The False Narrative Behind Red Light Cameras and Photo Enforcement
Red light cameras have become a common fixture at intersections on Long Island and across the United States. Red light cameras are manufactured by public and private corporations and through powerful lobbyists partner with municipalities to generate as much revenue as possible through fines and excessive unlawful administrative fees.
Red light cameras are promoted on the false narrative of only changing driver behavior and improving roadway safety. However, are they truly making roads safer, or could they be endangering lives and intentionally generating revenue, through improper engineering? The Raimondo Law Firm has studied the dangers of red light cameras and red light camera engineering for Long Island residents.
Red light cameras can never be ruled out as a contributing cause to any auto, truck, bus, motorcycle, bicycle or pedestrian collision. This is particularly true if the intersection is engineered to have short yellow lights in relation to its size, center turning lanes, store fronts and roadway geography.
Not all photo enforcement is bad, however, red light cameras are an exception. Red light camera engineering relies and profits off the misapplication of physics and math, departing from accepted standards of care, required by engineering practice law. This generates fines, excessive and unlawful administrative fees.
Photo enforced Red light cameras are lobbied and promoted to government legislators on the theory that they discourage drivers from running red lights. By capturing photographic evidence of alleged violations, these cameras then seek to demonstrate that they lower the incidence of red light running. Lobbyists and governments point to data illustrating how red light cameras prevent right-angle crashes. However, they downplay rear end crashes that occur when motorists stop short to avoid ticketing, causing serious rear end collisions.
How Red Light Camera Engineering Works
Red light cameras are positioned on high poles at intersections to take photographs and video of vehicles who allegedly pass through a red light. This photo enforcement system is created by engineers through sophisticated engineering plans. In the State of New York, by law, all red light camera engineering plans must be signed and sealed by a licensed New York professional engineer. A licensed professional engineer takes responsibility for any improper engineering, including violating the laws of physics by creating short yellow lights and trapping motorists in that dilemma zone – should I stay or should I go? More likely than not, red light camera engineering plans are prepared by out of state engineers working on behalf of the red light camera corporations and then passed onto to the local engineers working on behalf of the contracting municipalities.
Do local engineering firms take responsible charge and assume all liability for plans created by out of state engineering firms working on behalf of Red Light Camera Corporations? If they are stamped, signed, and sealed by a New York professional engineer, they absolutely do!
Engineering of Red Light Cameras involves basic laws of physics, which are embodied in all engineering statutes, codes and regulations in New York and throughout the United States
Newton’s second law of motion relates acceleration, velocity, distance, and time. A driver needs the distance to safely stop or enough time to proceed into the intersection before the light turns red. If the engineered yellow signal time is outside of Newton’s laws of motion, the indisputable law of physics, it is a violation of professional responsibility and engineering malpractice. In addition, violating a state statute by a professional engineer or the corporation whose plans he stamps, imposes legal liability civil or criminal in every state.
Red Light Cameras top priority is revenue and imposes a financial tax on citizens under the guise of safety
Red light cameras prioritize revenue generation, with fines and excessive and unlawful administrative fees, which have become a severe financial burden to Long Islanders and citizens across the country.
Billions of dollars in fines and excessive and unlawful administrative fees around the country are a consequence of violations where the underlying yellow light durations are too short according to the laws of physics. The duration of the yellow light is about distance and time. When a driver sees a light turn yellow, he or she needs the distance to comfortably stop or time to travel into the intersection before the light turns red. Red light camera engineers intentionally present a no-win scenario, whereby reasonable drivers must run red lights.
Red light camera corporations install their cameras in working class communities at high volume intersection approaches, where the yellow light durations are the furthest from conformity to Newton’s laws of physics. When motoristists disobey Newton’s laws of physics due to the misapplication of proper engineering principles, every citizen is wrongfully ticketed, causing a financial burden on hard working families, who will not take a day off from work to fight photo enforcement injustice.
Corporate and Government Partnership Liability
The business model of red-light camera firms is capitalizing on dilemma zones. Red light camera firms offer their photo technology and revenue collections to municipalities in exchange for a revenue sharing contract. Red light camera companies have their own collection departments and governments have their own traffic courts for those who try and challenge the red light camera ticket and its photo enforcement engineering.
In traffic courts a citizen ticket holder is only permitted to look at the alleged violation video- what you see is what you get. A ticket holder cannot question or challenge the ticketing because there is nobody to cross examine or ask direct questions to, regarding the engineering principles depicted in the video which trap motorists in the dilemma zone and force red light running.
Red Light Camera Corporations capitalize on the misapplication of physics and predict which communities will generate the most money. They target communities that have the longest dilemma zones with the most traffic. This typically is the hard working middle class communities, going to and from work everyday, which the partnering entities know will not waste a day’s pay challenging a ticket, but will just pay it for expediency.
The red light camera companies and governments argue tickets are issued to unsafe drivers which changes driver behavior. However, most people know that the red light camera ticket received was somehow wrong and cannot explain it and are not buying into the fact that they intentionally ran a red light. The truth is that red light cameras target safe drivers entrapped in dilemma zones. A dilemma zone is when a driver neither has the distance to safely stop nor enough time to proceed into the intersection before the light turns red. Without issuing tickets to safe drivers, there is not enough revenue to generate a profitable arrangement between red light camera corporations and government partnerships.
Legal Perspectives on Red Light Camera Engineering and Profiteering
The veil of secrecy surrounding the red-light camera industry, their municipal partners and engineers, all who profit massively by the misapplication of physics, but under the guise of safety, shocks the conscience. This arrangement among private camera companies and governments to raise revenue is easily exposed by high school physics, yet not considered by lawyers or law enforcement in accident investigation or reconstruction.
Holding those accountable for red light camera profiteering based upon engineering malpractice is challenging. Many entities are involved, a public or private red light camera manufacturing corporation; a private engineering firm who generates the complex engineering plans for the contracting municipality, the engineering firm in the municipality who stamps or endorses the plans for the host municipality; the host municipality, the state engineer working on behalf of the host municipality; and private electrical companies who install the red light cameras at each and every intersection on behalf if the red light camera corporations.
Litigation with expert engineers is being contemplated across the country against red light camera companies and those who partner with them. Billions of dollars are being generated by improper photo enforcement engineering. Those who are complicit in the scheme of red light camera engineering for profit, by violating the basic laws of physics and endangering the public’s safety and financial welfare, is ripe for class action.
In contemplating a class action one must retain a licensed professional engineer, PE, who understands the engineers professional responsibility and obligations to the engineering practice statutes in each state. Engineering practice statutes mandate that the engineer first safeguard the public’s life, health, and property. The expertise of the PE who can illustrate the safe motion of traffic through the proper application of mathematical and physical sciences, rather than the misapplication thereof, will turn the page on the red light camera industry and those who partner with them.
The Raimondo Law Firm seeks to protect the interests of Long Island residents impacted by auto collisions at red light camera intersections and the imposition of fines and excessive unlawful administrative fees in red light camera ticketing.
Contact The Raimondo Law Firm today at (631) 471-1222, or fill out our online form, to learn more about your legal rights and options.
