Red Light Camera News RLC WRECKS INCREASE: Grant-Wilton crashes soar since cam arrived
http://www.winnipegsun.com/news/columnists/tom_brodbeck/2011/02/16/17306456.html
News Columnists / Tom Brodbeck
Grant-Wilton crashes soar since cam arrived
By TOM BRODBECK, Winnipeg Sun
Last Updated: February 16, 2011 9:58pm
The number of collisions at Grant Avenue and Wilton Street has skyrocketed 59% since the city installed an intersection camera there in 2004.
So not only has the city been ticketing motorists unfairly with poor speed-reduced signage, the speed monitoring device at this intersection has resulted in higher collisions, putting Winnipeggers at greater risk of injury and death.
According to MPI data obtained by the Winnipeg Sun, there were 15 collisions at the corner of Grant and Wilton in 2003. That number jumped a staggering 73% in 2004 to 26, the first year an intersection camera was installed at that location. It rose again slightly to 27 the next year and has since remained at about that level.
Photo enforcement has actually made this intersection more dangerous. So why do they keep it?
Cash. Cold, hard cash. There’s no other possible reason. This corner has consistently been one of the top three money makers for the private, for-profit firm ACS Public Sector Solutions, which runs Winnipeg’s photo enforcement program. And the city has been making a killing off it ever since.
Who cares if collisions have increased since the installation of red-light cameras? It’s making money for the city and apparently that’s all that matters.
The number of tickets this photo enforcement camera has been churning out every year is breathtaking. At 4,311 tickets issued in 2009, it was the second-highest producing location among the city’s 49 intersection camera sites in 2009. Naturally the city doesn’t give us the breakdown in its annual report to show how many of those tickets were for speeding and how many were for red-light infractions. The concept of full disclosure with this money-making scheme is not a priority.
What we do know, though, is the vast majority of intersection camera tickets overall in the city are for speeding. They at least give us those numbers in the annual report.
ACL rotates 33 cameras around 51 intersections in the city. There were 49 sites in 2009. However, they provide no information whatsoever in their annual reports to show the number of days each location was operational with a camera.
That would blow their cover. Because if it showed they were using cameras at intersections like Grant and Wilton far more than other locations — even with collisions going up — it would expose how they’re focused on generating revenue, not improving safety.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to determine that if collisions rise following the implementation of photo enforcement at this location, the stated goal of safety is not being achieved. But that’s obviously not the real goal.
It’s not the first time the city has used ambiguous or poor signage to drive up ticket revenue. They did it two years ago in so-called construction zones with “when passing workers” signs. Even when there were no workers, photo radar vehicles whacked hundreds of unsuspecting motorists a day, especially in the evenings and on long weekends.
Those drivers were obeying the law but they got ticketed anyway. And to this day no one got their money back.
They made a pretty penny with that scam.
And they’re now hauling in big dollars at intersections like Grant Avenue and Wilton Street.
They do it because they can.
For more, visit Brodbeck’s blog
Raise a Little Hell at winnipegsun.com.
Reach Tom by e-mail at
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