Speed Cameras Create Bad Drivers

An insurance company surveyed drivers to determine that, shock of all shocks, drivers quit paying attention to the road and start looking at their speedometer when approaching a speed camera. It also found that drivers have a tendency to brake when they get to the cameras.

Of course, if you have been reading this blog, you already knew that speed cameras are a distraction from driving.

Do Traffic Enforcement Cameras Increase Insurance Rates?

As we all know, insurance companies use every available means to determine risk. They price risk based on demographics and on markets. For example, if Carter County, Tennessee has a high accident rate, rates will generally be higher there than for a county with lower accident rate. I believe this is a well known fact.

Some are now speculating that insurance companies are using data from speed cameras and red light cameras to increase rates on certain areas. While individual violators are not reported to the insurance companies, the raw data likely is reported. So, if Bluff City issues 300,000 tickets per year on its speed cameras, the insurance companies will assume that Bluff City drivers are very dangerous and must pay higher insurance premiums (despite the fact that most of the tickets are undoubtedly issued to people who only pass through the town).

In Johnson City and Kingsport, most of the red light camera tickets are undoubtedly issued to residents. What do you think happens when an insurance company sees a lot red light tickets from those two municipalities but sees only a few from Bristol, Tennessee that were issued by actual police officers instead of scameras? Undoubtedly, Johnson City and Kingsport will be assessed a higher risk premium and insurance costs will go up.

Further, study after study shows that the presence of red light cameras causes an increase in the number of rear-end accidents. These are the types of accidents that make insurance companies cringe because they are so open to fraud. Back and neck injuries are notoriously difficult to prove the severity of and notoriously easy to fake. When the red light cameras come to town, insurance companies will have to pay out more money for these types of accidents. Does anyone really think they won't raise their rates to address this increased risk?

While these city "leaders" think they are bringing money into their city by using these scameras, they may be losing more than they realize. The money paid to insurance companies leaves town for good. It provides no jobs here. It provides no tax revenues here. All it does is place an additional burden on our citizens.

Town Scraps Speed Cameras - Accidents Don't Increase

Well, at least they are willing to admit what common sense will tell the rest of us.

Bristol Herald Courier Comments on Bluff City Speed Cameras

The editorial board of the Bristol Herald Courier has commented that drivers may simply avoid Bluff City due to their speed cameras. They also point out that the speed limit is artifically low there. This is a 4 lane highway with a 45 mph speed zone that is now enforced by cameras that sit at bottom of a trough between two hills.

Last week, City Manager Fredrick Weaver stressed the safety benefits. “If enforcing our speed camera program saves one life or keeps one person from being paralyzed in an accident, it’s more than worth us doing it,” he said. “The No. 1 thing for us is saving lives.”

Yeah, right. This is the same town that has another 45 mph speed zone on the Elizabethton Highway on a 4 lane that has very few businesses or interesections to speak of and is nothing but a speed trap. Realistically, one could safely travel 60-65 mph in that area and most people probably do. That is probably where they will put the next round of speed cameras.

I can tell you happens when I go through the area where the speed camera is located. Whenever I drive down the road, I try to be conscious of vehicles on side roads. I watch to make sure they stop and watch to see if they are going to drive onto the highway, watch to see if I could change lanes if necessary, etc. In the speed camera area, this is no longer the case. I fear that I no longer notice cars that pull up to the highway from the car wash or Poplar Ridge Road. I focus on my speedometer and the cars in front of me who are slamming on their brakes at the speed cameras. I suspect other drivers do the same thing and the end result will likely be that someone will pull out from the car wash or Poplar Ridge Road and the oncoming traffic will not even slow down or swerve to avoid a collision because they are not watching for pullouts from those areas as they are too busy watching their speed and watching for brakers in front of them. Then, someone will get killed or paralized while Bluff City cashes its checks.