The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
Steven Barker
In Wednesday’s paper, two letter writers (Mark and Sherilyn) wrote something I totally agree with: Red-light running is getting completely out of hand. The Tucson City Council made a big mistake allowing the voters to decide to remove the red-light cameras. Now the Tucson drivers think they have the right to run red lights. Daily on the news there is a report of an accident most likely caused by a red-light runner. Mostly at big intersections like Craycroft and Broadway for example. There are others.
How many accidents need to happen, how many injuries, how many deaths before the Tucson City Council wakes up to the fact that this was a big mistake? One death was too many! I myself have had three near misses because of red-light runners. I have seen runners cross right in front of cops who were in front with a green light and who did absolutely nothing about it. I’ve seen this twice!
The reason the voters gave for voting the cameras out was, “It’s an invasion of my privacy”! Well people, when you are driving in the public eye, there is no privacy. If you want privacy maybe you should try staying home. Our streets will be a lot safer for it.
There is only one way to fix this problem. That is to put the cameras back up. All ten of them and then add ten more to that. Then, maybe in a year or so, add ten more cameras. God knows we have plenty of dangerous intersections here in Tucson to justify them.
No one has the right to run a red light. No one has that right to cause the damage, the injuries, and the deaths that the red-light runners cause. If making you obey the law is an inconvenience to you, that’s too bad. I don’t give a rat’s butt about your inconvenience and nobody else should either. If there is some place you need to be by a certain time, then maybe you should try leaving a little sooner, Or would that be an inconvenience to you? Not my problem.
All right, members of the Tucson City Council, it’s time to make a decision with the city’s safety in mind. No more roundabouts, no more Michigan left turns. Nobody likes those anyway and they are just a waste of taxpayers’ dollars.
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