Study reevaluates red-light camera safety claims

A recent crash study brings to question the use of red-light cameras in Winter Park, a city that just renewed its contract for another year of electric eyes.

Crash statistics pulled from the Department of Transportation by retired Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Paul Henry show that Winter Park’s intersections with red-light cameras hardly see any crashes related to red-light running.

Henry compiled the numbers for red-light violation crashes between 2005 and 2011 at six intersections with red-light cameras today. He learned that half of the intersections had only one red-light violation crash in the seven-year period.

The worst intersection, at Lakemont and Aloma avenues, had six red-light violation crashes over the seven-year window.

“This is counter-productive if the rationale for use is safety,” said Henry, who spent 23 years in the Florida Highway Patrol. “The annual totals prove Winter Park, like most Florida cities, does not have a [red-light violation] crash problem, as the worst intersection had less than one per year during the seven-year data period. These totals show normal crash fluctuation.”

Last month, the Winter Park City Commission renewed their contract with Gatso USA, a red-light camera vendor who’s had a contract with the city since 2009. The renewal caught the attention of Longwood resident David Leavitt who runs an asset company that drives trucks through the Winter Park area.

“If they don’t know who’s driving, as in the case with my company because we have 10 vehicles, and we happen to get red-light camera citation in your city, I don’t know who’s driving,” said Leavitt during Monday’s City Commission meeting.

“You’re fining my company for something that I had nothing to do with.”

Leavitt saw the city’s red-light camera ordinance as a violation of the U.S. Constitution, which gives people the right to face their accuser.

“By continuing to do these kinds of things to your citizens and visitors of the city of Winter Park, you’re taking advantage of them”, Leavitt said.

“With what you can do to fight, you never get into courts; they do that on purpose. It’s outrageous. The whole thing is a scheme to me.”

Florida made an attempt to ensure that the money from the citation went to a good cause by passing the Mark Wandall Traffic Safety Act, which requires a portion of the fine to go toward trauma centers for car accident victims. But the act only calls for $10 per ticket, or just more than 6 percent.

Winter Park Police Deputy Chief Arthur King told The Observer in a previous article that the red-light cameras are strictly a safety measure.

“Red-light cameras are for one thing: for safety, to protect the motorist,” King said. “If those cameras can save one life a year, there’s no amount of money in the world that can equate to that.”

“It can reduce crashes, you can’t compare dollars to something like that – it’s safety, that’s why it’s so important.”

Meanwhile in Tallahassee, the Florida Supreme Court heard arguments last Thursday about whether Orlando violated state law in approving red-light camera programs before the enactment of a state law in 2010.