School may be out for summer, but hundreds of drivers who received school bus stop-arm camera tickets learned they can’t fight the summonses because Hamptons town judges are refusing to hear such cases, Dan’s Papers exclusively reports.
Four Southampton Town Justices have all refused to hear the not-guilty pleas of drivers challenging the tickets automatically generated by passing a stopped school bus equipped with one of the photo enforcement cameras, and two East Hampton Town Justices may be following suit, according to officials with knowledge of the matter. Nearly 700 cases have been pending on the South Fork since local school districts began using the devices about two years ago, with the backlog continuing to grow as town and court leaders are at an impasse over how to resolve the dispute — depriving drivers their day in court indefinitely.
