YOU GOT PICTURE
WRECK-LESS DRIVING©
by Gunther Doerfert, Auto Safety Columnist
YOU GOT PICTURE
COMMISKEY, IN: No longer does a law enforcement officer have to witness your running a red traffic light in many cities and towns. Jerry H. faxed us a newspaper article that reports that about the many automatic cameras installed now at dangerous USA intersections. These are ones where for unknown reasons motorists are most apt to try to beat the light or just plain ignore it.
The article goes on to say that the number of such photogenic crossings will double each year. The cameras are tripped automatically when a vehicle violates the red light. Captured on the film are the vehicle and its license plate number. Shortly thereafter the registered owner receives a summons by mail. What if the owner was not driving, maybe not even in the vehicle? I do not know if the court will accept that as reason to dismiss or if the owner is held legally liable for the sins of the borrower. The popularity of the camera (with the police and law abiding tax payers) includes the ability of the police force to use its time on more serious matters.
Still, there is controversy over these automated cops. The AAA is afraid that they will be used more to increase police department revenues than for pure safety reasons. Much like the speed traps are popular money sources in some towns. Civil-rights activists claim that such surveillance is an infringement of personal privacy. And chronic violators hate them.
Violation of stop lights is involved in more than 260,000 crashes a year. That is a 24 % increase from 1992 to now. Or to be necessarily morbid, over 800 killings and some 121,000 injuries of various degree occur annually at traffic light controlled intersections. In one city 5 months after installation of the cameras there was a 57 % reduction of red light violations.
See www.stopredlightrunning.com the national campaign to stop red light running for the latest state-by-state information.
GHD209 all rights reserved
by Gunther Doerfert, Auto Safety Columnist
YOU GOT PICTURE
COMMISKEY, IN: No longer does a law enforcement officer have to witness your running a red traffic light in many cities and towns. Jerry H. faxed us a newspaper article that reports that about the many automatic cameras installed now at dangerous USA intersections. These are ones where for unknown reasons motorists are most apt to try to beat the light or just plain ignore it.
The article goes on to say that the number of such photogenic crossings will double each year. The cameras are tripped automatically when a vehicle violates the red light. Captured on the film are the vehicle and its license plate number. Shortly thereafter the registered owner receives a summons by mail. What if the owner was not driving, maybe not even in the vehicle? I do not know if the court will accept that as reason to dismiss or if the owner is held legally liable for the sins of the borrower. The popularity of the camera (with the police and law abiding tax payers) includes the ability of the police force to use its time on more serious matters.
Still, there is controversy over these automated cops. The AAA is afraid that they will be used more to increase police department revenues than for pure safety reasons. Much like the speed traps are popular money sources in some towns. Civil-rights activists claim that such surveillance is an infringement of personal privacy. And chronic violators hate them.
Violation of stop lights is involved in more than 260,000 crashes a year. That is a 24 % increase from 1992 to now. Or to be necessarily morbid, over 800 killings and some 121,000 injuries of various degree occur annually at traffic light controlled intersections. In one city 5 months after installation of the cameras there was a 57 % reduction of red light violations.
See www.stopredlightrunning.com the national campaign to stop red light running for the latest state-by-state information.
GHD209 all rights reserved
posted by WRECK-LESS at Sunday, June 08, 2008
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