KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A metro group is protesting to shine the light on the safety hazard of red light cameras. Earlier this week, a report was released showing the effectiveness about red light cams.
The group hopes that red light cameras around Kansas City will be removed. The Liberty Restoration Project is a group of community activists who say the red light cameras are unsafe. Kansas City Police released a study on Tuesday that indicates more crashes occurred at intersections with cameras.
For instance, the study revealed that wrecks at 59th Street & 71 Highway actually doubled in two years since the cameras were installed.
“I would love for the city to bring the cameras down and increase the yellow light times and really make these intersections safer for these residents,” said activist Tracy Ward.
“You can’t make them too long or people will just fly through the intersection but they were adjusted to expand the yellow light time. so that isn’t going to fix it,” said Steve Glorioso with American Traffic Solutions.
Steve Glorioso, a spokesperson for American Traffic Solutions the company that contracts with the city of Kansas City to run the camera program says accidents caused by people running red lights have dropped from 52 prior to the cameras being installed to 24 wrecks in the second year.
“The key thing that would fix the problem would be people who run red lights to stop running red lights,” he said. “We wouldn’t have a problem at all.”
Glorioso says the red light cameras are working and data regarding the number of accidents caused by red light runners are the proof.
“The most dangerous accident is a t-bone accident where someone runs a red light and hits someone where the passenger or the driver is,” he said. “Those are down by 15 percent from last year.”
Ward says despite what American Traffic Solutions says about the success of the program, she plans on shining a light on the red light camera dangers until cameras are removed.
“I want to collect signatures to tell the city that the residents don’t like these cameras,” Ward said. “We want them brought down and we’ll bring it to the ballot if we need to.”
Steve Glorioso says the city plans on expanding the program to 12 other intersections because the cameras are making a difference.