Where I Stand -- Mike O'Callaghan: Picture this: Goal is saving lives

Mike O'Callaghan is executive editor of the Sun. He is also publisher of the Henderson Home News and Boulder City News, where this column first appeared as "One Man's View."

Remember the suggestion that our county elected officials mulled over in an attempt to discourage drivers from running red traffic lights? There was such an outcry that cameras installed on certain problem intersections would be an invasion of our privacy that the whole idea died a quick death. The attacks were directed by several Las Vegas media outlets.

Last week national statistics revealed that there have been 59 fatal crashes in Nevada resulting from red-light running from 1992 to 1998. This doesn't include the hundreds that resulted in both human physical and mental damage.

We were ranked only behind Arizona in these deadly statistics. This isn't the only problem Arizona has, because other studies show them ranking No. 3 in fatalities involving drivers with invalid licenses.

Let's get back to running red lights and our No. 2 ranking in the percentage of fatal accidents resulting from them. I am yet to hear complaints about the cameras in grocery stores, banks and casinos invading our privacy. The film from the slaughter of four Albertson's employees helped make a short trial for killer Zane Floyd. Did the cameras invade his privacy or the privacy of the employees being gunned down? Are the customers of banks, stores and casinos having their privacy being invaded when they enter them for entertainment and business purposes?

Just whose privacy is being invaded by the films used to identify a gunman shooting and striking employees and customers of local businesses? Certainly some lives have been saved with the quick apprehension of men using guns in holdups.

Let's take a look at where cameras are in use to catch red-light runners. From USA Today comes the following: "Many urban areas are turning to red-light cameras to do just that. More than 40 cities have implemented red-light camera programs since 1995. The cameras, installed atop traffic signals and street lamps, take pictures of every car that runs a red light.

"Offending drivers are typically mailed a citation with a picture of the car, a description of the violation and a fee ranging from $50 to $300. Most drivers are not issued points on their licenses.

" 'It's a wonderful deterrent,' said Tom Cady, assistant police chief of Oxnard, Calif.

"Oxnard, one of the nation's first cities to implement red-light cameras, has three cameras that are rotated among 10 intersections.

"Cady said that since the city implemented the program in 1996, intersection crashes have dropped 40 percent.

" 'People slow down at the lights now because they don't know if there is a camera up there or not,' he said. 'The best enforcement is the one that discourages someone from breaking the law. That's what a camera does.' "

For some of the same reasons police checkpoints reduce the number of drunken drivers on our roads and highways.

I can't believe that the families of those who die at intersections see the cameras used to convict their killers as an invasion of privacy. So who does object to the use of cameras that may save the lives of innocent drivers or convict the killers of others? Red-light runners or safe drivers?

If cameras are acceptable in and around homes and places of business, there shouldn't be any concerns about privacy when used as a protective device on our busy public streets. Few places guarantee less privacy than busy street intersections. If traffic violators, when running red lights, keep killing and injuring Nevadans at the present rate, more and more residents will eventually view cameras as an acceptable protective device.

As the numbers in death and damage continue to mount at certain Clark County street intersections, the public will demand the use of instruments to save lives, bodies and dollars now being wasted. Opponents will find it more difficult to persuade them that cameras catching the violators on busy public streets is an invasion of their privacy. Under present conditions the safety of too many Nevadans is being threatened and violated in public view.

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