PRINTSay cheese!
Get ready for your close-up; a freshly-installed flash will catch you if you run the red.
Elise Catchings
September 10, 2009 | 12:00 a.m. CST
With 16 red-light cameras being installed during the next few months at intersections around Columbia, consider the consequences before you decide to hit the gas on a yellow.
Lights, camera ... ticket!
After the light changes from green to red, the camera takes a video and four pictures of the incident: one of your car before you pass through the intersection, one after, one of your face and one of your license plate. Your speed, the date, the time and how many seconds passed after the light changed will also be recorded.
However, these cameras aren’t foolproof. If the snapshot is of poor quality or the driver’s gender doesn’t match the gender of the registered owner, you might be off the hook.
Review the roll
Gatso USA, the company Columbia works with, first reviews the pictures to make sure that a law was actually broken. Then, the film goes to the police. All of the information, including the date for arraignment at the Municipal Court and an online code to watch a video of the incident, is mailed to the vehicle owner’s home. If you receive the ticket but weren’t the driver, know that the vehicle owner can file an affidavit or a sworn statement of fact witnessed by a notary or a public commissioner.
Can you afford the risk?
You can use the Web site and login information on your citation to pay the $120 ticket online, or you can pay in person at the City Traffic Violations Bureau at Sixth Street and Broadway. You must pay within 15 days of the citation, or the price goes up $15. Marks on your permanent record only occur if an officer, not a camera, catches you. If you think you deserve a smaller fine, go to the arraignment to argue your case in Municipal Court. The judge then determines your fine, which can range from $1-500.
The red-hot news around town? Columbia’s red-light cameras. There’s no more waiting period: As of Sept. 4, these veritable paparazzi mean business. If you run a red, you get a ticket. There’s one camera at the intersection of Providence and Broadway on the northbound Providence Rd. approach, and another on Stadium Boulevard and Worley Street on the northbound Stadium approach.
Right now, the price is right for the CPD: Last year, the department issued 300 citations for running stop signs and red lights. Of course, the goal is that cameras will encourage drivers to stop running through intersections, which would lower the number of tickets and make streets safer. When Gatso USA started collecting traffic information to decide where to put the cameras, it found that, on average, eight-to-10 cars
ran red lights around the city every day. Research from the Insurance Institute
of Highway safety shows that in 2007, 150,000 people were injured and 900 were killed in accidents nationwide when drivers ran a traffic signal.
Although Columbia’s Respect the Red program just started, it promises to be troublesome for drivers who continue to be reckless: Between Aug. 5 and Sept. 2, the city issued 233 warnings, more than three-fourths of the citation total from last year, says Director of Communications Toni Messina.
Red-light cameras produce more tickets, but Messina hopes they will also make for more responsible drivers. Results in other cities look encouraging. In late 2007, Springfield installed 13 red-light cameras, and while the number of red-light tickets issued was higher, Springfield also had 9.8 percent fewer accidents in 2008 versus 2007.
--Jennifer Gordon
