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| National Campaign Teams with Professional Boxer Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy to Mark Stop on Red Week Launches a New Comprehensive Guide for Automated Traffic Enforcement Programs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 6, 2007) – To kick-off National Stop on Red Week (August 5 – 11), the National Campaign to Stop Red Light Running today launched its new, comprehensive guide, Focus on Safety: a practical guide to automated traffic enforcement, to serve as a resource for communities using or interested in using photo enforcement for red light running, speeding, work zone safety, or railroad crossings. The Campaign also celebrated its new outreach initiative featuring professional boxer Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy. As a former Olympic boxer and current IBF Super Middleweight champion, Jeff will serve as the Campaign’s 2007 youth outreach ambassador. Posters featuring Lacy with the tagline "I'm aggressive in the ring, not on the road." were unveiled at the press conference and will be distributed to Police Athletic Leagues, Boys and Girls Clubs, school driver safety programs, boxing matches involving Lacy and other venues around the country. “I hope I can be a positive influence and keep some young drivers from making deadly mistakes,” stated Lacy. “There are places for competition and it’s not the road.” This year’s Stop on Red Week is the first time that a majority of the states, 26 plus the District of Columbia, will have photo enforcement programs in place. That is double the number as when the Campaign was first begun in 2001. At present, more than 200 American communities have recognized that photo enforcement can help protect their citizens and have acted to make their towns safer. Growth in the use of automated enforcement has come almost entirely from communities – having already appealed to state representatives, but unwilling to wait any longer – that have proceeded with implementing programs without state authorization. Despite ongoing success, increased enforcement of traffic laws is still greatly needed and automated enforcement can help bridge the gap. “Too many drivers regard traffic signals and laws as “suggestions” – rules that apply to someone else. That is why reminders are important, but for many, perhaps most drivers, consequences for bad driving behavior are necessary to make the reminder stick,” said Leslie Blakey, executive director of the National Campaign to Stop Red Light Running. The Guidebook compiles the latest research and best practices on photo enforcement for traffic safety in one resource for state and local officials and the concerned public. It will be critical in assisting authorities in communicating with the public about the importance of these programs and why they help curb aggressive driving. The Campaign will also provide the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission (“1909 Commission”) with the report to help inform their analysis of our country's potential to make our surface transportation system safer in the future. The total number of fatalities last year is one of the largest in the last decade. The number of deaths, and the death rate – 42,642, and 1.42 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled – leaves the U.S. lagging behind other industrialized nations throughout the world. Motor vehicle crashes is the number one killer of all Americans between the ages of 4 and 34. About one-third of roadway fatalities are speed-related and approximately one thousand are caused by red light running each year. “We know the solutions to reducing highway deaths and injuries but we are lacking the political leadership to enact the laws and regulations to save lives,” said Judie Stone, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. 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. The new guidebook, Focus on Safety: a practical guide to automated traffic enforcement, can be downloaded from the Campaign website at www.stopredlightrunning.com # # # |
