Smile, you’re on Costa Mesa’s red-light camera

Deepa Bharath

The city’s first red-light camera is expected to start snapping

pictures of violators at one busy intersection beginning next week.

The camera, which has been installed at the intersection of Harbor

Boulevard and Adams Avenue, will become functional before Wednesday ,

Costa Mesa Police Lt. Karl Schuler said.

“The equipment was installed [at] the beginning of this month,” he

said. “We put up photo enforcement warning signs as required by state

law and we were all set to begin [Wednesday]. But we ran into another

glitch, which should be worked out soon.”

Red-light runners caught on tape will not get tickets during the

first month of camera enforcement, Schuler said.

“For a 30-day period, they’ll only get a warning,” he said. “What

they get in the mail will look like a ticket, but it will be a

warning.”

Costa Mesa’s new camera doesn’t snap one picture of a violator,

but actually shoots 30 frames per second.

“So, a violator gets four pictures when they get the citation,”

Schuler said. “There’s one each of the front and rear license plates,

one of the light turning red and one of person’s face.”

After the first month, violators will start getting “real”

citations that will set them back $306.

The Harbor and Adams intersection was picked because it tops the

Police Department’s list of the 10 worst intersections in the city.

“Once we identified it as a problem intersection, we outfitted it

with a monitoring device that determined how many red light

violations were occurring,” Schuler said.

The experiment revealed 259 red-light violations during an 18-hour

period, he said.

“That just reaffirmed our decision to pick this one as our first

intersection to get the red-light camera,” Schuler said.

Bristol Street at Anton Boulevard, Newport Boulevard at 19th

Street and 17th Street are next in line to get the cameras, he said.

City officials will meet with Caltrans officials next week to discuss

installing the cameras at those intersections, Schuler said. The

city’s goal is to arm 14 intersections with the cameras.

Newport and 19th, in particular, is a “very dangerous”

intersection, Schuler said.

“People are traveling at a high rate of speed at that

intersection,” he said. “They’re getting ready to enter the freeway,

and when someone gets broadsided at that speed, it can cause a very

serious accident.”

Schuler said these cameras have been known to make people respect

red lights more.

“When word gets out that there is a red-light camera at a

particular intersection, people do think twice before running that

red light,” he said.

The city will direct money from the tickets to drivers’ education

programs at local schools, Mayor Gary Monahan said.

“We’re not doing this for the money,” he said. “We’re doing this

because [the cameras] have a proven track record of reducing traffic

accident caused by red light violations and deter people from running

red lights.”

Monahan initially had reservations about the cameras because of

privacy and liability issues.

“There was a big legal liability before because the technology

involving these cameras was poor,” he said. “But now with new and

improved technology, over time, we should be able to cut down on

accidents.”

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at [email protected].