Red light running in Manteca shows no sign of slowing down.
Manteca as of June 30 — at the midpoint for the year — has issued 8,805 red light running tickets using camera technology at just five of the more than 90 signalized intersections in the city.
That included 1,162 issued in June.
Manteca last year issued 9,886 tickets. That means the city has issued 18,691 red light tickets so far.
Keep in mind, Manteca didn’t issue its first ticket until late April pf 2025. The last intersection with red light cameras wasn’t operational until last 13 months ago.
Morowit — who led the council push to double down on warning signs beyond what was mandated by the state with added signage on traffic poles that red light fines are $490 — notes that he isn’t hearing people clamoring to end the use ofred light cameras.
The councilman said over the past year he has had people come into his store saying they got a ticket while adding they were sure they had stopped on a right turn.
Morowit would ask if they had accessed the link to the video that was on their mailed citation.
The answer was universally “no.”
They then accessed the video link for footage of the infraction when they got a chance. Each time when they came across Morowit again, they’d apologize while adding that they were sure that they had stopped.
Morowit said most of them would consider themselves to be good drivers.
They indicated the red light camera tickets made them more aware of driving.
And as Morowit noted, its driving throughout Manteca and not just through red light intersections.
“I find myself being more careful,” Morowit said.
The hot spot for red light tickets in terms of volume — the Daniels Street at Airport Way intersection — doesn’t even have cameras position to monitor every lane of the approaches.
There is not a red camera on the heavily used right turn lane from eastbound Daniels to northbound Airport.
T-bone intersection collisions from left as well as right turns have been documented as a contributing factor for roughly 20 percent of Manteca’s 1,000 plus annual traffic accidents. They are also the source of the most serious injuries.
Manteca looks at switch
from $490 fine to $100
Morowit said he expected the prospect of a $490 fine, the hassle of driving school, and possible insurance premium hikes would serve as “sticks”, if you will, to get people to comply with the law.
The city staff is weighing the pros and cons of opting in to a new state law for that allows jurisdictions that had red lights in place as of Jan. 1, 2026 to switch from a $490 fine through the court system to a $100 administrative fine similar to how cities process parking tickets.
Moworit is not ready to make a decision on how he’d vote on such a proposal until the council receives a staff recommendation and background that they analyzed.
The city with the in-house ticket process would either receive more or about the same as they do with red light camera tickets being treated as a moving violation.
Between the state’s share of the higher fine of a moving violation as well as court and add on fees, means almost $400 of each ticket currently goes to the state and courts and not the city.
The in-house process means more red light tickets would likely be issued.
That’s because officers now must match the driver’s image on the video with their DMV license.
If they can’t, a ticket isn’t issued.
The officers also reject video sent to them by the red light firm — American Traffic Systems — if it doesn’t clearly meet the legal threshold the state mandates must be met before a ticket is issued.
Officers assigned to limited duty due to injuries typically received on the job, review videos before tickets are issued.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
