosarito's 25-member tourist police force have been authorized to issue tickets to foreign drivers, said the city's secretary of public safety, Jorge Eduardo Montero Alvarez.

When a foreigner is stopped away from tourist areas, “the policeman has to call a tourism officer to issue the ticket,” Montero said. Drivers can appear before a judge if they want to contest the ticket.

The measures come as Rosarito Beach has been reaching out for tourists. Reports of violence, the U.S. economic downturn and clogged border crossings have left Baja California tourist destinations struggling economically in recent months.

Baja California's deputy tourism secretary, Ives Lelevier, said other municipalities in the state have instituted bilingual ticket programs, namely Tijuana, Mexicali and Ensenada.

Rosarito Beach's previous mayoral administration had started a bilingual ticket program, but it had been abandoned for months by the time Torres took office in December 2007, Montero said. Torres launched the new program last month.

Tijuana does not have a separate bilingual ticket, but part of its regular tickets are translated into English.

Alfonso Saenz, Tijuana's transit chief, said all ticketed drivers in his city are required to appear in person before a municipal judge who sets the fine. Especially with tourism down, Saenz said, officers have been encouraged to use their judgment and issue a warning to foreign drivers who may be unfamiliar with the area.

Woooosh - 1-10-2009 at 04:00 PM

This info ran last week but the updated version has some of the actual fines and the "mail fine to USA PO Box" clarification.

If they would ticket $100 for driving with expried CA tags- they'd be flush with cash! If the California Highway Patrol would ticket every car without legal tags as it entered the country, CA would be out of debt too. How many people with expired tags have proof of insurance?- Not many- more fines and cash for CA!!

[Edited on 1-10-2009 by Woooosh]

[Edited on 1-10-2009 by Woooosh]

I wouldn't drive one across the border

Dave - 1-10-2009 at 04:30 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Woooosh
How many people with expired tags have proof of insurance?- Not many- more fines and cash for CA!!


Cal just passed a law that cancels your registration if you aren't insured, effective 1st of January. ICE now has access to this database. I would expect them to use it.

Woooosh - 1-11-2009 at 02:32 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Dave
Quote:
Originally posted by Woooosh
How many people with expired tags have proof of insurance?- Not many- more fines and cash for CA!!


Cal just passed a law that cancels your registration if you aren't insured, effective 1st of January. ICE now has access to this database. I would expect them to use it.


Nope. They have no interest in insurance or registration issues, I have asked them. They say it's a State issue and they are Feds with enough to do. They would allow the CHP to station themsleves after the inspection booths- but that's totally up to Arnold.

CA did cancel the registration on my vintage dirt bike because I didn't renew my insurance. You are correct on that. I wasn't going to ever renew the plates or insurance anyway- I just neeed them to get a new title. It'll never hit the USA pavement again. Looks good for 33 years huh?

[Edited on 1-11-2009 by Woooosh]

sx250 006small.JPG - 47kB

DENNIS - 1-11-2009 at 04:14 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by BajaNews
ROSARITO BEACH — U.S. visitors who commit infractions such as speeding, running a red light or parking by a fire hydrant in the tourist-oriented city of Rosarito Beach now receive tickets printed in English and Spanish.



Isn't that nice. And what do they give out for running the invizible stop signs? I'll bet one can pay for those right there on the street...huh.

Well....

Dave - 1-11-2009 at 08:06 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Woooosh
Nope. They have no interest in insurance or registration issues, I have asked them. They say it's a State issue and they are Feds with enough to do. They would allow the CHP to station themsleves after the inspection booths- but that's totally up to Arnold.


I have been asked more than once for registration and insurance and have been sent to secondary when I couldn't immediately produce the documentation. So, yeah, they can and do.

Woooosh - 1-11-2009 at 08:20 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Dave
Quote:
Originally posted by Woooosh
Nope. They have no interest in insurance or registration issues, I have asked them. They say it's a State issue and they are Feds with enough to do. They would allow the CHP to station themsleves after the inspection booths- but that's totally up to Arnold.


I have been asked more than once for registration and insurance and have been sent to secondary when I couldn't immediately produce the documentation. So, yeah, they can and do.


Homeland Security can do whatever it wants within 100 miles of the border. Anything. I don't think they can or will write tickets for state insurance and registration issues though.

We're talking about collecting fines- not checking to see who owns the car you are driving across. Their compuuter system took a picture of the car and driver when it left the country- now it's just checking to see which one, car or driver gets left behind in Mexico and why if they don't match.