A Times Editorial

Catch them on camera

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 24, 2000

Once again, our area has been identified as an especially hazardous place for pedestrians and drivers. This time, it's motorists who run red lights. A study released Thursday indicated red light running resulted in 7.6 deaths for every 100,000 St. Petersburg residents between 1992-1998, one of the highest rates in the nation.

Area drivers need to use more caution and common sense, and local police need to make sure they're doing everything possible to enforce traffic laws. But the best way to curb this particular problem is for the state to approve cameras at intersections. This has been a proven deterrent in Europe and numerous cities around the country. State lawmakers should make traffic cameras a priority in the next legislative session before even more lives are needlessly lost.

The latest study, conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, comes on the heels of another report showing the Tampa Bay area to be the most dangerous in the country for pedestrians. In both studies, all of Florida ranked badly. This should prompt lawmakers to seek statewide solutions to address the problem.

A good place to start is with intersection cameras. Opponents say these cameras pose Big Brother-esque privacy concerns, but they are activated only when a violation occurs. Cost is a more legitimate concern. These cameras can cost upward of $100,000 each. Some vendors lease these systems and are partly repaid through the traffic citation revenues they produce. This method raised some controversy in Tallahassee and discouraged would-be supporters.

St. Petersburg traffic manager Angelo Rao said this could be overcome by paying for the systems outright or finding an alternative plan. But Rao said it was important to take a first step, however small, and has volunteered Pinellas County to be a test site for the cameras.

"We know it works. We know it saves lives. I think it's time we take some action," he said. "Let's do it on a trial basis first. Start the process and go from there. But let's just do it."

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