Red light camera
Other jurisdictions simply assess a fine to the owner of the vehicle and make no attempt to determine personal responsibility for the offence beyond that; in such locales owners are responsible for collecting the fine from the offending driver (assuming it is not themselves); however, such jurisdictions generally do not assign demerit points or other personal consequences for traffic offences caught on camera.
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, red-light running is a frequent cause of crashes, with 6,000 people killed between 1992 and 1998, 850 each year in the United States alone, while 1.4 million were injured.
[13][14] There have been concerns that red light cameras scare drivers (who want to avoid a ticket) into more sudden stops,[15][16] which may increase the risk of rear-end collisions.
[19] The cameras first received serious attention in the United States in the 1980s following a highly publicized crash in 1982, involving a red-light runner who collided with an 18-month-old girl in a stroller (or "push-chair") in New York City.
[20] Subsequently, a community group worked with the city's Department of Transportation to research automated law-enforcement systems to identify and ticket drivers who run red lights.
[26] Red light cameras are typically installed in protective metal boxes attached to poles[27] at intersections,[10] which are often specifically chosen due to high numbers of crashes and/or red-light-running violations.
[2] Ohio and Georgia introduced a statute requiring that one second be added to the standard yellow time of any intersection that has a red light camera, which has led to an 80% reduction in tickets since its introduction.
[36] The UK first installed cameras in the 1990s,[7] with the earliest locations including eight rail crossings in Scotland where there was greatest demand for enforcement of traffic signals due to fatalities.
Within 20 minutes, a facial recognition system identifies personal information including family name, ID number and address which are displayed in the street on an advertising screen.
[44] In the south east quarter of France, red light cameras (MESTA 3000) are provided by Safran; their availability rate is 95%, taking into account road works and acts of vandalism.
If the light has been red for more than one second when the violation occurs, the fine increases to €200, with two penalty points, and the offender's driving license is suspended for one month.
If a driver in their probationary period runs a red light and is caught by a red-light camera, they are required to attend a compulsory retraining seminar (Aufbauseminar).
[59] Suppliers of red-light cameras in the US include: Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) State and Local Solutions, a Xerox company, of Dallas, Texas;[60] American Traffic Solutions of Scottsdale, Arizona, 1/3 owned by Goldman Sachs;[61][62] Brekford International Corp., of Hanover, Maryland;[63] CMA Consulting Services, Inc. of Latham, New York;[64] Gatso USA of Beverly, Massachusetts;[65] iTraffic Safety LLC of Ridgeland, South Carolina;[66] NovoaGlobal Inc., of Orlando, Florida; Optotraffic, of Lanham, Maryland;[67] Redflex Traffic Systems of Phoenix, Arizona, with its parent company in Australia;[68] RedSpeed-Illinois LLC, of Lombard, Illinois, whose parent company is in Worcestershire, England;[69] and SafeSpeed LLC, of Chicago, Illinois.
These include Arkansas, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Texas (phasing out fully by 2021), and West Virginia.
[74] In February 2013, the San Diego mayor helped remove a red light camera to keep the campaign promise he made during the November 2012 election to eliminate these systems.
[77] The cost in California can increase to approximately $600 if the motorist elects to attend traffic school in order to avoid having a demerit point added to his or her driving record.
In many California police departments, when a positive identification cannot be made, the registered owner of the vehicle will be mailed a notice of traffic violation instead of a real ticket.
To be successful, a red light camera should focus on safety and transparency, as well as be located in a problematic intersection which needs to be assessed by communities (for instance, for road design and signal timing).
It could also take into account public input with stakeholders such as law enforcement, victim advocates, school officials and residents to plan a program.
[7] These findings are similar to a 2005 meta analysis, which compared the results of 10 controlled before-after studies of red light cameras in the US, Australia, and Singapore.
[90] Following the introduction of red light cameras in Western Australia, the number of serious right-angle crashes decreased by 40%, according to an article from the Canberra Times.
A 2005 study by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) suggests red light cameras reduce dangerous right-angle crashes.
[96] In 2007, the department issued an updated report which showed that the overall number of crashes at intersections with red light cameras increased.
[110] A 2012 telephone survey of District of Columbia residents published in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention found that 87% favored red light cameras.
[111] The National Motorists Association opposes red light cameras on the grounds that the use of these devices raises legal issues and violates the privacy of citizens.
For example, a report from civic administrators in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada in 2001 described the cameras as "simply an enforcement tool used to penalize motorists that fail to stop for red traffic signals.
In some jurisdictions, the law says that the camera needs to obtain a photo of the driver's face in order for the citation issued for running the red light to be valid.
[118] In California, state law assesses a demerit point against a driver who runs a red light,[119] and the need to identify the actual violator has led to the creation of a unique investigatory tool, the fake "ticket.
In Tennessee, 176 drivers were refunded for fines paid after it was discovered that the length of the yellow was too short for that location, and motorists were caught running the light in the first second of the red phase.
[10][137] In 2014, a bill was introduced in the United States House of Representatives attempting to prohibit red light cameras on federally funded highways and in the District of Columbia.
