MEDFORD, Ore. – After almost two years in the making, a class action lawsuit has been filed against the City of Medford and the Medford Police Department. The class action pertains to a photo red-light camera ticketing program that the plaintiff and attorney on the case claim has been operating illegally.
It all started when a Medford-based Chiropractor, Dr. Glenn Gumaer, fell victim to a red light trap at the intersection of E. Barnett Road and E. Stewart Ave. back in January of 2022. After realizing that the yellow light seemed unreasonably short, he learned that the yellow light only lasted 3.5 seconds at the time he went through it.
“The city ignored the specific requirements necessary to time these turns properly and that’s resulted in 30,000 red light tickets and somewhere around $8.5 million at the East Stewart Avenue intersection alone since 2005,” Gumaer said.
William Smith, the attorney on the case, was in the process of doing research for another red light trap situation in Sherwood, Oregon when he came across Dr. Gumaer’s story and immediately took an interest in the case.
“You know as drivers, we have to follow the rules of the road or we get violations,” Smith said. “Well, the city has to follow a set of rules too and in this case in Medford, they haven’t. So the class action is perfect, it brings us all together to hold the city accountable.”
When Dr. Gumaer appealed the citation to the Circuit Court, it was dismissed and then the city increased the timing at E. Stewart avenue to 5.1 seconds.
However, the problem with that timing is, not only that it is still too short, but it is based on the ODOT recommendation for timing a yellow light for straight through maneuvers and not for turns, which require more time to cover the same critical distance, because you are slowing down.
“The traffic lights, the way that they’re set creates an unsafe situation. If the yellow lights are too short, people will get accustomed to that and they’ll be slamming on their brakes. We want to create a safer environment, this creates a more hazardous environment.”
The complaint has been filed, but has not been served on the city yet. Once it’s served and the city responds, then a judge will determine if the class action can go forward.
“I feel comfortable that we’ve got a solid case going forward and hopefully we’ll be able to fix this problem for the whole community,” Gumaer said.
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