Tulsa Police Crack Down On Traffic Light Violators

Tulsa traffic cops will be cracking down on red- and yellow-light violators.

Police say traffic increases during the holiday season so starting Monday, they'll be doing what they can to cut down on the number of crashes.

"Fifty-first Street, 61st, 71st and 81st are really high areas where we have collisions," Cpl. Brian Collum said.

Collum said some of those intersections along Memorial are listed on the city's top 20 most dangerous intersections each year.

State Farm Insurance has named 51st and Memorial and 71st and Memorial as two of the most dangerous in the nation.

"People are in a hurry anymore," Collum said. "People are always wanting to get somewhere fast, it's just a matter of being in a hurry."

Collum said drivers are in such a hurry these days that they tend to ignore the basic traffic laws, like red lights.

"Failure to yield left turn, turning left on a red light instead of using the arrow or a green light, so we have a lot of collisions and typically those are a lot of injury-type collisions.

It's an issue that the Mingo Valley Traffic Unit is taking seriously, focusing all their efforts on red light runners for the next week.

"We're gonna hit those intersections at random," Collum said. "We're not gonna let people know when we're doing them."

Collum said officers won't be handing out any warnings, so if you're caught running a red light, you'll be hit with a $200 ticket, no questions asked.

On top that, there will also be no tolerance for those who break yellow light laws.

"If the light's green and it turns yellow before you enter the intersection and you go through the intersection anyway, then you're in violation," Collum said. "A yellow light is warning you to clear the intersection."

That violation would cost you $150.

The Red Light Enforcement starts Monday and lasts through Friday.

About 10 officers will be honing in on those major intersections along South Memorial Drive.