Columnist Susan Snyder: Bill should be given a green light

Friday, March 28, 2003 | 4:37 a.m.

The street scene I encountered on Las Vegas' east side last week was all too typical.

A woman was walking south on Maryland Parkway on Wednesday and started to cross Tropicana Boulevard in the crosswalk on a green light.

A driver in a pickup truck intending to turn right onto Tropicana stopped to wait for her.

And a motorist obviously too important and too impatient to follow laws as the rest of us do, sped around from behind the pickup truck and started to turn right into the middle lane of Tropicana, nearly striking the woman directly in front of his car in the crosswalk.

He slammed his brakes. She jumped aside but kept walking. He then sped behind her fast enough to suck the elastic from her pantyhose.

Jerk.

If the driver had hit the woman, it would have been pretty clear who was right and who was wrong.

But if state Senate Bill 220 allowing use of traffic cameras were a law, video shot at intersections could be used in crashes where the details are sketchy.

Within hours of that woman's scare, the Senate Transportation Committee passed the bill that would allow cameras to catch motorists in the act of running red lights.

Local agencies would have to come up with their own methods of issuing tickets to red-light runners. And under an amendment added before the bill was passed out of the committee, such citations couldn't be used to add points to driver's licenses or to increase auto insurance.

They also would be tickets motorists could fight in court, if they so choose.

"This is what we were looking for," said Erin Breen, executive director of the Clark County Safe Community Partnership. "Our only intent is to give people an incentive to stop running red lights. It is not about bogging down the court system or generating revenue."

The parking ticket-type offense would make life a little more expensive and a little more inconvenient for people who commit a potentially deadly act.

"If you have outstanding parking tickets and try to re-register your vehicle or get a driver's license, they won't let you do it," Breen said.

But it's not just red-light runners who could be nabbed. The measure also would make all video shot through red-light cameras admissible in court.

Traffic cameras already are installed at many intersections throughout the valley as part of the new traffic signal control system. But law enforcement officials may use the recordings only for reviewing crashes, Breen said. They can't present footage in court as evidence.

This measure seeks to change that, Breen said. And that's good news for victims of hit-and-run crashes. Metro Police investigators have said the agency is called to about 300 hit-and-run wrecks a month.

Some involve property damage. Others result in injuries or deaths.

"The people who lose their lives in red-light crashes are most often those on bikes or on foot," Breen said.

Dead people can't testify, but a photo can.

Opponents harp about privacy and motorists' rights. But nobody has the right to run a red light or hit someone. And it would remain an easy ticket to avoid.

Red means stop.