Taking on the Government Petition to ban red light cameras in Murrieta gaining speed
http://www.swrnn.com/2011/06/14/petition-to-ban-red-light-cameras-in-murrieta-gaining-speed/
Petition to ban red light cameras in Murrieta gaining speed
By Rocky Salmon, on June 14th, 2011
A Murrieta woman’s push to put the brakes on the city’s red light camera program is gaining speed.
Diana Serafin explains her petition to get a measure banning red light cameras within Murrieta to a resident. (Rocky Salmon)
Diana Serafin has been outside supermarkets and walking streets to collects signatures to get a measure onto a ballot that would prevent Murrieta from operating red light cameras.
The decision to petition came after the City Council expanded the program from three to five cameras in January.
“There are a whole lot of issues with what the city is doing,” she said outside a Stater Bros. one weekend. “It violates our constitutional rights and it’s a money making generator.”
Her push comes as residents in other cities push back against similar plans. Los Angeles essentially ended its red light camera program when commissioners refused to renew a contract with American Traffic Solutions to continue running the program.
ATS is the company Murrieta uses to run the cameras and determine what pictures go to Murrieta Police for a possible violation.
In a past interview, Executive Director Gary Biller of the National Motorists Association said whenever the red light camera program goes to an election, the outcome is always to ban red light cameras.
“Motorists can see through to what the cities are trying to do. If the cities wanted to stop red light signal violations they would turn to other options,” he said.
Murrieta put in cameras at three intersections – Murrieta Hot Springs Road/Whitewood Road, Nutmeg Road/Clinton Keith Road and Murrieta Hot Springs Road/Margarita Road – in 2006 to see if the cameras could curb red light violations. There was also a series of accidents along the road causing a public outcry.
At the Council meeting in January, police reported that the cameras helped to decrease the violations at the intersections down to one per day. Cpl. Jay Froboese even recommended ending the red light cameras at Clinton Keith/Nutmeg because the violations had dropped to less than one per day.
The city also did a study on the number of broad side collisions at the red light camera intersections. Over the past three years there were 14 accidents at the intersection. The police took a look at the same three-year period on the three intersections to the east and found there were 45 broad side collisions.
The City Council decided against lowering the cameras instead, voting to add two more intersections to the list – I-215 off-ramp at Murrieta Hot Springs Road and I-15 northbound off-ramp at Murrieta Hot Springs Road.
The new cameras would raise the lease rate from $4,850 per month to $5,395 a month. The police and city do not have the power to decrease traffic ticket fines. The prices are set by the state. However, staff reports showed the city paid $58,200 per quarter to ATS but still made $261,750 since the cameras went operational.
The City Council voted to donate any extra revenue made to non-profit organizations.
At the meeting, motorists from both sides of the debate came out to voice opinions. Within weeks, Serafin has started the process to ban the cameras by putting the issue to the voters.
On Sept. 20, Serafin will have to turn in about 4,500 signatures from verified registered voters.
“I think I will be done by the end of July,” Serafin said. “But I am not going to stop. I want to get as many signatures as I can.”
She has been setting up tables at area super markets, city events and walking from home to home to collect signatures. She will be at the city’s annual Birthday celebration and her events are listed on a website called Ban the Cameras.
Every time Serafin goes out to take signatures she hears at least one horror story where the person had to pay a fine even if they weren’t driving the car. She said she recently had an elderly woman come up to her and tell her she had to pay her entire grocery budget for the red light ticket.
“We are the highest ticket in the area,” she said. “It’s ridiculous.”
Subscribe to this comment's feedwritten by jamie , June 16, 2011
seuding a bill in the mail for something you might not have done is wrong. its all about making money, thats it, if it was about safty ? than a police officer would be placed in those areas too controll traffic. but as i said, its all about the dollar.stop the ticket,and money stealing camera.i want to sign up too stop the cameras.
Articles Menu
Find Info
Latest Comments
Member Login
