Stop!!! It's Red Light...

The idea that red light cameras reduce accidents is generally true if you are referring to broadside or “T-Bone” accidents.  This is the worst kind of collision you can have at an intersection, when a car enters crossing traffic and plows into the side of another car.  A slightly greater number of studies showed that these broadside incidents were reduced by red light cameras. In a recent article by Abbey from Everything is Better in Texas, she mentioned that there is a 25% reduction of crashes around Texas intersections due to the number of Red-Light cameras.  Also, a November 2008 study carried out by the Center of Transportation Safety of the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University found, “a 43 percent annualized decrease in right angle collisions” at 56 intersections with red light cameras.  

We use cameras at almost every crime scene and testify routinely in court as to their validity.  If we were not allowed to use technology to our benefit, we would not have solved thousands of cases each year and criminals would leave undeterred in our efforts to keep our communities safe.   Today’s law enforcement cannot be everything, everywhere, all the time.  We are undermanned and increasingly and increasingly out-gunned.  We have to use every available resource to our benefit in order to have any chance of keeping crime at bay.  I would certainly agree that there have been examples of the improper use of this technology and would not support the use of any technology simply increase funding.  To place law enforcement in a position that they must begin to generate funding to do their jobs would be a gross misuse of the law enforcement community and would lead to a contamination of our legal system, however, I would say we should not throw out the baby with the bath water.  Let’s take a deep breath and a few moments to look at what we might be doing if we use a broad brush and say that red light cameras are all bad and must be eliminated.

I would propose that if the underlying problem is perception that these systems are being used as a funding mechanism, thus being misused, then lets address by regulating how these systems can be used to help keep our citizens safe and where the funding may go instead of totally eliminating our ability to use the technology to our benefit.

I am very much in favor of red light cameras.  I think they deter motorists from running red lights, keeping everyone safe.  Red-light cameras help slow down traffic and help save lives.  Let’s keep the cameras up and please slow down….