I am sorry but I am even more pissed now. For years I have been telling people to look at the data behind these red-light programs, now here is just more proof. Seatbelt laws, helmet laws, red-light cameras, its is all an infringement on our rights. Where does it stop? People say "oh what's the big deal if there are camera's in major cities? Who cares if you aren't breaking the law." Lets follow the logic of these types of stupid arguments: I say lets put up camera's on your street. Who cares if you aren't breaking the law right? Lets put a camera up right in front of your drive way. Then some idiot government employee downtown could see a robber/rapist/you fill in criminal of your choice, getting away and identify them, that way they would be able to catch them quicker. Better yet Mr./Mrs. socialist lets put a camera in your home, in your bedroom, and have big brother monitor us all night. Who cares as long as we aren't doing anything illegal right? (Put in joke of your choice here)
Where does it end?
Rear-end collisions jump at red-light camera intersections in West Palm Beach
By Charles Elmore Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
WEST PALM BEACH — Rear-end collisions more than doubled and accidents increased overall in the first 70 days of red-light cameras in West Palm Beach compared to the same period of 2009, traffic records reviewed by The Palm Beach Post show.
In the name of boosting safety, not revenues, West Palm Beach issued 2,675 camera fines worth a third of a million dollars in March alone.
But at the three city intersections from Feb. 21, when fines began, through May 1, The Post found:
--Rear-end collisions increased to five from two. Rear-end accidents sometimes go up with cameras because anxious drivers are more likely to stop abruptly.
--Overall accidents increased to seven from six.
--The only injury in either period came under cameras, in a rear-end crash in March 2010. The injury was "non-incapacitating," according to records supplied by cities and compiled in Palm Beach County's accident database.
City officials did not dispute the data but said it was too soon to draw meaningful conclusions.
"A larger sample size is needed to make any determinations about the program's effect on accidents," said city spokesman Peter Robbins.
Advocates for a law passed this spring giving state authorization for the cameras said the whole point was to increase safety - and there was no time to lose.
"We've got to do something," said state Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, during the legislative session that ended in April.
The losing side in the debate contended another motive is in play. Motorist group AAA pointed out a private camera contractor working with West Palm Beach and several other cities, American Traffic Solutions of Arizona, is partly owned by Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs, which gained control of two ATS board seats in 2008.
"It's more about the money than it is traffic safety," said Kevin Bakewell, a vice president with AAA in Tampa who unsuccessfully urged Gov. Charlie Crist to veto the state law.
In West Palm Beach, a barrage of fines dwarfed the total number of wrecks, yet accidents still increased. The city issued 1,337.5 citations per crash in the first full month of fines, March. There were two documented accidents in that month at the three city intersections with red-light cameras: Australian Avenue at Banyan Boulevard, Belvedere Road at Parker Avenue, and Summit Boulevard at Parker. By comparison, there was one crash at those intersections in January, the last full month without fines.
The state law that takes effect July 1 increases to $158 from $125 the standard fine mailed to car owners, but takes $70 to $100 of each fine for the state. Local governments share the rest with camera vendors.
The state acted in response to lawsuits challenging local authority over cameras, but West Palm Beach had already become the first city in Palm Beach County to issue fines with red-light cameras. More than half a dozen cities and the county are poised to proceed with cameras of their own, and their public justification in each case has been safety.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/rear-end-collisions-jump-at-red-light-camera-706186.html?page=2
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