Virginia House Approves Photo Red Bill

Legislation Would Allow Statewide Use of Safety Cameras

WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 6, 2007) – The fight to bring red light cameras back to curb aggressive driving in Virginia took a significant step forward today as the full House of Delegates approved House Bill 1778 by a vote of 63 to 35.

“Drivers across Virginia should be commended for forcefully saying that red light cameras are desperately needed in communities with serious red light running problems,” said Leslie Blakey, Executive Director of the National Campaign to Stop Red Light Running. “We are very pleased that the House of Delegates now understands the damage that was caused by allowing the previous law to sunset and the benefit in allowing the use of the technology to expand across the Commonwealth . ”

House Bill 1778 would allow any city, county or locality in Virginia the option of using red light cameras after the approval of a local ordinance. Communities would be limited to one camera for every 10,000 residents.

Del. John Cosgrove (R-Chesapeake) said, “I'm very pleased that the House of Delegates passed this bill by a large margin. There is great bipartisan support for this issue and I was very honored to be the chief patron of this bill as we moved it through the House for the first time in years. All of this year's success has been made possible because of the long-term work on this issue by Del. Michele McQuigg.”

Violators would receive a $50 civil fine that will be sent to the registered owner of the vehicle. If the registered owner of the vehicle was not driving at the time of the violation, they can file an affidavit saying that they were not driving at the time of the violation. A police report showing that the vehicle had been reported stolen at the time of the incident would also be grounds for violation dismissal.

The latest statistics from VDOT show that in 2005, red light running caused over 7,000 crashes in the Commonwealth, which resulted in at least 25 deaths and over 3,000 injuries. When Virginia's red light camera authorizing law was allowed to sunset, there were roughly 90 active red light camera programs in the U.S. Now, just a year-and-a-half later there are well over 150 communities using red light cameras across the country, including programs in eight of the ten largest U.S. cities.

Red light running crash survivor Laura Nichols is available to speak with reporters via cell phone at 757-291-6681.

The National Campaign to Stop Red Light Running is a national advocacy group guided by an independent advisory board that includes leaders from the fields of traffic safety, law enforcement, transportation engineering, health care and emergency medicine, as well as crash victims. More information on the Campaign can be found at www.stopredlightrunning.com.