9/11 Memorial Riders Mistakenly Hit With Red Light Tickets

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — The city's transportation department doled out red light camera violations to participants in this year's "Run for Richie" 9/11 Memorial Motorcycle Ride, even though the city is supposed to turn off the cameras on parade routes.

The Forest Hills Volunteer Ambulance Corps, which hosts the ride every September in memory of former corps member and 9/11 first responder Richie Pearlman, informed participants this week that the city is canceling all violations issued during the Sept. 8 event.

"As a matter of practice, NYC DOT is supposed to turn off all traffic violation cameras on the parade route," Forest Hills Volunteer Ambulance Corps John Alber wrote in a statement to Patch. "Unfortunately this did not happen this year and many participants received red light camera violations in the mail."

It's unclear exactly how many participants were issued violations, Alber said. City Council Member Karen Koslowitz's office received three reports of such tickets, all of which were forgiven, spokesperson Michael Cohen told Patch.

A spokesperson for the city Department of Transportation wrote in an emailed statement that the agency will review the violations: "If we determine that anyone was wrongly ticketed, we will dismiss those violations and advise the Department of Finance to dismiss them as well."

The spokesperson did not address a question on why the violations were issued in the first place.

The Forest Hills Volunteer Ambulance Corps is offering to help anyone who already paid for a violation and is advising participants who got a red light ticket to plead not guilty and say they were an authorized participant in an NYPD-permitted parade.

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Greetings! A few participants in the 9/11 Motorcycle Run for Richie may have received a red light ticket. ALERT *RED LIGHT CAMERA TICKETS* DO NOT PAY NYC DOT Issued Red Light Camera Tickets to participants in the 2019 Run for Richie 9/11 Motorcycle Parade on September 8, 2019 in error. DO NOT PAY. We reached out to our local elected officials who worked to rectify this problem with DOT. DOT will cancel all violations issued during the time of the parade. We have been told it is unnecessary to take any action and that the violations will be cancelled automatically. Just as a precaution we suggest that you respond to any notice with a plead of NOT GUILTY. Reason to be stated should be "AUTHORIZED PARTICIPANT IN AN NYPD PERMITTED PARADE #461501". We apologize if this error on the part of NYC DOT has caused any trouble for you. We thank Queens Boro President Melinda Katz, Councilmembers Karen Koslowitz and Eric Ulrich and State Senators Toby Ann Stavitsky and Joseph Adabboo for their assistance with correcting this situation. If you have any issues please email us at info@fhvac.org. Thank you and hope to see you again for the 2020 Run for Richie 9/11 Memorial Motorcycle Parade on September 13, 2020.
A post shared by Forest Hills VAC (@fhvac) on Nov 18, 2019 at 6:13am PST

The "Run for Richie" 9/11 Memorial Motorcycle Ride honors 9/11 first responders and victims and raises money to support the Forest Hills Volunteer Ambulance Corps. The ride goes from Queens' Aqueduct Racetrack to Ground Zero and back.

Pearlman, the event's namesake, was the youngest first responder killed on 9/11 at just 18 years old. He joined the volunteer EMS group's junior corps when he was 14 and graduated to the senior corps four years later, according to the event's description.