In many cities, motorists who run red lights are now caught on camera

September 27, 1999
Web posted at: 10:01 p.m. EDT (0201 GMT)

From Correspondent Jeanne Meserve

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Red means stop, not go. But the rule is routinely ignored at many of the nation's intersections, sometimes with deadly results.

"I think a lot people who run red lights don't think about what could happen," said Frank Hinds, whose 17-year-old daughter Jennifer was killed in 1997 when a motorist drove through a red light and rammed into the car in which she was a passenger.

"They don't realize their lives and the lives of others are in jeopardy when they make that split-second decision to run the red light."

	MESSAGE BOARD
Rules of the road

While most accidents take place at intersections, they are caused by more than drivers ignoring traffic lights. In the United States, cars running red lights were involved in 8,900 crashes in 1998, killing 1,000. Yet a total of 9,200 people were killed at intersections last year.

"People find that a lot of the signs around intersections are very confusing, sometimes the traffic signals are not timed correctly and we have problems with pedestrians in intersections, so they are dangerous," said Judy Stone, with Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.

A recent Louis Harris poll, sponsored by a road advocacy group and a major insurance company, showed overwhelming concern about intersection safety, and overwhelming support for placing cameras at intersections to catch motorists who run through red lights.

Authorities in many cities already use the system, where cameras catch drivers who run red lights by photographing the license plates on their cars.

Additional proposals for improving intersection safety include changing traffic-signal timing, adding left-turn lanes and making signs less confusing.

Some have suggested changing to graduated licensing of teen- age and elderly drivers, which would place restrictions on the conditions under which they could drive.

But safety experts say drivers' attitudes must change too.

"It is really people that are the problem and their behavior. I mean when is the last time you saw someone signaling a left turn," asked Mark Edwards of the American Automobile Association.

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.