If you’re in the habit of speeding through intersections at odd times of the day, maybe put the brakes on a bit.
Because your bad habit now is being captured on camera 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at five key intersections in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows.
The Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General said Tuesday that it’s increased by four times, from six hours a day to 24 hours a day, the operating capacity for the cameras installed at 140 high-crash intersections throughout B.C.
All of those cameras began operating full-time as of last month.
Five of those cameras are in Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge, all of them along Lougheed Highway.
The farthest west of those is located at Old Dewdney Trunk Road and Lougheed Highway, where there’s an average of 70 crashes per year.
The second intersection with a red light camera is at Harris Road and Lougheed Highway, where there’s an average of 108 crashes per year.
The three other locations with red-light cameras in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows:
• Maple Meadows Way and Lougheed Highway, average of 75 crashes per year;
• 203rd Street and Lougheed Highway, average of 69 crashes per year;
• 207th Street and Lougheed Highway, average of 46 crashes per year.
According to the ministry, a driving offence occurrs when a vehicle enters the intersection when the light is red. Doing so will result in the vehicle owner getting a ticket, even if they were not driving the car. However, the driver won’t receive any demerit points on his or her licence.
Every province west of Quebec currently uses red-light cameras.
As well, 60 per cent of car collisions occur at intersections, while more than 11,000 take place each year at 140 intersections thoughout B.C. that have the red-light cameras.
Turning on the red-light cameras full-time is an interim step the ministry is taking to reduce the number of collisions. Sometime this fall, some of those cameras also will be ticketing drivers who are speeding through intersections.
