By Stephen J. Bronner
Seven cameras will be installed in the Five Towns sometime in the next six months, Toback said. Three will be along Peninsula Boulevard, at Rockaway Turnpike, Woodmere Boulevard and Mill Road. The other four will be installed in the Inwood-Lawrence area: at Nassau Expressway and Bay Boulevard, Nassau Expressway and Rockaway Turnpike, Austin Boulevard and Empire Boulevard, and along Long Beach Road.
“The data that was presented to us and that I studied indicates that red-light cameras help reduce the most horrible accidents, which are the right-angle accidents,” Toback said. “It shows that they create more rear-end accidents, but prevent right-angle and head-on accidents.” Yellow lights last an average of 3.5 seconds in Nassau County, he said.
Shoppers at the Peninsula Shopping Center had mixed reactions when told about the cameras, which snap photos of drivers' license plates if they head through an intersection when the light is red. “It's too many cameras in too small of an area,” said Mel Rosenberg of North Woodmere, adding that the cameras will be unfair to drivers making left turns, because the turn signals are too short. “It won't change behavior,” Rosenberg said. “It'll just create paranoia among motorists.”
Isaac Elbaz said the cameras will help create a safer environment for students at Woodmere Middle School, which is on Peninsula Boulevard between Woodmere Boulevard and Mill Road. “People come racing from Peninsula,” Elbaz said. “I think it'll help.” When drivers receive tickets, he said, they'll learn to slow down.
Legislation establishing the cameras was initially pushed by state Sen. Charles Fuschillo (R-Merrick) and County Executive Tom Suozzi in April 2007. The bill was shot down in the state assembly in 2007 and 2008, but was resuscitated earlier this year, after Suozzi announced he would use revenue from motorists ticketed for running red lights to help close the $130 million budget gap expected in 2009. According to Nassau officials, the cameras will bring the county about $3 million in 2009 and about $12 million on an annual basis.
“They will issue summonses to people who go through red lights, and we expect to generate a good amount of income from that,” Toback said. “But the flip side to that is once word gets out and we’re publicizing that they’re coming, studies have also shown that revenue decreases when people get used to them.”
Frank Trocchia, a Valley Stream resident who regularly visits the pharmacist in the Peninsula Shopping Center, has already learned the hard way. Trocchia once got a ticket from a red-light camera in New York City, which made him change his behavior, he explained. “If I see a yellow, I stop,” he said. “I don't take a chance.”
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