Orange County Doing Away With Most Cams
Car accident attorneys love to have visual proof of culpability in the form of video. If you read my earlier post on the car crash dash cam video you know that video can remove all doubt in motor vehicle accident claims and show just whose fault the accident was. Similarly, so-called “red light cameras”—especially those which record video footage—can provide a car crash lawyer with the evidence he or she needs to prove his or her client was not at fault. And once fault can be assigned, an attorney can go after full and fair compensation for the client.
The way these camera systems work is quite interesting and could be the subject of another blog post entirely but in this instance I merely provide a video that discusses how such systems work (currently in use in the city of Covina, CA).
With that said the fact is that many municipalities have chosen to get rid of their red light cameras. That’s the case in most Orange County cities with the exception of Garden Grove and Los Alamitos. For us in Tustin or neighboring cities of Santa Ana, Anaheim or Irvine we do not have to deal with these red light cameras, for better or worse. For a list of installed traffic cameras in the Orange County area you can visit the photoenforced website. The list includes not only red light cameras but also freeway and toll road cameras.
For an accident lawyer in Orange County, not having as many cameras means less opportunity for a visual record of a vehicle accident in an intersection (again leading me to recommend the purchase of a dash cam). It may also mean higher traffic accident levels. A few years ago a study was done about the effectiveness of red light cameras in some Southern California cities. The upshot was that the presence of these cameras reduced the rate of accidents in cities which used them. Cities with similar populations and traffic levels were used as controls and the statistics were compared at the end of the study. It was found that car accidents dropped approximately 40% in cities with red light cameras. This may mean that us Orange County drivers may face a higher car wreck rate in our cities that do not employ these cameras.
Many cities have discontinued use of such cameras in the wake of citizen complaints and or failure of such systems to produce accurate or legally usable results. Some drivers have successfully sued municipalities or police departments for what was determined to be improper use of these cameras which may have led to some cities dumping them altogether. I won’t comment on the legality of red light cameras in general, but merely state the statistics as they relate to a car wreck lawyer such as myself. Without red light cam footage it may be more difficult for an injury attorney to prove a case in court (or settle with an insurance company) and their absence may lead to an overall increase in crashes.
All this is academic if you’ve been hurt in a car accident. Video footage or no, it’s up to the personal injury attorney you hire to seek justice and compensation for your injuries when another person was at fault. If the accident rate is higher in Orange County it means the chances of you being injured on our roads is greater. If that does happen, please call my Tustin offices for a no-cost accident case evaluation. 714-544-1460.