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Stop AB666 – The Devil’s Bill
Thanks to the support from over 4000 people who signed the petition and called Sacramento, we have successfully stopped AB666 for this year. The Assembly Member who authored this bill, Bob Wieckowski, could attempt to bring it back in January 2014. We must be ready if he tries to do that. Please read the information below and then go to our website at Stop AB666.org and sign the petition. The more signatures we have, the better. The red light camera companies won’t stop trying to take away your rights. We intend to be here to stop them, again and again, until they get the message that the people of California have had enough of their lies, deception and buying of influence in Sacramento.
Protect Your Right to a Trial for Traffic Tickets
GO HERE to sign the petition and call the bill’s author.
What does AB666 Do?
>Eliminates citizens rights to a trial if they get a red light camera ticket
>Makes the vehicle owner responsible for the ticket even when someone else is driving
>Sets up kangaroo “administrative hearing” courts run by those running the ticketing program
>Requires that no evidence other than the ticket itself is needed to convict the accused
>Makes the ticket itself prima facie evidence which forces the accused to prove their innocence rather than the current system of “innocent until proven guilty”.
>Eliminates the right to face your accuser
>Eliminates the right to discovery
>Requires defendants to pay a fee if they want their case heard in court
(but without the full protections they have now)
>Expands the use of photo enforcement to other traffic violations
Information about Red Light Cameras
Two very good reports from KNBC TV’s Ted Chen on our efforts to end the red-light camera program. These reports originally aired on June 7, 2011, the day the Police Commission voted unanimously to end the program.
Missouri Department of Transportation lengthens yellow signal times and violations plummet.
You are getting ripped off by red-light cameras. Even if you never get a red-light camera ticket, you are getting ripped off. If you drive on the streets of a city that uses red light cameras, you are less safe than you could be otherwise. Red-Light Programs are a waste of taxpayer dollars and reduce safety for motorists and pedestrians. Here’s why:
The FACTS
1. Engineering countermeasures are a much more effective and economical solution to reduce red-light related collisions.
- Most red light running is unintentional and caused by yellow light times that are too short or other engineering deficiencies.
- Yellow times in California are currently based on the posted speed limit but should be based on the actual speed of traffic approaching the intersection. Lengthening the yellow signal to the proper time will reduce violations and collisions as much as 50% or more.
- Lengthening the all-red phase prevents accidents by making sure the intersection is clear before cross traffic is released. Some major intersections have all-red times less than ½ second, and need to be closer to 2 – 2.5 seconds.
- The most severe accidents are caused by impairment, distraction and fatigue which the red-light cameras can’t prevent.
- If the city improved the signal timing and fixed any other engineering deficiencies, accidents and violations would drop and there would be no need for photo enforcement. They are spending your money and giving out millions of tickets for no reason.
2. The cameras have not improved safety and may have made us less safe.
- Contrary to LAPD claims, any improvement in accident statistics is a result of State mandated longer yellow times being implemented when the cameras were installed or a decrease in traffic volume.
- At some intersections, red light related accidents disappeared long before the cameras were put in, but the LAPD claims the cameras caused the reduction in accidents.
- Red-light cameras can’t reduce the most serious accidents because those are caused by impairment, distraction and fatigue and occur well after the light has turned red. Red-light cameras, if they have any effect at all, only have the possibility of affecting the relatively few drivers who try to “beat the light” and misjudge by a few tenths of a second. In these situations, a sufficient all-red phase will prevent collisions from occurring.
- Rear end accidents have increased substantially at some intersections. At Sherman Way and Louise Ave. in Los Angeles, rear end collisions increased by as much as 90% after the cameras were installed.
3. Most Red Light Camera Programs are subsidized by giving out tens of thousands of citations for rolling right turns which rarely cause accidents.
- At some intersection approaches rolling-right-turn tickets make up as much as 97% of the citations.
- Rolling right turns pose little danger and don’t warrant spending millions of dollars to prevent this behavior. The average number of rolling-right-turn collisions each year was 45 out of an average of approximately 56,000 collisions annually in the City of L.A., which represents just 0.079% of all accidents. About three times as many accidents are caused each year by drivers opening their car door into passing traffic.
- The majority of rolling-right-turn collisions result in minimal or no injuries, even when pedestrians or bicyclists are involved. There were no fatalities noted due to rolling-right-turns in the City of Los Angeles between 2002 and 2009.
- The chance that a rolling-right-turn will result in a collision is 0.00029%. This means that a driver would have to make over 345,345 rolling-right-turns before they might be involved in an accident. Drivers who make slow, cautious rolling-right-turns will likely never cause an accident.
5. The cost of the red-light cameras goes far beyond the millions of taxpayer dollars wasted every year.
- The millions of dollars spent in unnecessary fines and higher insurance rates are unavailable to be spent on local goods and services to grow our economy. If you own a business, your customers have less money to spend because of red-light camera programs.
- Needless ticketing clogs our courts and makes our justice system less available for necessary cases. The Los Angeles Superior Court, is facing a backlog of almost a full year.
- Unreasonable and unfair enforcement of traffic laws engenders disrespect towards our public officials and the police. Citizens are much more likely to see law enforcement as an adversary rather than an ally which makes it more difficult for the police to obtain the public’s help with more serious crimes and safety matters.
At a time when cities are slashing essential government services and laying off workers, Photo Red-Light Programs are an inexcusable waste of city and law enforcement resources.
