T-Bones Down, Rear Ends Up

[Ben]

AKA, the consequences of red light cameras.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/12/05/red-light-traffic-cameras-have-drivers-seeing-red/

[Scout26]

What has been discovered in other states is that municipalities reduced the yellow light times after the cameras were installed to generate more revenue.  Of course there were then more accidents at those intersections.

http://www.motorists.org/red-light-cameras/yellow-lights

[K Frame]

The point that is often ignored in that statistic, though, is that rear-end accidents generally result in FAR FEWER serious injuries and deaths due to the simple geometry of a vehicle and the human body's response to a rear-end strike vs. a T-bone.

[lupinus]

Well then that just makes it okie dookie

[dogmush]

Well then that just makes it okie dookie

According to the article total accident rates stayed pretty much the same, but there were less of the kind more likely to kill you and more of the kind more likely to not seriously hurt you. This is in fact okie dokie. Obviously it would be beret to have less total accidents, but we ain't there yet. And i say that as someone who hates red light cameras and live in a city that users them for revenue generation.

[Ben]

I mostly posted this so I could have a subject line about T-Bones and rear ends.

I fully concur that fender benders are better than injury accidents. It's still something to think about regarding unintended consequences. The targeted accident type went down, but there was an unanticipated rise in another accident type. in this case, luckily the unintended type was less severe, but it could have gone the other way as well.

[ArfinGreebly]

The good news is that at least they were not put in place to improve safety.

If they had really been put there to make things safer, the fatality rate would have gone up significantly.

Be thankful they were only put there to boost revenues.

[seeker_two]

So....this isn't the thread about the NAMBLA Annual Cookout?....

[Hawkmoon]

I fully concur that fender benders are better than injury accidents. It's still something to think about regarding unintended consequences. The targeted accident type went down, but there was an unanticipated rise in another accident type. in this case, luckily the unintended type was less severe, but it could have gone the other way as well.

Having lived with the consequences of a whiplash injury for 54 years, I have to point out that rear-end collisions are not "non-injury" accidents. Nor are T-bones necessarily "injury" accidents. Twelve years ago, the girl who was the receptionist in the office where I worked at the time ran a red light on the way to work because she was blinded by the rising sun. (Yes, I knew her route and, yes, the sun would have been in her eyes.) The timing was such that SHE got T-boned -- her Cherokee was hit on the driver's side A-pillar (the front door hinge). She was shaken up but uninjured. Her boyfriend put a junkyard door and fender on the Jeep and it was still drivable. In fact, I later bought it from her and it's parked outside right now.

The only thing absolute about absolutes is that there absolutely aren't any absolutes.