The traffic enforcement cameras installed at key intersections in Chesapeake such as Battlefield Boulevard/Atlantic Avenue and Campostella Road and George Washington and South Military highways started snapping pictures of red light runner in the last week of August. No tickets will be mailed until late September, but the goal of the program Chesapeake officials are calling Photo Safe is not so much to fine traffic scofflaws as it is to make some of the city’s most dangerous intersections safer.
According to the Chesapeake Police Department, the plan is to install 20 cameras at intersections selected using the following criteria:
- The accident rate for the intersection
- The rate of red light violations occurring at the intersection
- The difficulty experienced by law enforcement officers in patrol cars or on foot in apprehending violators
- The ability of law-enforcement officer to apprehend violators safely within a reasonable distance from the violation
- Pedestrian safety concerns.
Chesapeake is following the lead of its eastern neighbor Virginia Beach, which currently operates 20 red light cameras at its own most heavily traversed and most accident-prone intersections. Statistics from 2008 show that drivers in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake are most likely to get into accidents at the intersections of Holland Road and Rosemont Road and Old Dominion Boulevard and Great Bridge Boulevard, respectively.
Across Hampton Roads, Newport News also employs red light cameras. Since the devices have only been in operation for a year or less in each locality, it is too early to fully assess how much the cameras have done to reduce accidents due to red light running. Whatever that contribution may be, however, it will be a welcome addition to trends operating since 2000 that have driven accident rates down 18.4.
The region’s population and traffic volume both increased over the past decade, but car, truck, motorcycle, bus and other vehicle accidents all went down in Hampton Roads. Portsmouth, in particular, saw dramatically fewer crashes, with the accident rate falling more than 70 percent. Norfolk also had to deal with significantly fewer accidents in 2009 than in 2000, with the later year witnessing about 21 percent fewer collisions.
Officials and traffic engineers can’t fully explain the drop in accidents on the region’s roads and highways, but they cite a combination of factors ranging from slowdowns caused by congestion to better teen driver training and greater seat belt use. Still, they welcome the decline. "It’s really great news," Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization traffic engineer Keith Nichols told the Virginian-Pilot on August 23, 2010.
As an attorney who has represented victims of traffic accidents for more than 20 years, I also welcome any news that our roads are getting safer. I also welcome any technology, including red light cameras, that make all drivers more likely to get home safely each day.
EJL
About the Editors: The Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm, whose attorneys work out of offices in Virginia (VA) and North Carolina (NC), edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard, Eastern Shore Virginia Injury Attorneys Blog and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as pro bono services.
Rick Shapiro has practiced personal injury law for over 30 years in Virginia, North Carolina, and throughout the Southeastern United States. He is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (ABA Accredited) and has litigated injury cases throughout the eastern United States, including wrongful death, trucking, faulty products, railroad, and medical negligence claims. During his three-decade career, Shapiro has won client appeals before the VA Supreme Court, VA Court of Appeals, NC Supreme Court, SC Supreme Court, WV Supreme Court, TN Supreme Court, and three times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, underscoring Shapiro’s trial achievements. In addition, he and his law firm have won settlements/verdicts in excess of $100 million. His success in and out of the courtroom is a big reason why he was named 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” in railroad law in U.S. News & World Report's Best Lawyers publication (Norfolk, VA area), and he has been named a “Best Lawyer” and “Super Lawyer” by those peer-reviewed organizations for multiple years. Rick was also named a “Leader in the Law, Class of 2022” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly (total of 33 statewide honorees consisting of lawyers and judges across Virginia). And in September 2023, Rick was selected as a recipient of the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) 2023 President’s Award. Although many nominations were submitted from across the country, Rick was just one of eight attorneys chosen by the prestigious National Board which certifies civil trial attorneys across the U.S. Rick was also recently named to Virginia Lawyers Weekly 2024 Virginia’s Go To Lawyers Medical Malpractice. The attorneys awarded this honor are nominated by their colleagues and chosen by a panel from the publication.
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