More than 400 people died on Nevada roadways last year, making it one of the worst years on record for traffic fatalities. State data registered a 12 percent increase in traffic deaths in Clark County over that same period.
To emphasize that danger, family and friends who lost loved ones to vehicle crashes held a vigil in Las Vegas over the weekend.
The growing death toll on our roads isn’t new. For years, lawmakers have tried and failed to legalize traffic cameras that can automatically ticket drivers who break the law.
They’re trying again with two bills in the legislature. SB415 would legalize red light cameras in high-traffic areas. The other, AB402, would allow law enforcement to set up temporary speed cameras in construction zones.
State lawmakers banned automated traffic enforcement in 1999. Since then, there have been several attempts to repeal the ban, most recently in 2019. That bill failed to make it out of committee.
Yet, as traffic-related deaths stubbornly continue to climb, traffic safety officials are again asking policymakers to reexamine the use of traffic cameras.
That includes Las Vegas Metro Police Sheriff Kevin McMahill, who recently told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he supports the legislation. Metro Undersheriff Andy Walsh also voiced support for the cameras during a recent conversation with State of Nevada.
“Red lights and speed are two things that are killers on our roadways,” said Walsh. ”We experienced over 150 traffic fatalities [within Metro’s jurisdiction], last year. So, it's one solution to a problem. I think there's a lot of conversation that still has to be had around it, but I think there's a lot of support for it.”
Some of that support comes from groups such as the Associated General Contractors of Nevada and Families for Safe Streets.
Civil rights and consumer protection groups have concerns, chiefly, about who will administer citation enforcement and whether drivers can challenge tickets in court.
Athar Haseebullah of the ACLU of Nevada told State of Nevada he’s skeptical the cameras will change driver attitudes. He argues policymakers should take a more comprehensive approach to traffic safety.
“From a mitigation standpoint of reducing traffic fatalities and injuries… the holistic infrastructure investment, which is viewed as the most important way of addressing this issue across the board – if there was the ability for them to extend yellow lights out, and that actually gives longer warnings or impose more lights along the way to reduce the speed that people are picking up during intersections – but there's no infrastructure investment associated with this,” said Haseebullah.
The measures are currently before lawmakers in the Senate and Assembly Growth and Infrastructure Committees, respectively. That means each bill must clear both chambers of the and get the governor’s approval before becoming law.
Guest: Athar Haseebullah, executive director, ACLU of Nevada
