UPDATE: Local police, national survey agree that traffic cameras save lives

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Police Department has insisted from the start a year ago that it was creating a network traffic-enforcement cameras to reduce the number of motor-vehicle crashes, injuries and deaths.

Not a few of those caught on camera running red lights and speeding - there were 61,125 such violations in Cedar Rapids in 2010 - have seen it that way.

On Tuesday, though, the National Institute for Highway Safety in Arlington, Va., released results of research that found that the number of fatal crashes in cities with red-light cameras was 24 percent lower from 2004 through 2008 than it would have been without the cameras.

The study further concludes that 159 lives were saved from 2004 through 2008 in 14 of the nation's biggest cities because of red-light cameras, and it projects that 815 deaths would have been prevented if all off the nation's large cities used cameras to enforce red-light running.

“The cities that have the courage to use red-light cameras despite the political backlash are saving lives,” Adrian Lund, the institute's president said on Tuesday.

The finding is nice to hear, Cedar Rapids police Capt. Steve O'Konek said on Tuesday, and he added that the institute's crash data is in line with crash trends that the city of Cedar Rapids has seen since it put up its first intersection camera about a year ago.

The city now has a network of cameras to catch red-light runners and speeders at eight intersections and speeders at two spots in each direction at the S-curve of Interstate 380 through the downtown. Most caught are speeders.

“I think anybody that puts these red-light systems in place has as their goal to reduce injuries and fatalities,” O'Konek said. “So it's encouraging to have some data like this.”

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's research found that red-light cameras reduce other kinds of fatal crashes at intersections, not just those caused by red-light runners.

“Somehow, the people who get tickets because they have broken the law have been cast as the victims,” the institute's Lund said. “We rarely hear about the real victims - the people who are killed or injured by these lawbreakers.”

Cedar Rapids' O'Konek said the city's own crash data is preliminary because there is only one year of it. Nonetheless, he says the city has seen a 5.24-percent decline in property-damage accidents and a 15.88-percent decline in personal-injury accidents between 2009 and 2010 when cameras, both red-light and speeding, were installed. Fatalities have dropped from 7 to 5 between the two years.

On the S-curve “zone” of Interstate 380, property-damage crashes are down 36 percent from 2009 to 2010 and personal-injury crashes have dropped from 15 to zero, he said.

Additionally, he said the amount of red-light running has dropped at seven of the eight Cedar Rapids intersections with red-light cameras. The exception is Second Avenue SW and L Street SW, where the number of red-light runners has increased 1 percent, he said.

“We think were reducing the instances of red-light running, which in turn will reduce the crashes,” O'Konek. “We also think the best news out of that is that we're changing driver behavior. People are more aware as they approach the intersections that they need to stop if they can.”

In recent weeks, the traffic-enforcement cameras captured the attention of Iowa Rep. Dave Tjepkes, R-Gowrie, who heads up the House Transportation Committee. Tjepkes, a former Iowa State trooper, wants to make sure the cameras aren't just revenue producers for cities.

In recent weeks, too, Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett conducted his own scientific phone poll of local residents using leftover campaign funds. One of the questions asked was about the city's traffic-enforcement cameras, to which 63.5 percent of respondents said the cameras created a safer city and provided much needed revenue to the city while 28.2 percent said the cameras did little more than “squeeze” money out of motorists.

The cities of Davenport and Clive are among other Iowa cities that have traffic-enforcement cameras in place while other cities in the state are looking at adding them.