On April 12, the NY State Senate’s Transportation Committee, chaired by Senator Charles Fuschillo (R-Nassau), approved and reported out of committee bills that would authorize New York City (S.4197/A.6751) and Suffolk County (S.4496) to expand their red-light camera programs. A third bill sponsored by Sen. Fuschillo (S.2580/A.4763) that would expand the use of cameras in Nassau County passed the full Senate in March. All three bills are awaiting action by the Assembly.
Crashes caused by red-light running are particularly dangerous—they tend to combine speed and right-angle, or “T-Bone,” impacts, which lead to a high number of injuries and deaths. A YouTube video, recently released by Suffolk County, shows several crashes as well as a variety of vehicles breaking the law, including school buses, a garbage truck, and a gasoline tanker truck.
According to a recent report by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, as many as 171,000 crashes, 144,000 injuries and 887 fatalities were attributed to red-light running in the U.S. in 2006. The public costs of these crashes exceed $14 billion per year. Nearly two-thirds of the deaths in red-light running crashes are passengers, other motorists, and pedestrians.
These are preventable deaths. The IIHS report found that fatal crashes were reduced by 24 percent in 14 large cities that introduced red light cameras between 1996 and 2004. Today, over 500 cities are using this technology.
Cameras help ensure that those who break the law shoulder the costs of enforcing it, and that the limited resources of public safety departments are spent on areas that require boots on the ground — not on traffic violations that can be effectively addressed by new technologies. Some have argued that a longer yellow light is just as effective at curbing violations. However, a study in Philadelphia, discussed in this status report from the Traffic Safety Coalition, found that while a longer yellow helped reduce violations by 36%, cameras reduced them by an additional 96%.
How much of red light running is caused by improperly timed lights? It should be a part ofthe bill authorizing cameras that any light with cameras must be timed in accordance with the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD).
You should take the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety “death study” results with a grain of salt(or maybe a pound of it). The IIHS member organizations make millions every year off of red light cameras, and this study assumes that red light cameras are the only reason for the decline in intersection deaths. In other words, intersection engineering changes and changing traffic volumes are completely ignored by their study so they can promote red light cameras. They also chose a very small percentage of red-light-camera-installed-cities, and they cherry-picked the time periods for their study to fit their desired results. This study is about as valid as when the tobacco industry claimed that cigarette smoking increases lung capacity.
The Philadelphia IIHS study you mention is equally invalid. They only analyzed 2 intersections, the before period was only 3 months and crashes actually went up 12% during the study period.
It’s all about the $$$… If safety was the primary concern, the state would mandate a minimum 4 second yellow light in a 30mph zone.
Hey, for all that can be said about Nassau’s red light camera program, at least county exec Mangano openly admits that it’s about the money and that youth programs will likely be cut w/o the add’l revenue.
One should also know that the IIHS has an incentive to promote red light cameras since in some states (I believe) that points are assigned for camera violations.
Imagine how much money could be raised putting speed cameras along the LIE – I mean, if we set it to 11 over the limit (66mph), Nassau wouldn’t need any property taxes
[…] Fortunately, common sense has so far prevailed, and his bill was put on hold in February. And the fact remains that over time, intersections where red light cameras have installed have become safer. […]