State Senator Jonathan A. Harris
February 27, 2006
Harris Endorses Speed Camera Legislation
State Sen. Jonathan A. Harris (D-West Hartford), whose district includes an accident-prone section of Route 44 over Avon Mountain, today called on the Judiciary Committee and the General Assembly to approve passage of H.B. 5210, "An Act Concerning Enforcement of Speeding and Traffic Control Signal Violations," which would allow towns and cities to use automated cameras to capture speeders and red-light runners as a means of increasing public safety on state roadways.
"Short of a statewide campaign to remind people to slow down and drive responsibly, this is a proven and cost-effective way to cut down on dangerous drivers and protect our fellow citizens on the road," Sen. Harris said. "These cameras have proven effective in the United Kingdom, and they're presently in use in several American cities. From a privacy standpoint, they're not too different from toll booth cameras. These only take a picture of the license plate, and they don't invade one's privacy inside the car. When you balance this limited use of cameras against public safety, this is a technology whose time has come for Connecticut."
According to the state Department of Transportation, the section of Avon Mountain between Mountain Road in West Hartford and Route 10 in Avon averaged 4.8 accidents per week in the five years from 2000 to 2004. According to public testimony offered today in support of H.B. 5210 by Avon Acting Police Chief Mark Rinaldo, 61 percent of motorists traveling along Avon Mountain Road exceed the 40 mph speed limit by at least 10 mph. Rinaldo also estimated Avon Mountain Road sees 25,000 to 20,000 vehicles per day, and that a police officer motorist stop can take up to 15 minutes to complete.
H.B. 5210 was supported today by several others, including The Connecticut Police Chiefs Association and the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities.
The December 2005 edition of the American Journal of Preventative Medicine makes the case for "immediate, large prospective trials of speed camera networks and speed-calming measures in the United States" and concludes that if the U. S. had implemented the speed control policies of the United Kingdom during the 1990s and had also not raised highway speed limits, 6,500 to 10,000 lives could have been saved each year.
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