Here’s an easy solution to putting the brakes on red-light camera debate
We’ve all been behind the wheel, cruising into an intersection when the light just turns yellow. When we're too close to slam the brakes but not close enough to speed through.
What do we do?
When I was young and dumb, I chose to speed through, promising to stop twice at the next yellow light. Granted, I come from a generation before they had red light cameras. Maybe I would have gotten a ticket in my younger days. Maybe not.
But now that I’m older – I just learned I’ve full retirement age – I’m more like Kathy Bates’ character in “Fried Green Tomatoes,” Evelyn Couch, when she said, “I’m older and have more insurance.”
That may be so, but why use it?
That’s why you won’t catch me running a yellow light, camera or none.
I know they have a speed camera on U.S. Highway 11 East between Johnson City and Bristol, Tennessee, very close to Pardner’s Bar-B-Que in Piney Flats, Tennessee. I knew it was time to slow down when I smelled hickory smoke. (By the way, if you’re ever up there to see a race or to see Rocky Top, you’ve been warned.) Drag racer John Force didn’t get the message and got three speeding tickets in the mail after he competed at the Bristol Motor Dragway.
He also wasn’t aware of Waldo’s "speed trap." Stopping in Waldo on his way to the Gatornationals, he once told me he got a speeding ticket in the McDonald’s drive-thru line. It’s no wonder then-Gov. Rick Scott disbanded that corrupt agency in 2014.
That brings us back to red lights. And red-light cameras.
Some vehemently oppose red-light cameras. They argue the camera installations don't directly contribute to fewer fatal accidents. They also claim they can’t face their accuser in court.
Actually, they can fight their tickets. They'll have to disprove the video evidence of them passing through a red-light intersection.
The Green Cove Springs Police Department, which has five cameras, posted a video on its social media page showing a pickup truck running the light at U.S. Highway 17 and State Road 16. The driver claimed if he stopped, he would have been rear-ended. The video showed the light was already red when he approached the interception at 48 mph – 13 mph faster than the speed limit – with no trailing traffic.
Speeding and running red lights frequently go hand in hand.
GCSPD said every red-light camera violation is reviewed before it is submitted for a violation.
In 2011, Green Cove Springs issued 263 red-light camera tickets. Of those, 22 were dismissed, and 63 were found not guilty. In most cases, the winning defense was tickets were issued to car owners, not the actual drivers. However, none of the defendants argued the car didn’t run the red light.
The other 166 drivers paid their fines that year.
Since adding cameras in fiscal year 2010-2011, Green Cove has collected almost $4 million in fines, which doesn’t count for the time for law enforcement to monitor the process. Perhaps the residents who oppose the cameras should argue taxes should be increased by that much to pay for additional police officers to patrol the streets instead of relying on cameras.
There are three red-light cameras in Orange Park.
Orange Park resident David Coughlin received a $262 red-light camera citation in 2013 for running a red light at U.S. 17 Highway and Loring Avenue in Orange Park and $262 for running a red light at SR 17 and Ferris Street in 2015. The case in Orange Park was eventually dismissed, but he was found guilty of the Green Cove Springs infraction.
Coughlin adamantly opposes the use of cameras, once telling the Orange Park Town Council, “We expect law enforcement officers to attest in court to the full hemisphere of events and audio as well as make proper identification of the motorist; however, we do not require this of our red light regime.”
Here’s a different approach that hasn’t been discussed:
HOW ABOUT NOT RUNNING THE RED LIGHT!
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