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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Pia K. Hansen: Photo Red just the ticket for Spokane scofflaws

Pia Hansen Columnist

All right people, it’s about time we get a grip on the red-light-running habit we have going on in this town. Think about it: When was the last time someone ran a red light and almost hit you? And when was the last time you ran an “almost red” and got away with it?

If you drive on a regular basis, I’ll bet you can think of at least one time during the past month when you ended up in the middle of an intersection, with your brakes smoking and your heart pounding somewhere between your ears, because another car went flying through a red light.

Last time that happened to me was Saturday morning. I was heading north on Jefferson downtown and just as I’m hood-long into the intersection at Third Avenue, a Bronco comes barreling through a completely red light. Thankfully, I stopped. Thankfully, no one was right behind me. Thankfully, nothing happened, except to my blood pressure and my vocabulary.

I was alone in the car, so I took the liberty of yelling a few unprintable yet highly creative sentences in the general direction of the offending car.

Spokane currently is getting offers on camera systems – so-called Photo Red systems – that will take pictures of drivers who run red lights so they can be issued a ticket, complete with photo documentation. Cameras would be installed at the most dangerous intersections and signs would be posted there, too.

A city ordinance that would make it legal to start photographing intersections needs to be passed – but I don’t think there’s that much for our City Council to ponder.

We need those red-light cameras, and we need them now. Red-light running is a real issue here, so let’s all take that first step on the road to recovery and admit we have a problem: We just don’t respect red lights.

Some camera companies guarantee they’ll catch so many red-light runners that the tickets ($101 a pop) alone will pay for the system.

If nothing else, the thought of ending up on a “Spokane’s Most Furious Drivers” video may act as a real deterrent for people who floor it when the light turns red.

But of course there’s a wrinkle: A Washington state statute prohibits these camera systems from taking pictures of anything but rear license plates.

That’s what I would call a major bump in the road.

I can just see the lines forming at our already congested courthouse, full of registered vehicle owners claiming that cousin Martha or brother Bob was driving the day the picture was taken and the citation written out.

Statutes like this are meant to protect people’s right to privacy in their cars, but at what point do we cross the line where public safety becomes a bigger concern than protecting the identity of whoever could possibly be sitting next to the driver in the offending car?

Now is a good time to figure out a way to make this work, rather than becoming a “test case legally” for camera systems, as council member Bob Apple said last week.

If approached correctly, I’m convinced Spokane could become a textbook case on how to implement these camera systems and cut down on the number of car accidents and injuries caused by red-light runners.

It’s simply amazing to me that none of the skating championship visitors got run over while here. Perhaps that was the real benefit of the great STA shuttles: They kept people out of the crosswalks and thus reduced their chances of getting flattened by people in such a great hurry to get to the other side of the intersection, that they can’t wait for the light to turn green.