Should the state bless red-light cameras?

2 Comments

  • RLE - 13 years ago

    1) Apparently you are incorrect about the cameras not making our intersections safer or is every one wrong and you are right? Attached below #3 is the most recent STUDY....not a poll.

    2) You need to read the one part of the statute you recited a little deeper, "obtaining information about the whereabouts, habits, movements, and identity of any person or persons".
    The cameras nor the company ever identify the person/persons driving or riding in the violating vehicle. The violations are simply mailed to the vehicles owner.

    3) Rearend crashes can increase during the beginning stages of any program however these types of crashes are lower speed impacts and vehicles are designed from the factory to handle crashes from the front or rear NOT THE SIDE.

    Red light runners kill people and if we save one life in return for 50 non life thretening crashes is that not enough?? I bet if it was your loved one you would accept these odds!!

    Washington - In a study released on Tuesday, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, found that red-light cameras could save lives.

    The findings by the institute, a nonprofit group funded by the insurance industry, found that from 2004-8 the cameras saved 159 lives in 14 of the biggest American cities. Extrapolating from these findings, researchers claimed that had red-light cameras, which capture digital photographs of vehicles that supposedly run a red light, been operating during that same five-year period in all large American cities, 815 lives would have been saved.

    Crashes that result from running a light are defined by the institute as T-bone crashes, in which a vehicle running a light crashes into the side of another vehicle — the type of crash in which occupants in the impacted car are particularly vulnerable because there is comparatively little material to absorb the impact.

    According to government data, there were 676 deaths caused by red-light running in 2009, representing a decrease from 2001, when 1,009 deaths were reported.
    Advertisement:

    Of 99 American cities with more than 200,000 residents in 2008, the researchers identified 14 that had installed traffic cameras from 2004-8. These cities became the primary study group, requiring two date ranges — one spanning a period during which no cameras were installed (1992-96) and another comprising the years during which they were installed (2004-8) — for researchers to effectively measure the rate of change.

    The comparison group, meanwhile, included 48 cities that never installed cameras. For consistency, researchers split these cities’ fatality data into the 1992-96 and 2004-8 date ranges.

    In the 14 cities where cameras were installed, the combined per capita rate of fatal red-light crashes fell a combined 35 percent, relative to those cities’ 1992-6 data. The fatality rate also fell in the 48 cities in which no cameras were ever installed, but by 14 percent.

    The institute’s findings still might not mollify the cameras’ critics. Some opponents claim the devices violate personal privacy, while other dismiss them as mere revenue generators for cities. Critics also say the cameras simply trade one kind of crash for another; though side-impact crashes may decrease at intersections equipped with red-light cameras, rear-end crashes might increase.

    The insurance institute acknowledges the assertion, but says that T-bone crashes are far more dangerous than rear-end crashes.

  • JHL - 14 years ago

    The use of automated Traffic Cameras at intersections does NOT make our intersections safer.

    In fact there are studies that show that rear end collisions increase dramaticaly at intersections where cameras have been installed. This is strictly a money making operation by the city and the private company based in Arizona that operates the cameras!

    Furthermore, the use of traffic cameras in Florida by private companies is Illegal pursuant to F.S. 493.6101 - Any person or company that is engaged in the business of obtaining information about the whereabouts, habbits, movements, and identy of any person or persons, and / or is in the business of of securing evidence to be used before investigating committees or boards of award or in the arbitration or in the trial of civil or criminal cases and the preparation therefore - Must be licensed in Florida as a Private Investigation Agency and must be operated by Florida Licensed Private Investigators.

    The private company utilized by the City of West Palm Beach - American Traffic Solutions located in Arizona have no such licenseses.

    Others have recently filed complaints with the State of Florida - I urge others to do the same as soon as possible.

    Most importantly - these cameras do no allow for the fair and uniform enforcement of traffic laws. Only persons with properly registered and properly displayed license plates receive citations.

    Vehicles with no license plate, obscured lor improperly displayed license plates receive NO citations. This is NOT fair nor is it uniform enforcement.

    Please complain to the State of Florida to put a stop to this activity as soon as possible. Also complain to your elected officials. This is NOT fair

Leave a Comment

0/4000 chars


Submit Comment