Police cannot be everywhere at all times and most drivers know it. As a result, many motorists on the road feel comfortable violating safety laws and engaging in speeding and other high-risk behaviors while operating vehicles.
Drivers who break the rules will increase the chances of accidents happening. Motorists need a strong deterrent from bad behavior in order to encourage them to be safe at all times. Automated enforcement could be one solution to this problem because automating the job of ensuring drivers obey the rules will mean many more drivers are ticketed for illegal behavior. The increased chance of being ticketed could work to force more drivers to obey traffic safety laws — which, in turn, would result in a reduced risk of accidents.
Most safety experts are in favor of additional automated efforts to police the roads. Regardless of whether this automation is in effect or not, however, drivers have a responsibility to obey the rules. If a driver falls short and causes an accident to happen, a New York City personal injury law firm can provide representation to victims of that resulting crash.
Automated Enforcement and Traffic Crash Reduction
Streets Blog NYC reported on an effort by safety advocates from both Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets. Both of these advocacy groups believe that New York City’s automated speed enforcement program needs to be expanded. In particular, these groups want speed cameras to be added to more than 2,500 schools operating throughout the greater New York City area.
The goal of these automated enforcement efforts would be to prevent speeding. Speeding is considered a leading cause of both injuries and fatalities in accidents. Unfortunately, there are only a very limited number of cameras to catch speeders. In 2013, speed camera legislation was passed to allow 20 cameras to be installed throughout New York City. The following year, the number of speed cameras was increased to 140. These 140 cameras are meant to protect 1.1 million students on their way to school. This is a very small number of cameras for the entire city of New York.
While there are cameras at far fewer places than there should be, camera use has already proved to be effective both at reducing the speeds that motorists drive, as well as bringing the rates of traffic deaths and severe injuries down to historic lows. Cameras have also become the leading way in which people receive traffic citations. Traffic cameras issue seven times as many speeding tickets as law enforcement officers now issue. If cameras were expanded to more locations, more drivers would be ticketed and forced to slow down. Unfortunately, cameras are located near only seven percent of all schools in New York City.
In addition to too few cameras, the cameras are also on for too short a period of time. More than half of the deadly accidents involving speeding drivers near school zones take place outside the hours when the camera is running. Expanding the use of cameras to more locations and keeping the cameras on for longer could result in the camera stopping more behavior that could lead to accidents. If drivers choose to speed anyway and cause a collision, a New York City Personal Injury Law Firm should be consulted for help. Call Rosenberg, Minc, Falkoff & Wolff as soon as possible to discuss your case.
