An Albany driver’s effort to dispute a traffic ticket has made its way to television, and the clip is making the rounds via e-mail.

The driver, Bill Weaver, was cited near Ninth and Lyon Street on Sept. 24 just before 10 a.m. after passing through the underpass from Pacific to Lyon.

Officer Buck Pearce says he was sitting in his squad car on Ninth and saw the driver come through the underpass after the opposing signal on Ninth had already changed to green.

Weaver came to the Democrat-Herald last week, contending that his light was green even while the one on Ninth was also green.

The paper held off on the story after the officer involved explained the man was cited for a different light than the one Weaver had assumed.

Police Capt. Eric Carter said officers rely on lights to be timed in such a way that when one lane of traffic has a green light, the opposing lanes have red lights.

Weaver maintains he was cited for running the next light on Lyon Street, which remains green a few seconds longer than the signal governing passage under the Pacific Boulevard overpass.

The citation does not specify which light was run.

Weaver also understood he would have his day in court to present evidence and fight the ticket.

He received a notice in the mail dated Nov. 13 stating the judge had considered his explanation to the court and found him guilty. The fine listed was $259, to be paid in seven days.

Weaver says he is being railroaded.

“I’m not asking for special treatment,” he said. “I just want the rights anyone has when they are accused of running afoul of the law.

“It’s not our fault that is how the lights are set up,” he said. “You

shouldn’t issue someone a ticket for a light you can’t even see.”

KVAL-TV in Eugene did a story on Weaver’s ticket and aired it Wednesday and again Thursday, reporting an overlap of green signals but comparing the wrong lights.

On  Thursday the Democrat-Herald went to the intersection and, with staffers standing on either side of the underpass linked via cell phones, confirmed that the lights regulating traffic under the underpass work as intended: When one was green, the other was red and vice versa. There was no overlap of greens in both directions.