Lawmakers mixed on bill to install cameras at traffic lights

Associated Press

February 24, 2007 11:25 pm

— MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Rosemary Elebash was stopped at a red light in downtown Montgomery on a February day in 2004. The light changed to green and she started driving through the intersection when she saw a vehicle quickly approaching from the side.
“I’m thinking, surely you’re getting ready to stop,” said Elebash, who is state director of the National Federation of Independent Business.
The vehicle didn’t stop, ran the red light and crashed into the side of Elebash’s 1994 Honda station wagon, totaling the car and engaging the driver’s side air bag, leaving her shaken, but uninjured.
State Rep. David Grimes, R-Montgomery, says that accident is an example of why he has prefiled a bill that would allow law enforcement agencies to set up cameras at traffic lights and then write tickets that will be sent to the owners of vehicles caught on film running under the red signals. Grimes says the fear of getting a ticket would slow drivers down as they approach traffic lights and discourage them from running red lights.
An Associated Press survey found lawmakers split on the proposal, with some saying it would save lives and others fearing it would infringe on the privacy of citizens and could lead to racial profiling. In the survey, 39 percent of House members said they would vote to use cameras at traffic lights, while 25 percent were opposed and 36 percent undecided. The Senate was evenly split, with 29 percent favoring installing the cameras and 29 percent against the bill, with 42 percent undecided.
The Legislature begins its regular session March 6. Grimes has introduced the bill for the last several sessions, but it has failed to get out of a House committee.
While legislatures in some states have balked at allowing the robotic cameras, the technology is being used in others, including Texas and New York, and has been used for years in Germany and other countries.