Stop Stoplight Cameras?

Red light, green light — a top Member of Congress wants to stop those cameras that record drivers who ignore the traffic signals.

House Majority Leader Dick Armey says those cameras at intersections are there not to cut down on accidents but to beef up municipal revenues.

"There seems to be a tendency to see the traffic camera as a revenue device as opposed to a traffic safety device," he said. A report from his office stated "Red light cameras present a perverse disincentive for local jurisdictions to fix intersections with excessive red light entries, since this 'problem' brings in millions in revenues."

The Texas Republican charges many municipalities shorten the yellow or orange light at intersections with the cameras, in order to catch more drivers.

AP

Rep. Dick Armey, R-Texas

That's nonsense, responded Richard Retting of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

"It's unfortunate that people like Armey who don't like traffic
enforcement stoop to this level of accusing a conspiracy by an entire profession of traffic engineers to make intersections unsafe," Retting told CBS News Correspondent Dan Raviv. "Mr Armey is just wrong and the report is wrong. That is completely out of line with reality."

The cameras, installed at city intersections in about 40 U.S. communities so far, automatically photograph the vehicles and license plates of drivers who run red lights. About 750 deaths a year are attributed by the Institute to going through intersections against the lights.

New York City last year collected $9 million in revenue from its camera program.

"I am concerned about the government's use of electronic devices to intrude against the privacy of its citizens," he said.

Retting says his Institute's recent study shows red-light cameras cut down on accidents at those intersections, and Armey's complaint is counter-productive.

"There are enough red-light runners out there," he said. "There's no need to increase the number artificially in the way that this report suggests."

The insurance industry group, which studies auto-related safety issues, cited accident figures in Oxnard, California, to highlight the benefits of red-light cameras.

Since the cameras appeared in Oxnard in 1997, there had been a 32 percent decline in front-into-side vehicle collisions -- the type most commonly associated with red-light running.

Crashes declined throughout Oxnard even though only 11 of the city's 125 intersections with traffic signals were equipped with cameras, the insurance group said.

"It's a deterrent," said Retting. "Drivers don't like getting tickets and they avoid running red lights when they know they'll be punished for doing that."

Armey's office said the Oxnard study's connection between area accidents and red light cameras was only implied as the crash data was not detailed enough to identify crashes that were specifically red light running events.

"The only documented benefit to red light cameras is to the pocketbook of local governments," the report said.

Earlier this month, Armey took aim at National Park Service plans to use radar cameras to ticket speeders on busy parkways around the national's capital saying it was a step toward a "surveillance state."

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