League City will dismiss 1,740 red-light-camera tickets and issue refunds because a traffic light at the Gulf Freeway and FM 518 hasn't been staying yellow long enough.

Police Chief Mike Jez said the yellow light was set to last just 4 seconds, instead of the state-required 4.7 seconds.

Baytown resident Byron Schirmbeck, an opponent of red-light cameras, e-mailed League City police late last month about the discrepancy, and they forwarded the complaint to the Texas Department of Transportation, the agency responsible for the timing of that particular traffic light, which regulates southbound traffic on the Gulf Freeway feeder road.

State workers found that Schirmbeck was correct, and the traffic light's timing was adjusted earlier this month. Stuart Corder, operations director for the Texas Department of Transportation in Houston, said lights at League City's other red-light-camera intersections off the freeway were also checked, but no other problems were found.

“It was short cycling,” Jez said. “It was wrong, so they fixed it.”

Jez said that Corder told him that the yellow light was set for 4 seconds long before Redflex Traffic Systems installed red-light cameras last year.

But since some motorists wrongly received red-light-camera citations because of the timing error, the city and Redflex agreed to rescind the $75 tickets issued for violations within 4.79 seconds of the light turning yellow, he said.

The extra 0.09 seconds is "a little additional tolerance,” Jez said.

The 1,740 ticket dismissals and 882 refunds for citations already paid will start today and should be complete within 30 days, Jez said. Anyone getting a ticket dismissed will receive a letter from the city.

The tickets affected are those sent out between the time the city started issuing red-light-camera tickets at 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 30 and March 4, two days after the light was fixed.

The tickets that will be changed represent less than 20 percent of the citations issued at I-45 and FM 518, he said.

“We’re glad we found it,” Jez said. “The city is doing the right thing.”

A NOTE FOR THE CURIOUS:

It turns out the the yellow-light interval is determined by the speed limit on the approach to the traffic signal. If the speed limit is 40 miles per hour, the timing is supposed to be 4 seconds, and if the speed limit is 50 miles per hour, it’s supposed to be 4.7 seconds.