Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon is responding to a published article detailing an increase in accidents at an intersection equipped with red-light cameras.

Red light camera in Brick
Red light camera in Brick (Jason Allentoff, Townsquare Media NJ)
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The very vocal opponent of the State’s red light camera pilot program says, “The number of crashes at Route 1 and Bakers Basin Road/Franklin Corner Road has nearly doubled since the red light cameras were turned on there, according to police statistics, which also show over 9,000 tickets have been issued since November.”

A total of 25 accidents happened at or within 200 feet of the intersection between Nov. 18, 2010, and June 29, 2011 (before the cameras were installed) compared to 49 accidents between Nov. 18, 2011, and June 29 of this year (after the cameras were installed).  Rear end accidents went up by 100%, right angle accidents went up by 33% and T-Bone accidents, typically the most dangerous, went up by 100%.

O’Scanlon says, “What we can say is that we are finding, and will continue to find, exactly what has been found in other states and jurisdictions that have experimented with these devices over the past several decades - basically that these cameras don't increase safety, and in many instances reduce it.  What these cameras do is give these private companies and governments the ability to pull money out of our pockets in the name of safety."

"This Lawrenceville data is clear evidence that these cameras are not having the desired effect,” says O’Scanlon. “They’ve written over $1,000,000 worth of citations while accidents increased substantially……. We are not saying definitively that the cameras are causing these accidents. We can confidently say that the cameras net affect at this particular intersection has been either neutral or substantially negative. Is more than a million dollars per year from this one intersection being siphoned out of the wallets of taxpayers worth it?  The answer is unquestionably no.”

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