Ventura Personal Injury Lawyer Thinks Car Accidents Are Curbed By Red-Light Cameras

Like most cities with populations over 100,000, Ventura, California, was faced with a rising tide of car accidents. Statistics culled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicated that the city had seen 25 fatal car accidents between 2001 and 2003. Deciding it had had enough, Ventura installed red-light cameras at 17 different intersections. The move paid off. Red-light running accidents at those crossroads fell by 80 percent, and red-light running crashes citywide dropped 29 percent.

"Red-light cameras can be a significant deterrent when correctly administered," said nationally recognized car accident attorney John Bisnar.

Ventura's city budget wouldn't allow red-light cameras to be set up at every intersection. As in most municipalities, crossroads are typically under the control of either fixed-time or traffic actuated signals. Fixed-time signals are set for average traffic conditions and change at predetermined time intervals. Traffic actuated signals detect vehicles (including bicycles) and alter their timing to move traffic efficiently through an intersection. Signals like these have been installed throughout the city at the rate of about two each year. This has helped reduce Ventura car crashes.

Increased enforcement efforts have resulted in making certain areas of the city a bit safer. Despite a steady rise in traffic over the past eight years, traffic north of SR 126 has improved from 2006 to 2008. Nonetheless, car accidents continue throughout greater Ventura. Last year, three accidents killed six people in a single weekend. As the week went on, two senior citizens were killed in two separate accidents just 35 minutes apart: One driver veered across several lanes on Highway 101, dropped down an embankment and smashed into a tree; later, a woman lost her life on the same highway, just south of Peasant Valley Road, when she plowed into an oncoming motor home.

These tragedies added to the troubling car accidents witnessed by the city in 2006. According to the California Highway Patrol's Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS), Ventura car accidents resulted in eight deaths and 457 injuries. DUI accidents ended in four fatalities and 66 injuries. Three pedestrians were killed and 27 were injured in traffic accidents. And motorcycle accidents resulted in 15 injuries.

"The city of Ventura must find a way to bring these disturbing statistics down," noted John Bisnar. "The city's full traffic enforcement resources should be brought to bear on trouble spots that can cause car accidents."

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