City of Greenville installs red-light safety camera program

To tackle fatalities caused by red-light running, the city of Greenville, North Carolina, has implemented a red-light safety camera program that will issue a $100 (£75) fine to offenders, which it hopes will reduce both violations and collisions. 

A-red light running violation occurs when a motorist enters an intersection after the traffic signal has turned red, but this does not include drivers already in the intersection when the signal changes to red (drivers waiting to turn).

Locations of the cameras have been determined by an analysis which revealed the intersections with the highest rate of violations and collisions. These include Charles Boulevard and 14th Street, Charles Boulevard and Fire Tower Road, Arlington Boulevard and Fire Tower Road, Arlington Boulevard and Greenville Boulevard Arlington Boulevard and South Memorial Drive. The cameras operate independently from the traffic signal itself.

Sensors detect when the light turns red without a direct connection to the signal timing mechanism, which allows the system to activate when motion is detected just before the stop line after the traffic signal turns red. The cameras capture two images of an alleged violation from the rear of the vehicle. The first image shows the vehicle at the white stop bar and the illuminated red light; the second shows vehicle in the middle of the intersection with the red light illuminated.

In addition, a license plate image close-up is captured and data such as time, date and the duration of the yellow and red lights are also recorded. The cameras also creates a 12-second video of the violation, including six seconds prior to and six seconds after running the red light.

More information is available on the <%$Linker:2External<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary />000link-external websiteGreenville Website Linkfalsehttp://www.greenvillenc.gov/government/police/red-light-camera-programfalsefalse%>