County installs more red-light cameras

This is not original reporting. All information has been compiled from The Gazette article New right-light cameras mean broader scope, more tickets, which was published on June 9.

More red-light cameras will be installed throughout Montgomery County by the end of this week. The implementation of more cameras will create more ways to catch red-light runners and result in more tickets for violators.

The insertion of laser sensors, which are part of A new digital camera system, will allow police to monitor left-turn lanes for the first time and better monitor right-turn lanes.

Police will start ticketing red-light runners in turn lanes and drivers who fail to stop before turning on red lights on roads where turning right on red is allowed, said police Lieutenant Ronald Smith, who is the current manager of the country's red-light camera program.

"If they're not stopping before a turn on red, they may not see a pedestrian crossing," Smith told The Gazette.

According to David S. Weaver, a Doug Duncan administration spokesman, the red-light camera program has been very successful. "We've had great success with red light cameras; you can take enforcement action without taking an officer's time to write tickets," Weaver said.

The county is already posting more no-turn-on-red signs at intersections to protect pedestrians, Weaver said. "We have a problem in this county with people driving too fast and too many accidents and pedestrians getting killed," he stated.

According to The Gazette, by June 12 there will be 37 cameras on Montgomery County roads, up from the current 31.

Eight more cameras will be installed by October, said Michael L. Kinney, an engineer for the county's Advanced Transportation Management System. These eight cameras will increase the total number of county-operated cameras to 45.

The county previously set aside money in 2002 to raise the number of cameras from 25 to 45, but only six cameras were in added in the two years.

According to The Gazette, installation was postponed by the change in contractors as well as delays in the approval by the Maryland Department of Transportation and county police.

County officials used a survey that they released last year as proof that the red-light camera program has reduced accidents by 3.5 percent.