[If they want to see non compliance with traffic laws they should come here.]
By Mary E. O’Leary, Register Topics Editor
NEW HAVEN — Assistant Police Chief Kenneth Gillespie worked in law enforcement in Los Angeles for years, but he said he has never experienced the culture of noncompliance with traffic laws that he found in New Haven.
Gillespie was one of a half-dozen city and state officials Friday who held a press conference, again pushing for legislation that would allow cities to put up cameras that would automatically record cars running red lights so owners could be fined.
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“When I came here, myself and (Police Chief James) Lewis were both surprised at the amount of hazardous moving violations that seemed to be an ongoing problem here in New Haven,” Gillespie said.
The Connecticut Association of Police Chiefs has also endorsed the enabling legislation.
State Senate Majority Leader Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, called it a “significant safety initiative,” and he hoped that as lawmakers become more aware of its benefits, they will see it as “less threatening and less intrusive” than they regarded it in the past.
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Gillespie said “with the tight urban nature of this city, it’s difficult for police officers to conduct traffic enforcement,” which is a matter of being in the right place at the right time to issue a citation.
Erin Sturgis-Pascale, a former alderwoman, pushed hard for the legislation as part of the Connecticut Livable Streets Campaign.
“No one has the fundamental right to run through a red light or to avoid being seen by a camera on a public street,” she said. Sturgis-Pascale said issuing fines is a time-tested means of changing people’s behavior.
She has had a personal interest in safer streets since 2006 when her friend, Lisa Tribanas, was killed when a car ran a red light at Derby Avenue and Ella Grasso Boulevard. Another high-profile death in New Haven was that of Gabrielle Lee, 11, who was killed as she crossed Whalley Avenue at Davis Street in 2008.
State statistics for 2006 show 3,500 collisions were tied to traffic control violations, with 60 percent resulting in injuries.
Sturgis-Pascale said the legislation is “a true public safety need and should not be derailed by theoretical deliberations about privacy that are not supported by case law.” She said state and federal courts have upheld challenges to automated enforcement legislation.
The bill would allow cities to use the cameras after they are approved by municipal legislative bodies; the intersections covered would be tied to light-running or crash history data and need State Traffic Control approval; the $100 fines would go into a traffic-related account, not the general fund.
The fines also would not be reported to the state Department of Motor Vehicles, nor would they affect a motorist’s driving record.
Opponents last year were concerned that cities across the country had installed the necessary technology to make money, while others questioned the fairness of fining the owner of the car photographed, when he or she might not have been driving the vehicle.
Others said the cameras brought up privacy concerns, but Mayor John DeStefano Jr. said the cameras shoot a photo of the license plate, not the occupants of the car.
“This is a serious, straightforward, easy thing that in very tough times the state of Connecticut can do, and we are asking them for the sixth year in a row to do the right thing,” DeStefano said. A total of 25 states and 400 cities have enacted similar measures.
Richard Stowe, a safe streets advocate, doesn’t favor the law and cited studies in Virginia and North Carolina that found a 40 percent increase in accidents tied to cameras, particularly rear-end crashes. He views the proposed legislation as a distraction from efforts to encourage modes of transportation other than cars.
Sturgis-Pascale said rear-end collisions sometimes increase temporarily, but more serious side-impact crashes go down.
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He attributed an increase in traffic violations to a general “breakdown of courtesy and respect in our communities.”
https://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/02/13/news/new_haven/a1_–_redlight_0213.txtoldId.20100215113751215
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