I was in an accident: thanks to a red light camera, the person in front of me decided to stop at a yellow light at the last minute. I saw that he stopped and slammed on the brakes even before the CMBS kicked in but was unable to stop in time. As a result, I rearended him. My front end damage was more than 18K. My insurance company totaled the car. Fortunately, neither one of us was injured.

I'm writing to thank my fellow acurzine members for all the useful information I've received from the 'zine. I'm not sure what car I'll buy next, possibly a Lincoln MKZ hybrid. I doubt I'll find as useful a forum for that car as we have here.

 

Good luck and glad you weren't hurt!

 

glad nobody was hurt, thanks to tail gating you mean.

 

Its comical how you blame the red light camera on your accident.

 

People do act retarded around those cameras, but you have to own it OP. LoL...

Now that we know everyone is ok lets see some carnage!!

 

Glad everyone is alright

 

Yup. When people stop as soon as the light turns yellow it is hard to anticipate, resulting in the mishap the OP described here.

Not that you shouldn't always be ready for an emergency, but I've seen the "yellow-light" rear-ender up close and personal. Cameras are a bane.

 

^some should re-take the driver's ed course...


PREPARE TO STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Glad there were no injuries except to a beautiful car. There was a study done which showed that although red light cameras reduce the number of major accidents, they increase the number of rear-end collisions to more than the number of major accidents prior to the camera's installation. Tally one up for that intersection too.




EDIT: Oh yeah. In for the carnage too!

Do they take the car away from you when it is totaled?

 

RLs do have a nice brake system stock with shitty pads and rotors to boot.

 

Sorry to read of this.

I have seen statistics indicating that red light cameras actually increase rear-end accidents, and some use it as an argument against the cameras. All the same, if you follow too closely, sudden stops can lead to similar mishaps.

 

now the real question is...if the first driver slammed brakes for yellow...was the 2nd driver planning to run a red even though aware of the red light camera...

or was the 2nd driver going to slam on the brakes suddenly and get hit in the butt...

you would wonder eh.

 

Sorry to hear the unfortunate news! Glad no one was hurt!

 

auch... glad your able to dust yourself and walk away.

 

Sorry for accident. Wish you luck with your new car.

 

In the end, its just a car, as much as we love our vehicles, the most important part is that everyone walked away without any major injuries. Glad to read that everyone is ok.

 

Red-Light cameras are for revenue generation, and have NOTHING to do with safety. Municipalities have been caught red-handed(pardon the pun) actually shortening yellow light duration after cameras were installed to increase the number of violations generated.

The OP, may have been following too closely, but the traffic camera most likely was partially the cause.

 

College Station, TX had them for a brief period of time until the citizens voted against them. I think all cities should follow their lead.

 

Every Traffic camera program that has been brought up before the public as a ballot question has been vote down, in most cases decisively. The traffic camera companies spend large amounts of money trying to keep these votes off the ballots, going so far as creating sham "traffic safety coalitions" of "concerned citizens" consisting of corporate officers only to try to create false hype.

 

Glad everyone involved are OK! Now the question is: Are you buying another RL?

 

i love gassing it through yellow lights! saves time!

 

sorry for your lost. atleast one good thing came out of it, a new car! drools

 

Sorry, but at least now you can get a smart car or something that doesn't carry alot of weight on the axles... I think your wallet may become so light that you won't need it.

j/k... look at is as a way to be driving something better.

 

red light cameras force people to stop at red lights...something they should have been doing all along. if you've ever almost been hit by someone that took the red, you'd be grateful for it. If you plow into the person ahead of you, it's because you were going too fast, overestimated your braking ability, or assumed wrong that the person was not going to stop. None of which can be blamed on the camera or the driver ahead of you.

Back OT, I'm sorry to hear that your car is a loss. I'm glad that nobody was seriously injured. That's really all that matters.

 

I got a happy story...my TL had 18k worth of damage when a driver went through a red at full speed....

and now back to your regular program.

P.S. And that is how I bought the RL...happy ending.

 

+1

 

damn thats soo sad. At least your okay!

Can I have your RL calipers?

 

Umm, not really.

Yellow lights are to warn people the light will be changing red. From that you should make an educated decision on the safest course of action, to keep moving or prepare to stop.

Yellow didn't used to mean "SLAM ON YOUR BRAKES NOW!"

The problem with cameras is people are so scared of them that yellows turn into LOCK THE ABS! SLAM 'EM DOWN!

That is dangerous.

It's pretty black & white to think that oh it's the followers fault. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But people are humans and make mistakes.

The problem is the old "yellow is a warning, a signal to prepare" caused way less accidents than the camera's "yellow means slam your brakes on as hard as you can" system.

 

yellow is a warning to the first driver not the next 3.

 

Re-read Lumpulus' post.

Studies show that the #1 factor in making an intersection safer or more dangerous is the duration of the yellow light. If the goal is safety, the logical first move is to lengthen the yellow. If you install a revenue generation device to fine red-light offenders and then shorten the yellow, your goal would appear to be something else.

The companies like Redspeed International and others who are pushing these lights have been caught paying off public officials, falsifying data and influencing elections to keep their gravy train running. The only large-scale moral issue here is the immorality of what they're doing -- not the scofflaw motorists of America who, for some peculiar reason, were getting in fewer crashes before this marvelous advancement in safety was installed solely to protect them.

And here's another fun fact for you: The #1 ticket type at camera intersections is executing a rolling stop rather than full stop before making a right turn on red. That doesn't even involve the safety question of running yellow lights OR blowing through an intersection. It's a profit grab, period.

 

yellow lights give people an incentive to stop if there's a camera.

what I noticed on the road, my personal observation, nobody full stops for STOP signs, nobody STOPs for red light before turning. Half the people drive through STOP ALL WAY signs...maybe those should have cameras too.

Even if camera companies are being pushed into this game by profit, the only illegitimate use is when the light duration is shortened. Otherwise, I think it's fair game for profit making as laws are the laws regardless of ticketing or not.

I'd start ticketing for parking 3 feet from the curb side ways and not signaling your turn too!

and now I'm off topic...

OP should have kept his distance, I think that's fairly obvious.

 

Yeah, from us. :.)

 

John, why are you not planning to get another RL, especially with the great deals on pre-owned out there?

 

I am also sorry to hear about the mishap, certainly glad that no one was injured most importantly. As it pertains to the cause of the accident, well, there's a reason a rear-end collision is indefensible, regardless of the circumstances. Either way, you get to enjoy a new ride...