Red Light Camera News What Red Light Cameras Mean to Motorcyclists’ Safety
http://warondriving.com/post/14975657452/what-red-light-cameras-mean-to-motorcyclists-safety
What Red Light Cameras Mean to Motorcyclists’ Safety
Picture courtesy of MotorcycleAccident.org
by Gina Williams
Spending a good portion of my life writing about motorcycle safety and accidents has led to one fact standing out above all others: Many motorcycle accidents occur at intersections.
The reason it stands out is because it is, in a way, counter-intuitive to where many of us think motorcycle accidents occur. Here are the facts:
• A 1999 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) report estimated that 70 percent of motorcycle accidents that involve another vehicle occur at intersections.
• In 1981, a Department of Transportation funded study based on on-the-scene motorcycle accidents in Los Angeles from 1976-1977. The study found that, “Approximately three-fourths of these motorcycle accidents involved collision with another vehicle, which was most often a passenger automobile.”
• In 2007, the NHTSA released a research that found that, “In 2005 there were 4,553 motorcycle rider fatalities, of which 2,021 (44%) were from single-vehicle crashes and 2,532 (56%) were from multivehicle motorcycle crashes.
Of the 2,532 fatalities from multivehicle motorcycle crashes, 2,260 (89%) were from two-vehicle motorcycle crashes. More than 85 percent of the 2,260 motorcycle riders killed in two-vehicle crashes were in crashes involving passenger vehicles.
Among the fatalities in two-vehicle crashes involving motorcycles and passenger vehicles, 98 percent of the fatalities were motorcycle riders and only 2 percent of the fatalities were passenger vehicle occupants.”
Additionally, “Of the two-vehicle crashes involving motorcycles and passenger vehicles in 2005, 91 percent occurred on non-interstate roadways and of these half were crashes at intersections and the other half were non- intersection crashes.”
• In 2009, the NHTSA reported that 13 percent of roadway accidents involved motorcyclists.
So, in summary, the majority of motorcycle accidents involve one other vehicle. Just under half of 2-vehicle motorcycle accidents happen at intersections, and the majority of motorcycle accidents in general are believed to occur at intersections.
If there is a fatality in these accidents, there is an extremely high chance that it will be a motorcyclist. Intersections already pose a real threat to motorcyclists. Add to that the distraction that red light cameras pose and motorcycle fatalities at those intersections with RLCs become much more likely.
According to a 2005 Virginia Department of Transportation funded study of 7 Virginia jurisdictions http://www.virginiadot.org/vtrc/main/online_reports/pdf/05-r21.pdf, RLCs in Virginia demonstrated an increase in rear-end crashes and the number of overall crashes resulting in injuries.
Since many motorcycle accidents occur at intersections, it is logical to assume that motorcycle accidents will and have increased in areas with RLCs. According to Tallahassee’s local NBC news station report http://www.wjhg.com/home/headlines/_Red_Light_Repeal__119626744.html?storySection=story%20:
“Bikers say they’ve seen more people slamming on their brakes at yellow lights to avoid a ticket since the cameras have been installed. ‘I have heard squealing breaks behind me, you know? And you’re looking like when are you going to feel the thump and where am I going to go,’ said Biker R.C. No one wants to be rear ended, but it’s often times more severe on two wheels than on four.”
Because there hasn’t been any research conducted on how red light cameras affect motorcyclists, it’s hard to determine just how negatively it has impacted them.
What we do know is that accidents in general have increased. Yes, there are reports pointing in both directions, so how do you really know what to believe? Here is something that will help you understand:
The government has a vested interest in those red light cameras being there. They make a lot money from them, easy money in fact. The studies that show that red light cameras are effective were conducted by the government or companies contracted through the government, and many of these studies, upon analysis, have been deemed flawed.
Gina Williams is a guest post and article writer bringing to us an examination on how RLC’s affect motorcyclists. Gina also writes about motorcycle accident lawyers. http://www.motorcycleaccident.org/
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