Lights, CAMERAS, Action!

Since this has become such a hot topic lately, of course, I must weigh in. I learned about these cameras several years ago. I contacted all of the cities that had installed photo cameras in their cities. At that time these cities included: Paradise Valley, Scottsdale, Tempe, Phoenix and Chandler. I wanted to obtain some of these photos to use in the "Caught on Tape" segment of the "How is Your Driving?" show. All of the cities except Scottsdale gave me the run around. Through two officers at that time working for the Scottsdale Police Department, they actually gave me video footage to use for the show.

With that said, I never really was a "fan" of the cameras because they do not PREVENT speeding or red light running. As I said in a previous article "I don't mind hitting motorist that violate the law in the wallet; but, I also want to hit them in the head!" I want to adjust their attitude about speeding, running red lights and obeying all driving laws and rules.

Red Flex Traffic Systems a Scottsdale Arizona based company at that time served the above mentioned cities. They installed and monitored the photo systems these cities used. To give you an idea of the amount of money that was being made lets look at this one example. Red Flex would from just one of these cities would earn about $60,000 a month! But the city would take in an estimated $780,000 in one month from around 6,000 traffic violators!

So when the former Governor learned of this and how much money was being made she did not hesitate to put cameras on the highways; her motive was to use the funds to relieve the state of its debt! She did not bite her tongue about her intentions. Therefore, she didn't give a damn about the speeders except that if you were going to speed then you were going to bail the state out of it's debt!

As an advocate for save driving, saving lives and reducing collisions I say its better than nothing. I would think that DPS is correct, that collisions are down because of the cameras. Some people just can't afford to keep on getting tickets. Other people may have the attitude of not giving a damn and will not pay them as many people have decided to do. But when it comes time to register your vehicle what will you do then? One woman in another state let her traffic fines amount to over $19,000! She is now doing time in jail, prison if you will! The bottom line people are still dieing from automobile collisions. Speed kills! Once you get over a certain speed you are suspect to losing control of your vehicle and of course once you loose control of your vehicle you're now on a roller-coaster ride and on your way to killing yourself and others.

I say act responsibly, obey the driving rules and laws. Choose life over death!

I was thinking about these two youth that were killed by Phoenix drivers. The young lady was killed while crossing the streets from her school. The driver did try to save her by doing CPR.
The young man was hit on his bicycle by a driver that hit him and ran. The following day the young man died. In comparing the deaths of motor vehicles to the deaths in a WAR like Iraq; the war on motor vehicle collisions is more devastating! The people in Iraq know that they are in a fight! The pedestrians, bicyclist, joggers, wheel chair riders and other drivers are not aware of a fight.
But yet, crossing the streets in any city in America is often times the end of that persons days. More people die from so-called motor vehicles "accidents" in one year in the United States of America than in an actual war in Iraq! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? What the hell is wrong with this picture?

There were 1,066 traffic fatalities in 2007 in the state of Arizona. In 2006 1,293 traffic fatalities occurred in Arizona. Between 2001 and 2005 there were 3,437 people that died from traffic fatalities in Arizona. What is going on? I read one statistic that stated in 1997 traffic fatalities were the fifth leading cause of death in the Western States of the U.S. What bothers me about this is TRAFFIC COLLISIONS ARE PREVENTABLE! This means that they do not need to happen! So why are all of these people dieing from automobile collisions? Are we at WAR? Is there a war going on? If one state averages 1,000 deaths per year from automobile collisions would not this motivate folks to do something to prevent this? What are you doing to prevent from becoming the next victim?

Welcome to AZ Driving

I will begin with an apology and that is for coming to the party late! I should have been here years ago; however, it's not too late. I own a small production company in Arizona. After having so many bouts with bad drivers in Phoenix I clearly knew that Arizona drivers needed help. I decided to provide that help in the form of a television show, the "How is Your Driving?" program. While I was doing my research for the show I learn that three cities in Arizona (Phoenix, Mesa and Tucson) were number 1, 3 and 5 in the country for Red Light Running, Speeding and Fatalities! Since that time the numbers are pretty much the same. Every night on any given local news show you will hear about some automobile collision involving a pedestrian.

Currently, in Arizona all the attention is being focused on photo enforcement. The former Governor decided to use photo enforcement cameras on the states highways to ticket speeders but her main objective was to use the funds to relieve the state of its debt! Now that she's gone the "speeders" along with others want the cameras removed.

Again, I apologize for being late but I hope to keep the party going strong. I would like to hear from you on these and other topics concerning AZ Driving.

Peace