By Nia Bender
COLORADO SPRINGS – Red light cameras are a controversial topic in Colorado Springs. So much so, that they were removed for about seven years. Now the cameras are coming back with a vengeance and expanding into several new areas. The city tried out the cameras in 2010 and the program ended when then-Mayor Steve Bach concluded that it wasn’t worth the expense of the three police officers needed to monitor the system and the project was killed after less than a year of starting.
Fast forward to 2020 and Colorado Springs is adding even more red-light cameras than ever before. Two of them are scheduled for activation on Friday morning at the intersections of Austin Bluffs Parkway and N.Academy Blvd. and E. Platte Ave. and N. Murray Blvd. The city is giving drivers 30-days to get used to the cameras and then they’ll start issuing $75 tickets to violators. The police department has set up seven other red-light cameras at different intersections in an attempt to increase safe driving on city streets.
Fatal accidents in El Paso County have absolutely soared so far in 2020. It’s an unfortunate trend that’s being seen statewide. Motorcyclist deaths are the highest they’ve been in decades. The first two months of the year started out normally and then in March, at about the same time that COVID-19 shut the state down, crashes rose dramatically and they continue to do so.
According to CDOT, fatal accidents have risen some 20% in El Paso County so far this year.
