Red Light Camera News Another Editorial Board, VETO THE RLC SCAMERA BILL!
Found it on Camerafraud Facebook:
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2010/may/12/editorial-crist-should-veto-legislative-ok-for/
Editorial: Crist should veto legislative OK for red-light cameras at intersections
BY Editorial Board
There’s probably not much of a lobby in Tallahassee to defend motorists who barrel straight through red lights at intersections, recklessly endangering crossing motorists and pedestrians.
But there’s probably a pretty good lobby to defend common sense.
Maybe there’s even a group, somewhere, that would argue coming to rest beyond the stop line while trying to determine if it’s safe to make a right turn on red is OK. Or turning right on red without coming to an absolute complete stop is a pardonable offense.
If Gov. Charlie Crist wants to take his traditional “people’s” commonsense approach, he’ll veto a bill that sets statewide standards for local governments that want to install red-light cameras at intersections.
Forget that at least one study says the potential for dangerous rear-end collisions increases dramatically when cameras are installed because motorists, in an effort to avoid breaking the law, brake quickly and get hit.
Here are some facts from Collier County, which recently completed its first year with cameras taking pictures of vehicles going through intersections.
Almost 24,000 vehicles ran red lights between April 2009 and March. There might have been even more, if cameras installed later in the year were active on Day One.
It’s a staggering number — until you learn that 85.1 percent of these violations came from making right turns on red!
Almost 3,000 of the violators, only 12.4 percent, committed the most dangerous offense, heading straight through the intersection. An even smaller number, 605, or 2.5 percent, violated the law when turning left.
Collier County started its program with fees for first-time offenders of $125, but backed off to $62.50. The bill passed last month by Florida legislators sets the statewide fee at $158, shared by state and local governments who would see a windfall — the bulk of which will come from nabbing Average Joe and Jane who don’t come to a complete stop at a red light or drift beyond the stop line.
The bill includes language about right turns — “A notice of violation and a traffic citation may not be issued for failure to stop at a red light if the driver is making a right-hand turn in a careful and prudent manner” — but it is still too vague given past abuses.
Other problems include owners of vehicles — not necessarily drivers — getting citations up to 30 days later, perhaps having stopped over a line several times in that time. Imagine that rental car surcharge when officers found you edged over a stop line four times while on vacation.
What’s been billed as a safety improvement has become a revenue-generator for companies such as American Traffic Solutions, which has convinced officials in Fort Pierce and Vero Beach that red-light cameras will be profitable for the cities, too — a projected $400,000 annually in Fort Pierce.
If safety is an issue, keep Big Brother out of it, and get real traffic engineers involved. Set the timing of lights, particularly those on U.S. 1, so that people don’t try to rush through lights for fear they’ll have to stop at every intersection. Traffic signal synchronization systems have been around for decades. Also, lengthen the time between the start of yellow and green signals.
It’s easy to understand Fort Pierce Police Chief Sean Baldwin and Vero Beach Police Chief Don Dappen wanting to look good on safety issues. Martin County Commissioner Ed Ciampi, who was quoted in a recent news story as being a supporter of the cameras, made this statement:
“It’s very simple. You will never have to pay if you don’t do it (run a red light),” Ciampi said.
It’s not that simple. And every elected official on the Treasure Coast has an obligation to listen to more than just their chief law enforcement officer and salesmen from American Traffic Solutions or other vendors.
They have an obligation to do some homework and use a little common sense — which is what the governor should use in vetoing the bill that authorizes the cameras.
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