HomeMy WebLinkAboutTraffic Cameras,Traffic camera citations plentiful
In its first month, CS red-light program has issued 1,500 tickets
By APRIL AVISON
Eagle Staff Writer
In the first month of College
Station's red-light camera pro-
gram, a .vendor has issued more
than $112,000 worth of citations.
About 1,500 tickets have been
mailed since red-light cameras
became active at four city inte~-
sections in February. Another
600 are pending.
City officials have maintained
that the program is a safety meas-
ure - not a revenue generator.
College Station entered a five-
year contract with Scottsdale,
Ariz.-based American Traffic
Solutions to operate the program.
The vendor spent $19,000 to
install the cameras. Once the
$19,000 has been paid to Ameri-
can Traffic Solutions, College
Station will subtract the cost of
running the program and divide
the remainder equally between
the city and state. The city's por-
tion is designated for transporta-
tion safety and traffic signal and
intersection improvements,
while the state funds are desig-
nated for trauma centers.'
College Station police officers
are spending about 15 hours a
week to ensure that citations are
issued fairly, said Assistant
Chief Larry Johnson.
"We review every single cita-
tion that is not pre-filtered by the
vendor," Johnson said. "If there's
an ambulance with red lights and
sirens on, [the vendor] knows
there's no use in sending that one
to us. But we see a vast majority
of them. We review with close
scrutiny and determine whether
to approve or reject."
Johnson said he's not sure
what percentage of the violations
is rejected.
Cameras monitor the intersec-
tions of Texas Avenue and Wal-
ton Drive, Harvey Road and Mun-
son Avenue, Harvey Road and
George Bush Drive East and
Wellborn Road and George Bush
Drive. The vendor sends $75 cita-
tions to the registered owners of
vehicles that. run red lights in
those areas.
Texas A&M University student
Ashley Zaragoza recently was
cited for turning right on red.
"I got two tickets in two days at
the intersection of Harvey and
George Bush,". she said.
That's the intersection with the
most citations, said College Sta-
tion Traffic Engineer Troy
Rother. About 386 tickets have
See TICKETS, Page A6
Red-light
cameras have
been
Installed at
four CS
intersections.
Tickets
From Al
been issued for violations at
that location, while 365 driv-
ers have been cited at Texas
Avenue and Walton Drive.
More than 200 drivers have
been cited at Harvey Road and
Munson Avenue, and 73 tick-
ets have been issued for viola-
tions at Wellborn and George
Bush Drive.
Zaragoza said ~ she knew
immediately -both times -
that she'd be getting a ticket
in the mail.
"I saw it take my picture,"
she said.
When she got the invoices
in the mail, Zaragoza said, she
called the College Station
Police Department.
"It will take your .picture
when you go right on red, no
matter what, and then they
review it later," she said she
was told by a police officer.
"They said it's OK to go right
on red as long as you stop.
They check your speed, and if
you're going a certain speed,
they can tell you didn't stop."
Zaragoza said having to
fork over $150 has raised her
awareness as she drives
around town.
"They give you the option of
fighting it, but considering
that I know what I did was
wrong, there's no reason to do
that," she said.
No challenges have yet gone
through College Station's
municipal court system, city
officials said last week.
Assistant Chief Johnson
said that it's too soon to tell
whether the camera program
Eagle photo
Stuart
Villanueva
is preventing accidents but
that it has created a "halo ~
effect" that has heightened
awareness at intersections all
over College Station.
"The cameras don't create a
new set of rules," he said.
"They just capture the actvi-
ty. You're supposed to stop at
red lights regardless of
whether there's a camera
there."
Rother said when the cam-
eras were installed last "".
month, he got phone calls '
almost daily. But the number
of complaints has dwindled,
he said.
"The last few calls I've got-
ten were people who were just
mad that we have them at all,"
he said. "I've heard from a
couple of parents [of Texas
A&M students] who were wor-
ried that their son or daughter
believed they ran a red light
and they wanted to know
what to do. But we can't look
it up in the system until they
get the ticket."
Both Rother and Johnson
said they'd gotten some posi-
tive feedback about the pro-
gram.
"What really made the
biggest impact on me was
when we started looking at
red-light cameras and viewed
video of crashes," Rotlier said.
"Three percent of crashes
occur after the signal has
already been red for five sec-.
onds. That really concerned
me. People get a green, hope-
fully look both directions and
then proceed through the'
intersection. If someone else '
is running a red, that's when
the fatalities occur."
^ April Avison's e-mail address is
april.avison@theeagle.com.
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