Cameras Spot Red-Light Runners
Despite the fancy sensors and the latest technology, about half of red-light runners caught by high-tech cameras at certain busy intersections elude citations. Even so, cities are adding the cameras at a rapid pace, arguing that despite limitations, the cameras are reducing accidents and prompting motorists to think twice before gunning through red lights. The sophisticated systems--triggered by a motorist's speed when a light turns from yellow to red--began cropping up across Southern California four years ago, first in Oxnard and then Beverly Hills. Within the next year, some 20 area cities expect to be using them. Los Angeles, which began monitoring four intersections in December, plans to have 16 covered with cameras by the end of summer. Who gets away with red-light running when the camera is on is often a matter of chance. The pictures are not always clear enough to stand up in court, where judges require images of the license plate as well as the face of the driver. Sun! glare, for example, can mar the camera's picture of either one. Also, some drivers have their heads down or turned toward a passenger. Gender mismatches are often thrown out--the driver is a man, for example, but the registered owner is a woman. Or maybe
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Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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