Tulsa Police cracking down on red light runners

Many Tulsa drivers have a standard joke that when a traffic light turns yellow, only three more cars can go through the intersection. The truth is running red and yellow lights is no laughing matter.

Wednesday, November 29th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Many Tulsa drivers have a standard joke that when a traffic light turns yellow, only three more cars can go through the intersection. The truth is running red and yellow lights is no laughing matter. Tulsa had more than 13,000 traffic accidents last year. People were seriously injured or killed in more than 2,200 of those accidents.

To cut down on those injuries and deaths, Tulsa Police are cracking down on red light runners. They've written more than 3,500 tickets for running red and yellow lights so far this year

Most people don't know it's just as illegal to run a yellow light as it is a red light. The fine is the same $70.
The Tulsa Police Department is looking at some new high-tech cameras that catch red-light runners red-handed. The camera takes a picture of the crime and your license plate, then you get a ticket in the mail.

Police officers hope that'll make driving less competitive and more cooperative. They say it's a simple formula. Cut down on red-light runners, and you cut down on crashes. Using the red light cameras would require a new state law, but police chief Ron Palmer is considering it along with several other products.

Tulsa already has devices at some busy intersections that allow officers sitting opposite of you, to know when you've run the red light, even if they can't see it change.