Gassing up his aging Camaro along the Costa Mesa Freeway, Shawn ("Just Shawn, OK?") explained why he'd run that red light two miles back.
He'd fudged the 19th Street signal at the foot of the freeway by a good two seconds, accelerating through at 50 mph or more.
"Those signals are screwed," he said. "The yellow is way too short." (Actually, it lasted about 3 1/2 seconds, during which Shawn's car traveled at least 250 feet. A football field is 300 feet.)
Isn't it dangerous? Not really, said Shawn. "I've never gotten a ticket for it."
If the main danger is getting caught, then running red lights is about to become much more dangerous for drivers like Shawn. After years of testing and considerable controversy, the red-light cameras are coming to an intersection near you.
In California, they're already catching red-light runners in Beverly Hills, Oxnard, San Diego, El Cajon, Poway, San Francisco and Santa Rosa. Soon they'll be working in Los Angeles and Sacramento. At least 25 other California cities are looking into camera enforcement.
Mounted at problem intersections and tripped by sensors buried in the pavement, the cameras snap photographs of cars that plunge into the intersection after the signal turns red.
Within two weeks, a ticket arrives in the mail of the registered owner. The fine is $271 and one point against your driving record. Get four points in a year and your license can be suspended.
"There are drivers who just don't care," said Richard Retting, senior transportation engineer at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in Arlington, Va. "There are hard-core offenders. Most of the time, they make it through. But the times they don't are horrendous for the victims. People are sick and tired of this."
Running red lights is the single largest cause of urban collisions and injuries, and California leads the nation by far, according to insurance industry research. Red-light runners caused 656 collisions and killed 768 people in California between 1992 and 1996.
These crashes are often lethal because they are almost always "T-bone" collisions--one car striking another in the side. "There are just inches between the outer shell and the occupant," said Retting, and consequently the chances of being severely injured or killed is the highest of any collision--about 45%.
