Raleigh, N.C. — A reduction in red-light runners and accidents has prompted the City of Raleigh to extend a contract for cameras at intersections.

In the five years since the city installed the SafeLight system, accidents at the locations with cameras are down 83 percent.

That effectiveness persuaded the city to order three more cameras and to move three cameras to different locations. The City Council on Aug. 5 approved a three-year contact with Affiliated Computer Services, Inc., to operate and manage 15 cameras across the city.

Drivers know where the cameras are and know they could get caught.

“I'm not really a big fan,” Harold Bost said Wednesday. "Sometimes it's not really your fault if someone is right behind you that you have to go through and you get snapped anyway."

How SafeLight works

Cameras capture a vehicle three times as it proceeds through an intersection:

1. As it approaches an intersection with a red light
2. As it crosses through the intersection
3. A close-up of the vehicle's license plate

A $50 citation is then issued to the registered owner of the vehicle. The violations do not incur points against the driver's license or insurance, and police actually do not know who was driving at the time. Fines are used to fund equipment and operations costs of the SafeLight system.

Any proceeds beyond costs go to the Wake County Public School System.

Results in Raleigh

The city installed 12 cameras in 2003. Since then, accidents at the camera locations are down 83 percent. At the intersection of Dawson and Morgan streets, accidents decreased 98 percent.

Here is the breakdown, showing accidents per intersection in the four years before and after the cameras were installed.

City leaders like the system, and expect even further reductions in accidents. “We're going to move them to intersections that have higher rates of accidents,” Traffic Engineer John Sandor said.

Six new intersections to be covered by cameras

Those locations haven’t been determined yet. "We're not trying to be secretive or anything like that,” Sandor added, “We're just trying to put them in the right locations.”

Driver Chris Bays said that no matter what the city decides, the cameras are a deterrent. “I think they could move them around a little bit and keep people guessing,” he suggested.

The city plans to decide on which six new intersections get the SafeLight system within about a month.

Bost said he’ll be ready. "I know where the ones are around my job, but I'll be on the lookout knowing there are some new ones."

While the system works for Raleigh, other towns have discontinued similar efforts after legal disputes over how to distribute the money from fines. Charlotte, Fayetteville, Chapel Hill, Greensboro, Greenville and High Point – where the legal battle began – all have abandoned their cameras.