Accident provides example for traffic safety campaign

Law enforcement officials were at the corner of Craig Road and Rainbow Boulevard Thursday to make a point about traffic safety.

But 15 minutes before their news conference was to get under way, the point was made for them when a driver of a pickup failed to yield on a left turn in the intersection and struck an approaching car.

Neither driver was hurt, but Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie said the incident symbolized the growing problem of people failing to obey traffic signals in the Las Vegas Valley.

Gillespie and representatives from Henderson and North Las Vegas police departments were kicking off the Red Means Stop campaign in hopes that heightened public awareness will change behavior.

The message is slow down, pay attention and wear seat belts, Gillespie said.

"I'm going to be quite honest with you folks, we haven't seen that level of awareness strike home."

The department hopes to join with North Las Vegas police in a data collection project that involves putting cameras at two undisclosed Las Vegas intersections, Gillespie said.

The program, which would be led by North Las Vegas police, would involve putting two cameras within their jurisdiction too. No tickets or disciplinary action would be brought against drivers caught on camera disobeying traffic laws, North Las Vegas Police Chief Mark Paresi said. The cameras would be there to gather information.

North Las Vegas officials will discuss the proposal Sept. 5, and Paresi thinks authorities finally have the momentum and public support to get the program approved.

The goal will be to measure the magnitude of the problem of drivers disobeying traffic signals, Paresi said. The results of the program would be presented to the Legislature in 2009 in hopes of gathering support for cameras at intersections.

At this year's Legislature, a bill failed that would have allowed police to use cameras to gather evidence to cite motorists for traffic violations.

"We didn't get what we wanted before, but we're not giving up," Paresi said.

Fatal accidents from failure to obey traffic control devices have increased in the Metropolitan Police Department's jurisdiction this year. Fifteen out of the 101 traffic fatalities that occurred between January and July of 2007 were because of disregard for traffic controls. In 2006, six such fatalities occurred.

With crowded and construction-filled roadways, Gillespie acknowledged the city's infrastructure contributes to traffic fatalities. When people are delayed, they often end up going faster, he said.

Gillespie said city's rapid population growth and the weather could factor into the mix. People think that just because it's sunnier here than where they came from, they don't need to pay attention to road conditions, he said.

A young man involved in Thursday's collision at the intersection moved here from Idaho a few weeks ago and said the roads in Las Vegas were more crowded.

Drivers are being distracted by cell phones, dashboard GPS systems and satellite radios, Gillespie said.

Las Vegas police have stepped up the number of citations they have issued for disregarding traffic laws. Last year, 6,798 citations were written. In the first half of 2007, 8,098 tickets were issued.

The news conference was held at the site of the first fatal accident in 2007, which occurred just 15 minutes into the new year. A 55-year-old woman died where Rainbow and Craig intersects after failing to yield at the signal.

Frank Ziska, a worker at the nearby Arco AM PM wasn't surprised at Thursday's accident. Having worked at the gasoline station since December 1998, Ziska said he has seen lots of wrecks.

"Every two weeks people rush through that turn. If they'd just take down that yield on green sign and make it its own light, I don't think it would happen," he said.