A shore state lawmaker is hoping new skeletons discovered in the closets of red light camera companies will help seal the fate of New Jersey pilot program.

Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon tests the timing of red light cameras
Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon tests the timing of red light cameras (David Matthau, Townsquare Media NJ)
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Monmouth County Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon says his research shows a pattern of questionable tactics used by red light camera companies, that are currently operating in New Jersey, to keep their contracts in other state's.

O'Scanlon says "Redflex has been banned from continuing to do business in Chicago of all places, for their employees and representatives giving gifts to the people who are awarding the contracts."

He says American Traffic Solutions (ATS) has deployed ruthless tactics such as lawsuits to try to prevent Houston Texas from ending its contract. "You had Houston try to get out of these contracts. They were going to do a referendum and ATS went to court and actually cited the Voting Rights Act. So they actually tried to suggest that a referendum about red light cameras were somehow a racist maneuver."

O'Scanlon says the red light camera companies also use other tactics like having bogus grassroots coalition write op-ed pieces claiming that these cameras save lives. He says they hire former law enforcement officials and public officials to talk about the benefits of these cameras in p-r campaigns and advertisements.

However, O'Scanlon says statistics don't lie. He says the numbers show a sharp rise in accidents with injuries at intersections where these cameras are installed. "Evident injury crashes, which means that obvious injury right angle crashes, went up at 400% at intersections where we've had cameras installed for a least a year.

He also says the Governor's earlier call to place New Jersey's red light camera pilot program on hold until the amber light timing could be tested was also flawed. "The DOT ordered each individual town to perform these reassessments but gave them no guidance as to how to do it. The only thing they told them was if your light's are out of compliance, we're going to shut your program down."

He's introduced two measures aimed at correcting the timing of traffic signals that have these cameras or ending the state's program altogether.

 

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