If you crash your vehicle on the streets of Tucson, you could end up on YouTube.
The Tucson Police Department has uploaded videos of collisions from traffic cameras at various intersections on a YouTube channel called TucsonAZPD.
One video shows an SUV running a red light at 22nd Street and Wilmot Road and crashing into a car turning left. Another shows a pickup truck running a red light and narrowly missing an oncoming car that's midway through a left turn.
Three videos - all less than 15 seconds long - were uploaded Wednesday and had about 100 hits each as of Thursday evening.
The department is using the videos "to help promote traffic safety and the dangers that our motorists face every day particularly at intersections," said Sgt. Matt Ronstadt, a department spokesman.
No collisions associated with criminal investigations will be posted, he said, nor will drunk driving or fatal crashes.
"There may be some people that will get upset if they see a collision that they were involved in, but the intent is not to single out any driver, simply to educate the public on traffic safety," Ronstadt said. "And sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words."
The videos are so pixilated that license plates are unreadable, and they are short enough that no people are seen in the aftermath of the incidents, he said.
Anyone with a YouTube account can subscribe to the channel to receive updates every time a new video is uploaded and post comments on the page.
Under each video there's a short comment from TPD.
One message reads: "This video shows the importance of checking before turning on a yellow to make sure that all oncoming traffic is slowing to a stop."
The department plans to upload new videos periodically, starting with older ones from a pool of archived traffic videos.
Ronstadt said the YouTube channel is not a source of revenue and no advertising has been discussed.
The channel is latest online move for Tucson police.
A Facebook page and a Twitter account have been up for months, and the department uses them to release information on arrests, suspects, upcoming events and ask for help from the public identifying wanted criminals.
On StarNet: To see the videos, go to azstarnet.com/video
More online
β’youtube.com/user/TucsonAZPD
• facebook.com/TucsonPoliceDepartment
β’ Twitter: @Tucson_Police
Contact reporter Fernanda Echavarri at fechavarri@azstarnet.com or 573-4224.
