Personal Injury Law

Traffic Accidents increase in West Palm Beach at red-light camera intersections

By LaBovick Law

The City of West Palm Beach is embracing the new trend of traffic light cameras to help issue fines.  The Palm Beach Post reports that new data on the first 70 days of the project shows that accidents increased and rear-end collisions doubled compared to the same period of 2009. 

It is important to note that West Palm Beach implemented installed the traffic light cameras in the name of safety. However, the snowball effect of this safety measure helped the City of West Palm Beach capture a third of a million dollars from 2,675 camera fine tickets in the month of March.

Motorist group AAA pointed out that Goldman Sachs partly owns the private camera contractor American Traffic Solutions based out of Arizona.   Kevin Bakewell, a vice president with AAA stated, "It's more about the money than it is traffic safety". AAA and other opponents were unsuccessful in urging Gov. Charlie Crist to veto the state law on traffic light cameras in Florida. 
 
Traffic division director Dan Weisberg stated that Palm Beach County plans to put cameras at 10 intersections because research in other states such as Virginia tends to show at least a moderate reduction in side-angle crashes with cameras, even if rear-end crashes sometimes go up.
 
In 2007 a Virginia study found red-light running crashes decreased 42 percent , while rear-end collisions increased 27 percent after red-light cameras were installed. These statistics are unsettling for something that is supposed to help promote safety.  The data on the cameras in Palm Beach County are new.  Time will tell how the traffic safety stats in Palm Beach County will shape up, by year end.

West Palm Beach Drivers beware: The days of getting away with running a red light without being caught are over. However, your chances of getting into a rear collision car accident in West Palm Beach have increased. Drive with caution in West Palm Beach the cameras are watching.

Click on the following link to read more on Rear-end collisions jump at red-light camera intersections in West Palm Beach.

Full post as published by LaBovick Injury Law Blog on May 24, 2010 (boomark / email).