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May 08, 2003

Red light cameras coming to LI ?

Getting Caught: LI Legislators Want to Emulate Use of City Red-Light Camera
By Robert Fresco, Newsday Staff Writer

2003 May 09

If you drive in New York City and are careless about traffic lights, sooner or
later you are likely to get an unwelcome letter in your mailbox.

The letter will describe the time, date and place your car ran through a red
light. The fine is $55, unless you can prove the charge is incorrect.

How do city officials find out about the offenses? By installing cameras at
dozens of intersections and taking pictures of license plates as cars run the
lights. A computer matches the plates with the vehicle registrations and the
owners get letters from the city.

Nassau and Suffolk officials would love to expand the program into the suburbs
to help beef up traffic enforcement, but their plans are being stymied by the
state Legislature.

New York City began its program 10 years ago -- the first municipality in the
nation to do so. There are now 50 cameras, and city officials often shift their
locations around so drivers won't learn which lights are "safe" to run.

Cameras are also installed in dozens of other municipalities across the nation,
and federal highway officials say they are a key factor in saving lives. Light
running, a recent federal report said, leads to crashes that kill 1,000 people in
the United States every year.

Since the cameras were installed many cities have reported sizable reductions
in light running. Offenses dropped by 92 percent in Los Angeles and 68 percent
in San Francisco. New York City sends out more than 300,000 letters of
violation a year. City officials report red-light running has dropped 40 percent at
its camera locations.

In December 2001, the Suffolk Legislature passed and County Executive
Robert Gaffney signed a measure asking legislators in Albany to give the
county permission to start a camera program. Legis. William Lindsay (D-
Holbrook), sponsor of the bill, said cameras would save lives. "People run red
lights because they don't think they're going to get caught."

Legis. Judith Jacobs (D-Woodbury), presiding officer of the Nassau Legislature,
said she favored the camera idea, but no county legislation has been passed. In
fact, expansion of the program beyond the five boroughs has been bottled up in
Albany by David Gantt (D-Rochester), chairman of the Assembly Transportation
Committee. In an interview late last year, Bob Cook, counsel to Gantt, said the
city has not provided his committee with enough data to prove that red light
camera programs are effective.

Assemb. Robert Sweeney (D-Lindenhurst), a committee member, disagrees.
He said yesterday that he was nearly hit on his way to work when an SUV ran a
red light. "It's hardly uncommon to see people blowing through red lights," he
said. "There's no reason why we shouldn't expand it throughout New York
State."

Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.

Posted by dc at May 8, 2003 10:10 PM

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