Move to modify red light-camera violations in N.J. stalls

A measure to make some changes in the New Jersey’s red light-camera program is on hold.

Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon says more than half of the red light-camera tickets are issued because motorists don’t come to a complete stop before turning right on red. He wants to eliminate that violation at red light-camera intersections.

 

“Right-on-red maneuvers cause very few accidents and even fewer injury accidents. These systems are supposed to be about limiting serious, straight-through-red-light violations,” O’Scanlon, R-Monmouth, said Monday. “That’s what they should be focused on.”

Eliminating that violation would create a double standard and pose safety issues, argues Sgt. Robert Christie, Traffic Bureau supervisor for the Union Township Police Department.

“To tie our hands and say we don’t want you to issue any tickets for that, what’s next? What other laws are you going to tell us that you don’t you want us to enforce?” he said. “It’s just a dangerous precedent.”

Assembly Transportation Committee chairman John Wisniewski, who says the bill needs more work, intends to revise to measure to build public confidence in the red light-camera program.

Wisniewski, D-Middlesex, added that police officers who testified before the committee raised legitimate concerns about the uniformity of right turns on red.