Traffic cameras focus on the dollars

Three of the 10 most-dangerous intersections in the District are not monitored by traffic cameras, even though city officials say safety, not profit, has driven the placement of the cameras throughout the city.

The three intersections — 14th Street and Constitution Avenue NW, First Street and New York Avenue NW, and North Capitol Street and New York Avenue NW — had 34 hit-and-run accidents and 40 injury-producing accidents in 2001, the most recent year for which data are available, according to the D.C. Department of Transportation (DOT).

The three intersections are not monitored by any of the city’s 39 stationary red-light cameras and do not fall within any of the 65 speeding-enforcement zones that are monitored periodically by mobile photo-radar cameras.

“Why do the police not have all of the top 10 intersections covered if they have other cameras spread out all over town?” said Lon Anderson, spokesman for AAA MidAtlantic Automobile Club.

“Certainly, D.C. is indicating that they are reducing the number of violators, and certainly if we have fewer red-light runners, that is going to make it safer,” Mr. Anderson said. “But there would be reason to worry if they go for volume over dangerousness.”

DOT spokesman Bill Rice said officials use a weighted formula to determine the most dangerous intersections, taking into account property damage, injuries and fatalities that result from traffic accidents throughout the city.

Metropolitan Police officials say they select camera locations based how much they think the devices will improve safety, not how much money they will make in certain areas.

Lt. Patrick Burke, who heads the police department’s traffic-safety division, said he plans to discuss whether to change the locations of some of the 39 red-light cameras in the city with transportation officials next week.

He said officials will base that decision on traffic-accident data and fatality reports from 1997 through this year.

Lt. Burke said one reason police might have decided against placing cameras at two dangerous New York Avenue locations — where the road intersects North Capitol Street and First Street — is that several other cameras also are located nearby.

“They may have been thinking that was overkill,” Lt. Burke said.

Red-light cameras also are located at sites near 14th Street and Constitution Avenue NW, where Constitution intersects 12th and 15th streets.

According to DOT statistics, Bladensburg Road and New York Avenue NE is the city’s most dangerous intersection, which had 21 hit-and-run accidents and 28 injury-producing accidents in 2001.

That location is monitored by red-light cameras, and police also use speeding cameras to monitor only the outbound side of New York Avenue (Route 50) — a divided, six-lane highway with no crosswalks — east of the Bladensburg Road intersection.

The Washington Times on Friday reported that city’s most profitable photo-radar zone is the 2800 block of New York Avenue NE, which stretches past a warehouse, the National Arboretum and The Washington Times’ plant, each of which is accessed from a service road separated from the highway.

The New York Avenue zone produced 13,200 speeding citations, or 16.5 percent of the 80,000 citations issued in the city, in March, according to police statistics. At $30 per citation — the minimum fine under the photo-radar program — the zone generated at least $396,000 worth of fines. The photo-radar program generated more than $2 million worth of citations in March.

Pedestrians yesterday said police should aim their speeding cameras at motorists approaching the city’s most dangerous intersection.

“They definitely need to slow them down out here,” said William Kennedy, 44, of Northeast. “If they hit the light and it’s green, some of them are doing 70 mph.”

John Davalle, 72, a retiree in Northeast, said fast-moving vehicles often make it difficult to get through the Bladensburg Road-New York Avenue crosswalk. “You just can’t get across sometimes because of the traffic.”

Police department spokesman Kevin Morison said police officials might place cameras at each of the three dangerous intersections if the D.C. Council approves Mayor Anthony A. Williams’ 2005 budget proposal.

Mr. Williams’ budget includes adding at least 10 more red-light cameras throughout the city.

“That may give us a chance to update [camera locations] based on the new Department of Transportation statistics,” Mr. Morison said.

In addition, police are considering upgrading red-light cameras to start catching speeders as well, according to Lt. Burke.

“There is a lot of technology we’re looking at right now,” he said.

Since its inception in July 2001, the photo-radar camera program has generated more than $45 million in revenue. The red-light cameras, first used in August 1999, have raised about $25 million.