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Alabama gets a failing grade from an
insurance industry think tank that advocates the use of
cameras to reduce the mayhem caused by those who run red
lights. State Rep. David Grimes, R-Montgomery,
wants to change that.
Grimes plans to sponsor a bill in
the legislative session that starts Feb. 1 empowering Alabama
municipalities to enforce traffic light laws with photo
technology. The measure is still being drafted.
"If you ride around Montgomery much,
you'd better be careful" at traffic lights, Grimes
said. "People run them every second. It just seems
abusive."
The Montgomery Republican said too many
drivers "have very low regard" for red-light laws.
"They cheat trying to sneak through a red light, and the
more and more you do that, you become callous to the law.
People can lose their lives."
The Arlington, Va.-based Insurance
Institute for Highway Safety grades states on the laws they
have allowing use of advanced technology to monitor traffic
laws. The list, last modified in September 2004, shows Alabama
among the 34 states with poor grades, along with Mississippi
and Florida. States that have a poor rating have no statute
authorizing camera use.
Georgia was among six states that were
given a good ranking. To get a good rating a state must grant
the authority for statewide enforcement. Tennessee was among
four that rated fair, meaning there is a camera enforcement
program in a specific community, but there is no state law
that authorizes it. There were seven states with marginal
designations. A marginal state has no statewide law. It
restricts the use of cameras to specific communities only.
Grimes is confident that "I
won't have any problem getting co-sponsors" for the
red-light bill. But he's also pragmatic about it.
"I know we'll have opposition.
There's people down there who think this is an act of Big
Brother," he said, "and I'm not afraid to debate
that in the least ... . I think it's a very, very good
measure, and I'm not concerned about the politics of it. I'm
concerned about it because it's the right thing" to do.
Grimes plans to meet with state
and local transportation and traffic officials before the
legislative session to discuss the details of the proposed
law.
"We won't try to reinvent the
bill," Grimes said. He will base it on similar
legislation that died on the House floor without a vote in
2001. The earlier measure was shaped from a model law prepared
by the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Laws and
Ordinances.
"Under current law, for a police
officer to issue a citation or something of that effect of a
misdemeanor offense, which a traffic ticket would be, it has
to be witnessed by an officer," said Col. Mike Coppage,
director of the Alabama Department of Public Safety, in
explaining the need for the legisla tion.
"You have to change the law to allow
that photograph, ba sically, to be ad mitted as evi dence"
in the event the fine is contested in court, he said.
One tough opponent of any camera
enforcement bill could be the American Automobile Association
of Alabama.
"We are against those traffic
cameras in general," said Clay Ingram, public relations
and marketing manager for AAA Alabama.
"There could be some benefit from
it," he admitted, and acknowledged that in a 2002 survey
of the organization's own members, 77.3 percent of 769
respondents favored the use of advanced technology such as
cameras to enforce laws against red-light running.
"But there is so much room for
potential errors and potential problems," Ingram said.
"There's even room for abuse, using it as an income
generator."
"We are very much in favor of the
driver of the car being issued a ticket as opposed to the
owner of the car," he said. AAA Alabama recommends
physical and operational improvements to reduce red-light
running before choosing to install cameras.
"We would want the cameras to be
used to promote traffic safety rather than to promote revenue
for government agencies or technology vendors," he said.
"We wouldn't want it to turn into a red-light version of
the speed trap."
Intersections where the cameras are
installed should have a strong history of safety problems; an
intensive public information campaign about camera use should
be launched prior to their installation; and signs to indicate
the cameras' presence to drivers are other guidelines AAA
Alabama advocates.
Flagrant, not marginal, violations should
be the only ones that generate tickets, Ingram said, and local
law enforcement officials should operate the cameras and
monitor the results rather than having an independent
contractor handle the equipment.
Unlike AAA Alabama, state Speaker of the
House Seth Hammett, D-Andalusia, offered no opinion on the
legislation.
Jeff Woodard, a member of Hammett's
staff, said "it's too early to tell what will happen with
a bill like that, but he will assign it to the committee on
public safety and let the process begin."
That panel's chairman, state Rep. Thad
McClammy, D-Montgomery, said any bill assigned to the Public
Safety Committee will receive a fair hearing.
"I know there's a lot of concern
about people running red lights," McClammy said. "We
try to have healthy de bate from all sides. I'm sure something
like that would have a lot of debate on it, but I don't have a
preconceived notion one way or the other."
Mere debate is not what Car mel Bass is
looking for. The Montgomery woman wants action.
"Who are the legislators working
for?" she asked in disbelief when told a bill to allow
camera enforcement was shot down without getting a vote on the
House floor in 2001. "They should be protecting the
citizens," she said. "My insurance company told me,
'You know Montgomery's not the safest place for red
lights.'"
Bass, a retiree from the federal
Appalachian Regional Commission who worked with indigent
mothers and has a master's degree in psychology, said she was
nearly killed when a young man in an SUV plowed into her
Pontiac Sunfire on East Boulevard in July 2003.
"He ran the red light. He almost
killed me," she said. "He totaled the car and, of
course, since he didn't have any insurance, my insurance
company had to pay for it.
"I called the police station a
couple of weeks later and they said unless a policeman sees a
person running the light they can't do anything," Bass
said. "In other words, this young man got away scot-free.
I'm the one who had to buy a new car ... . Is that fair to
people?"
That lapse in the law is what Grimes
intends to plug.
And to his opponents who would say the
camera legislation is invasive of privacy?
"I would say that we have to have
safety first and responsibility," Grimes said.
"If we can't have adults driving cars who act like
adults, then we have to have laws to make them drive
responsibly."
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