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Cameras will be
used to catch
Oahu speeders

The system should be
operating by late this
year or early next

Ticket facts

---

By Jaymes K. Song
Star-Bulletin

You're late and cruising 15 miles above the speed limit on the H-1 Freeway with no cops in sight.

You arrive home without getting a speeding ticket.

But a few days later, a $102 citation arrives in the mail.

Smile, you've been caught on a police camera.

By the end of the year or early next year, Honolulu police will begin using special cameras to catch and issue traffic tickets through the mail to speeders and people running red lights at intersections.

"Red-light cameras" equipped with radar or laser will be placed at intersections around the island, said Capt. Bryan Wauke of the police Traffic Division.

Once the light turns red, a "trip wire" activates and ... presto! Any car passing the line and its license plate will be photographed, said Sgt. Robert Lung.

A ticket will be sent within a week to the vehicle's registered owner, whether the person was driving or not, police said.

"After time, you won't have anyone going through a red light," Lung said.

Police in Washington, D.C., have credited the cameras for reducing motorists running red lights in certain intersections by 47 percent and collecting $7 million in fines since last August, according to a report yesterday in the Washington Post.

Portable "speed cameras" will be used in the same way as red-light cameras.

The speed cameras will be placed in cars or on the side of the road. They will snap a shot of a speeding car's license plate if it exceeds a determined speed. It also will list the speed, date and time of the offense.

Police will have as many as 25 red-light cameras at various intersections on the island, said Lung, who is working with the state on the project. Several fake cameras also will be set up.

There will be about three speed cameras around the island as well, he said.

The three-year pilot project will cost offenders, but not taxpayers. The company supplying the equipment pays for the cameras and gets a cut from fines from the photo tickets.

And over time, speeding and red-light citations will decrease because of the cameras, Lung said.

"If the citations go to zero, the vendors get zero," he said.

The cameras are the latest in a series of programs and campaigns targeting unlawful drivers on Oahu.

Police announced this week that they will have unmarked police cars roaming the freeways to target drivers who speed, follow too close, execute unsafe lane changes, pass on the shoulder or drive recklessly.

The unmarked cars will radio another officer in a marked police car or motorcycle to make a traffic stop. The officer who witnessed the violation will issue the citation.

Lung said keeping reckless drivers in check will cut down on accidents, which will keep health care and auto insurance rates down for safe drivers.

"We want to get rid of them (bad drivers)," Lung said. "These people are causing the crashes."

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Ticket facts SPEEDING 10 mph over the posted speed limit: $77 15 mph over the posted speed limit: $102 25 mph over the posted speed limit: $152 41 mph and above: Decided by court Running a red light: $77 SPEEDING TICKETS ISSUED 2000: 18,424 as of June 1999: 36,193 1998: 23,745 1997: 22,491 TRAFFIC FATALITIES ON OAHU 2000: 40 deaths in 36 crashes. Speed was a factor in half of the accidents. 1999: 47 deaths in 42 crashes Source: Honolulu Police Department