Do red light cameras really reduce Virginia auto accident rates?

Red light cameras certainly are a hot topic in Virginia cities.  Law enforcement officers and administrators love them, because they bring in revenue and provide automated enforcement of traffic laws.  Citizens and privacy rights groups, on the other hand, usually don’t like them, seeing them as intrusive and prone to error.  Some also believe that by pressuring drivers into stopping at red lights, more rear end crashes are caused.

 

The question that everyone asks is – do red light cameras actually reduce crashes?  According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), they do.

 

A study of red light cameras in 14 large U.S. cities revealed that many deaths were likely avoided between 2004 and 2008.  How did they determine this, and what else did they find?

• The study examined 99 cities with populations over 200,000 to compare fatal accident rates from those with red light cameras to those without.
• The rate of fatal accidents at red light camera intersections were compared from 2004-2008 to accident rates in 1992-1996 when there were no cameras.  Cities that had cameras in both time periods were excluded from the study.
• In 14 cities that had met the above requirements, fatal red light running accidents went down by 35 percent.
• In 48 cities with no red light cameras during either time period, fatal red light running accidents went down 14 percent.

 

Regardless of how people in Culpeper and Warrenton feel, red light cameras are probably here to stay.  If they do reduce the number of serious injuries and deaths at busy intersections, then they may be something we all have to get used to.