Red light cameras in CT - Just do it

"In 2007, almost 900 people were killed and an estimated 153,000 were injured in crashes that involved red light running. About half of the deaths in red light running crashes are pedestrians and occupants in other vehicles who are hit by the red light runners." --Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

(Links to additional info. included below.)

I'm far from alone: Every day that I'm out driving -- usually in the suburbs -- I witness at least one vehicle race through a red light, or not stop at a stop sign. It's usually more like several times per trip. (Yes; sometimes they're on the cell phone, too. Yakkin' about nothing.)

Just one example, but I've been driving for 35 years. Perhaps I'm lucky but only one accident so far. Yep: An idiot in an SUV ran a red light (some seconds after it turned red) and "T-boned" me as I entered a busy, Hartford intersection (with the green light). Spun my Toyota Camry around one-and-a-half times (a '540'). (BTW: That Camry "gave as good as it got". Drove it home.)

It's really tiresome to always remain vigilant for scofflaws, rampant throughout Connecticut. (And all of the neighboring states, too.) These yo-yos don't stop because they're rarely caught. They can get away with it and the 'geniuses' know it. To some it's almost a game, or even some kind of bizarre 'statement'. ("I'm a complete idiot", is the message that most others pick up....)

The arguments that enforcement cameras are too near to "Big Brother"(government), are "unconstitutional"; or "aren't necessary" don't really seem to hold very well in today's traffic-clogged, millions-of-drivers world. Not the one that I drive in every day. Significant numbers of motorists "out for themselves", acting only for themselves is a big step on the way to roadway anarchy. With so many big, fast vehicles, you just can't have that.

Here is a link to an excellent "Q&A"about red light cameras from the influential Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). I'm also copying one of their findings here:

"The large majority of the US public supports red light cameras. A 2000 Institute survey in ten cities — five with cameras and five without — reported that more than 75 percent of drivers supported camera enforcement.²⁰ A 2002 nationwide survey sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and conducted by the Gallup Organization found that 75 percent of drivers favored the use of red light cameras.²¹"

Yes, I agree that cities/towns should do what they can to time and synchronize their existing traffic signals. But my experience is that red-light running still occurs with frequency even after that has been done.

A link follows to an editorial today at courant.com (Hartford Courant). If the state can't yet agree about speeding enforcement cameras, lets at least start "down the road" to improved safety and enforcement with deployment of red light/stop sign cameras at key intersections, as they've started to do in New Haven.

Though few seem to care anymore: By obtaining a license, a motorist agrees to abide by certain rules....

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-traffic-cameras-needed.art.artapr01,0,4838409.story