Faced with rising traffic fatalities, Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill hopes to persuade Nevada lawmakers to allow the use of traffic cameras to stop speeders and jaywalkers.

It’s a big ask in a state that has rejected the implementation of traffic cameras for the past two decades, but McMahill, who wants to start by adding red light cameras to the 20 intersections with the “highest crash” rate in Clark County and build from there, said it’s time to act.

On Thursday, the county recorded its 135th traffic death after a speeding stolen car ran a red light at South Buffalo Drive and West Desert Inn Road and crashed into a car that was legally entering the intersection, killing the driver. The county is on track to exceed the number of traffic fatalities in 2023, with a significant increase in the number of fatal crashes caused by speeding.

“When you have to go out and deal with these things over and over again, it hurts the heart, mind, body and soul of the men and women who do this work here. And for me, it’s just too much,” McMahill said.

But beyond the privacy and equity questions that have surrounded traffic cameras since their creation, there’s a bigger question: Are they helpful?

In communities across the country, the answer is yes.

by numbers

A study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the National Conference of State Legislatures in 33 states that allow traffic safety cameras found that cameras at intersections reduced red light running by 21 percent and reduced the fatal crash rate at signalized intersections by 14 percent.

A Federal Highway Administration study supports this conclusion. It has been reported that red light cameras reduce fatal accidents involving running red lights at intersections with traffic signals by 21 percent and all types of fatal accidents by 14 percent. The study noted that red light cameras reduce side-impact crashes, but rear-end crashes, although generally less serious, may increase.

The study also stated that fixed traffic cameras focusing on a single area can prevent accidents on main arteries by 54 percent and reduce injury accidents by 47 percent. The report showed that between 2015 and 2019, the number of drivers exceeding the speed limit by 10 miles per hour or more decreased by 59 percent when cameras were used.

Speed ​​cameras in school zones have reduced speeding during school hours by 63 percent, according to the highway agency.

Clark County Commissioner Michael Naft was fascinated by the idea.

“Numerous studies have been conducted on security cameras nationally and internationally, and the data shows that they are effective when implemented properly,” Naft said. “I have every reason to believe that will be the case in Southern Nevada, reducing the number of serious injuries and deaths on our roadways.”

Naft said the cameras will not only improve safety but also prove to be potentially financially beneficial for Clark County residents.

“When you look at it through the lens of reducing the cost of auto insurance, which is increasingly unaffordable, I think you have the ability to reduce that through increased enforcement, as long as it’s set up fairly and there are protections in place for privacy, it’s a no-brainer,” he said.

Phoenix brings back traffic cameras

Nevada isn’t the only area where traffic cameras are being considered. Last month, the Phoenix City Council voted to bring red light cameras back to the city, five years after they were removed due to concerns about privacy, effectiveness and discrimination.

“The Self-Inspection Safety Program will be a valuable tool in our efforts to improve highway safety,” Phoenix Deputy Mayor Debra Stark said in a statement last month. “As Chairman of the City Council Subcommittee on Transportation, Infrastructure and Planning, I am proud to move forward with a program that will complement the work of our Vision Zero Plan and will not require additional staffing from Phoenix as we continue our work to prevent traffic fatalities. Police.”

In the first year of the program, 10 red light enforcement cameras will be added to selected intersections, and four mobile vehicles and four portable tower speed enforcement cameras will be moved to areas throughout the city where speed-related accidents are known to occur and where speeders are known to occur. The city said school districts.

The goal of the program is not to generate revenue, but to change driver behavior and assist Phoenix police in their traffic safety enforcement efforts. The program will operate on a cost recovery model, with revenue from citations used to offset costs for the city and vendors. Excess revenue will go to traffic safety programs.

In 1987, the nearby Arizona community of Paradise Valley became the first city in the country to install traffic enforcement cameras after more than 400 crashes in the town of more than 12,000 people. According to the Paradise Valley Police Department, crashes decreased by 42 percent after the first cameras were installed.

In 2013, a public safety task force called for more surveillance cameras. In 2017, after the addition of more cameras, 207 accidents were reported; this was a 50 percent decrease from the first figures reported 30 years ago.

Washington D.C. upgrades traffic cameras

Traffic camera enforcement is operating on a larger scale in Washington, D.C. The federal district currently has 477 traffic cameras, including 213 speed cameras, 140 outdoor lane cameras on school buses, 56 red light cameras and 33 stop sign cameras. Those cameras generated 3.1 million citations in the 12 months ending last month, according to the county Department of Transportation.

The department said it was too early to realize the full impact of increased traffic safety cameras but plans should be reviewed in the near term.

“As part of our Vision Zero goal, DC’s goal is to eliminate all traffic-related deaths and serious injuries on District highways,” an agency spokesperson told the Review-Journal in an email. “The District’s ATE program is a state-of-the-art, data-driven security measure that serves as a key layer in a larger security system. “Data proves these cameras slow drivers down and reduce injury crashes by 30 percent.”

The department said many of the cameras installed as part of the recent surge were prompted by requests from residents linked to safety concerns in the neighborhoods.

In September alone, 289,539 violations were recorded by traffic safety cameras in DC; 76 percent of these violations were speeding violations, 9 percent were jaywalkers, 8 percent were stop sign runners, and 6 percent were on lane (bus) cameras. your monthly total.

Multiple jurisdictions, including Baltimore and Philadelphia, have contacted the district for advice on potentially launching similar programs, according to the agency.

Local efforts track down jaywalkers

The Clark County Regional Transportation Commission’s pilot project earlier this year highlighted the problem of jaywalking by monitoring eight high-risk intersections throughout the Las Vegas Valley using artificial intelligence, cameras, sensors, predictive analytics and historical data.

In February, the project, in collaboration with the Henderson Police Department, identified more than 14,000 jaywalking incidents at the intersection of Green Valley Parkway and the 215 Freeway.

With this data, Henderson Police conducted a six-hour enforcement of the intersection in April, which resulted in 77 tickets being issued for jaywalkers.

The program identified 1,411 jaywalking incidents during a single week of tracking traffic behavior at the intersection of Spring Mountain Road and Rainbow Boulevard.

With all the data pointing to the benefits of installing various traffic cameras, Naft said there is no reason why they shouldn’t be added in Southern Nevada.

“I can’t stress this enough: the data is there,” Naft said. “There are academic studies. There are law enforcement reviews and even criminal justice reform organizations (reviews). This is a real victory. “You can leave no stone unturned when we are trying so desperately to reduce deaths on our roads.”

Contact Mick Akers at [email protected] or 702-387-2920. To follow @mickakers In X.