Red-light cameras could get upgrade to stop strobe effect
BROOKSVILLE – During Monday night’s City Council meeting, Rick Ballou shared his experience driving through Brooksville at night.
“These flashing lights day and night are very stressful, and very, very bad because I start to sit,” Ballou, a disabled veteran with post-traumatic delayed stress explained. “I’ll be sitting at the light and don’t know what to do.”
“I need somebody to tell me when you’re going to fix ’em … I’m not the only veteran in this town,” Ballou said.
Ballou has addressed council in the past, explaining the “flashing” from the red-light camera sensors are dangerous and distracting, and in his case can trigger flashbacks.
This week, Vice Mayor Kevin Hohn said he’d like the city to look into upgrading the red-light cameras from a standard flash to infrared flash.
“We keep hearing about the flashing lights,” Hohn said. “I think I’ve seen a dramatic decrease in the flashing lights but they’re still there.”
Hohn said he wasn’t sure of the cost or possibility of upgrading the cameras with the current contract, but wanted to “begin the discussion.”
Brooksville has a contract with Sensys for the red-light cameras. According to the company’s website, vehicles approaching an intersection are analyzed by the red-light camera’s radar. If the camera determines the vehicle is not going to stop, the camera will snap a photo of the vehicle that shows its position on the road, the red light and license plate.
A second photo is taken of vehicles that pass through the intersection during a red light, either by the same camera or a second camera at a different location at the intersection.
According to the contract between Brooksville and Sensys, signed in October 2011, the city agreed to pay Sensys $4,500 a month for the standard flash cameras. The contract shows cameras with infrared flash costs $4,600 a month.
The city legal department is reviewing the contact to determine if the switch is feasible.
The seemingly-excessive flashing of lights at some locations, including U.S. 41 at Cortez Boulevard, has been a topic of discussion during citizen input and by council members.
During the Nov. 4 meeting, City Manager Jennene Norman-Vacha said she recently met with the city’s lawyers to discuss the camera contract, and that the camera flashing is a “contractual issue” with “several solutions.”
On Oct. 21, Norman-Vacha said she was preparing a staff report on the flashing lights she hoped would be available by the next council meeting. During that same meeting, Bernardini proposed no additional cameras be installed without City Council’s approval, and that council re-examine the right on red rule.
Back in July, James C. Walker, executive director of the National Motorists Association Foundation, told Hernando Today that Brooksville’s 5-mph right-on-red rule is the lowest, “most predatory” rule he’s heard of in the United States.
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