Are Red Light Cameras an Effective Crash-Reduction Solution?

Picture a young family leaving a large suburban shopping mall in a late model SUV after an afternoon of shopping for summer clothes for an upcoming vacation and enjoying pizza and ice cream. As their SUV enters the roadway from the mall on a green traffic signal and begins to make a left turn, it is broadsided by a pickup truck that fails to stop for a red traffic signal. The family members’ lives are shattered forever. Even though all were using appropriate occupant restraints at the time of the crash, the 29-year-old father is pronounced dead on the scene; the 6-year-old son sustains serious internal injuries; and his 4-year-old sister and his mother suffer no physical injuries. The 26-year-old driver of the truck is uninjured.