Running a red in Be'er Sheva
Photo: Israel Yosseph
The fight for safer intersections
An additional 200 speed and red-light cameras are to be installed across the country, tripling the current number; 90% of them will be at intersections, with 10% alongside roads; the minister of public security wants fewer fines and more court summons for violators.
Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan (Likud) has decided to increase the number of red-light cameras in Israel. This comes in response to the serious accident in which three persons were killed when their car was struck by a truck that ran a red light in Zichron Yaacov. At that intersection, no red-light camera was installed.
Currently, the police place two different kinds of cameras: roadside speed cameras and those at intersections that both monitor speed and crossing on red lights. The project installing them is being implemented in stages. It intends to include 300 cameras, of which 100 have already been purchased. Currently, 75 percent of them are placed at intersections.
Car crossing Haifa intersection on red light (Photo: Gil Nechushtan)
However, Erdan announced that this distribution is about to change, and 90 percent of the new cameras will be placed at traffic lights. "This is the goal that we're aiming for right now," said the minister. The cameras' locations will be set by a public committee that the Ministry of Public Security will appoint in accordance with traffic data supplied by the Traffic Division of the Israel Police.
Erdan has also decided that signs are to be posted before each intersection fitted with a camera to alert motorists of their existence. He explained, "The purpose is not to collect money from drivers, but to save lives."
He remarked that there is room for discussion on how to punish those who cross intersections on a red light. Currently, anyone who enters an intersection on a red light within two seconds of the light's changing is fined NIS 1,000 and receives ten points on their license. Anyone who enters an intersection later is brought to court and is likely to receive a more serious punishment. Erdan would like more drivers to be brought to court.
In recent years, the number of tickets given for running a red has decreased. According to data from the Or Yarok Association for Safer Driving in Israel, 30,000 tickets were issued from the previous generation of cameras in 2008. The number dropped to 14,000 by 2012. Although the number has since increased, it has not yet reached the numbers of a decade ago.
