Two new red-light camera approaches added as City continues successful safety program
KINGSPORT – Two new red-light safety camera approaches will be added to Kingsport’s traffic safety program starting Thursday monitoring the westbound lanes of West Stone Drive and Netherland Inn Road and eastbound lanes of West Stone and University Boulevard.
Implemented four years ago, Kingsport has realized more than a 60 percent reduction in safety camera violations since the start of the program.
“There has been considerable and justified debate concerning traffic safety cameras over the past few years at the local, state and national level,” Kingsport Deputy Police Chief David Quillin said Wednesday. “And most of that debate centered on the proper penalty and conditions for deployment of safety cameras, but not the central fact, which remains the same, and that is traffic safety cameras work.”
In Kingsport, positive changes in driving practices have occurred despite safety monitoring at only 3 percent of 390 red light approaches in Kingsport.
Kingsport’s original RedFlex contract covered up to 10 intersections, a number which Kingsport will reach with the two new intersections. However, not every “approach” of every intersection is monitored at these intersections.
Meanwhile, Quillin also noted that Tennessee’s new safety camera law does not permit citing a motorist through electronic means for making a right turn on red without coming to a complete stop.
“We do think this change confuses the traffic code to some degree,” Quillin said. “Existing law remains that a motorist must come to a complete stop on red before making a right turn on red, and our road officers will continue to keep a keen eye out for this type of violation.”
Overall, Quillin said the Kingsport Police Department continues to evaluate traffic safety enforcement techniques and the results of those efforts.
“We feel we have made great strides in making Kingsport a safer place for the motoring public, and red-light safety cameras have played an important role in those improvements,” Quillin said. “The west end of the City along Stone Drive is an area we have been looking at for some time for safety camera deployment, bringing geographic balance and a reduction in the potential for accidents.”