Posted on 08/01/2009 2:52:45 PM PDT by buccaneer81
4 weeks, 10,000 traffic tickets Heath officials say they didn't expect such a windfall Saturday, August 1, 2009 3:01 AM By Josh Jarman THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH HEATH, Ohio -- City officials say they were shocked by the number of violations recorded during the first month of traffic-camera enforcement and decided to make it cheaper to protest multiple tickets.
More than 10,000 violations had been recorded by Heath traffic cameras through Tuesday. At $100 apiece, that would net the city a little more than $830,000 after paying the vendor, Redflex, its share.
In four weeks, the cameras will have generated an amount equivalent to roughly 12 percent of the Licking County community's annual budget -- and a lot of anger.
Mayor Richard Waugh said the city's intention was not to saddle drivers with four, six or sometimes eight or more tickets. Citations were not mailed for almost three weeks, however, to give City Council members a chance to modify the program in response to the high number of violations.
That meant some drivers racked up several over a period of days without realizing it until a bundle of tickets arrived in the mail.
Waugh said he sympathizes with drivers facing multiple fines. "If someone was pulled over by police and given a ticket once, that would be enough to modify driving behavior."
Before yesterday, drivers who sought to have their tickets dismissed would have had to post a full $100 bond for each one. Now, they will have to post $100 on only the first ticket to fight all of them, Waugh said. The hearing officer has been instructed to be lenient in cases of similar violations, he said, adding that he hopes that could lead to dismissal of up to half the tickets sent in July.
Waugh said that would cut the city's take, but the cameras were never about money. He said no specific purpose has been identified for the fines, which will go into the city's roughly $7 million general fund.
The cameras have generated fewer tickets each week, and Waugh said the city had expected the number to level off at about 400 a month. He said the city anticipated generating an additional $100,000 from fines this year.
But opponents still call the cameras a cash-grab by the city, questioning their effectiveness as safety devices. Ten cameras watch over six intersections, looking for speeders, red-light runners and other violators. Signs at the intersections warn that the cameras are in use.
According to statistics compiled by the Ohio Department of Transportation, 16 of the 408 traffic crashes reported on Rt. 79 from Hopewell Drive to Irving Wick Drive between 2006 and 2008 were caused by someone running a red light. Six were attributed to cars traveling faster than the 35-mph speed limit. Following too closely was reported as the greatest contributing factor in most crashes, which overwhelmingly were rear-end collisions.
A similar report for Rt. 79 south of Irving Wick found that one of 38 crashes in the same period was caused by speeding. Two speed-enforcement cameras at Coffman Boulevard in that area accounted for more than half of all the tickets issued last month.
Heath Police Chief Tony Shepherd said ODOT's crash data does not tell the whole story. In most noninjury crashes, police do not have the time or manpower to conduct crash-reconstruction analysis, he said. The speeds listed on those crash reports are the speeds reported by the drivers.
Shepherd said officers typically write about 100 traffic tickets a month, mainly because his department is too short-staffed to devote significant time to enforcement.
Shepherd and Waugh disagree with those who say the speed limit at Coffman is artificially low. The four-lane road there travels through a less-congested area of some businesses and homes before opening up to fairly rural countryside south of the city.
Every day in summer, more than 1,500 children travel to the city water park, about a block north of the Coffman intersection near City Hall, Waugh said.
He said raising the speed limit along that stretch would put residents in danger, considering how many drivers already exceed it.
"The speed limit has been 35 there for 40 years," Waugh said, "and there are three signs telling you that before you get to Coffman."
jjarman@dispatch.com
State and city governments are out of control.
I got a speeding ticket 6 years ago and the municipal policeman who rightfully pulled me over apologized for doing so for he didn't want to give me a speeding ticket because the incursion was minor but he stated "Sorry but we have a directive from the city council to generate revenue...."
That says it all....
Many in-vehicle electronic devices (radar detectors and GPS) already have this feature. I know Escort make a detector that costs about $400 (I know, expensive at first, but in many areas cheaper than a ticket) that you can connect to the network via your computer and download the known red-light or speeding camera locations. Some of them even track speed traps.
Yep - I was just going to mention Trapster. I have it on my I-Phone and it was helpful when I drove up to Ohio a couple of weeks ago. It is really nice since you can send data on police locations to them while you drive - just a couple of taps on the screen and the location is in the database.
So are state and federal governments but nobody seems to care......yet.
Why are these people surprised. Thats what they placed them there for. To make money.
Duncanville, Tx, population of about 38,500 issued some 45,000 citations in 2008 at four red light camera intersections. About 13% were issued to city residents. The fee for the infaction is $75 which is a good cash generator to a small town.
The Washington Times has run a couple of pieces about this. IIRC, there is an 80% drop in red light citations for each additional second of yellow light.
Long yellows save lives with or without cameras. Short yellows increase revenues if there are cameras. Municipalities choice revenue over public safety. It's that simple.
The Minnesota court turned it down when they tried to use cameras in Minnesota for giving tickets.
I guess even a stopped clock is right twice a day. ; )
Biggest lie since "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you."
Municipalities choice > Municipalities choose
I remember one of the suckup newspaper's articles pimping for the all Democrat city council One of these clown princes said the city would work hard to get us through town quicker. Then they put in cameras and speedtraps and closed our only freeway for three years.
And there's no recourse. They divided the city into wards with at large votes. The crappy areas of town get to vote for my councilman. Hence, all Dems. All cons.
I’m sure the streets are much safer now. The city officials must be very proud of themselves. Another successful fleecing of the people they work for.
“Waugh said that would cut the city’s take, but the cameras were never about money.”
How can you tell when a politician is lying?
With 10,000 opportunities here for civil disobedience, they should refuse to pay the tickets. Then demand the cameras be taken down and begin a movement to fire all those city government a-holes.
I don’t like the idea of Big Brother cameras on every street corner but I do wish that law enforcement would do something to curb red light runners where I live.
It has gotten way out of hand and is getting worse every day.
Everyone in my family has had multiple close calls and my wife almost got broadsided last week by a driver running a solid red at about 50 MPH.
The only thing that saved her is the fact we are all gun shy at intersections and drive defensively, watching both opposing lanes as we enter an intersection. She caught a glimpse of the car flying into the cross street just in time to hit the gas and turn out of his path.
These are good and bad at the same time. I live just outside Columbus, and these cameras have popped up in the ‘burgs surrounding Columbus, including where I live as well. We do have a huge problem with red-light runners. My wife and I have lost 2 cars to such persons in the past 5 years. But it is also easy to see how the system can be manipulated to generate big $$$, especially in recession-riden cities like Columbus, which is pitching an emergency election for a city tax increase.... Its getting quite ugly around here...
After they find you guilty, the pigs will still collect $100 for each one PLUS court costs!
A successful government program screws the taxpayer.
This story is an example of that. The cash for clunkers scheme is another example, and was so successful we just had to spend another 2 billion dollars of taxpayer money. When they win... we lose.
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