Red Light; Green Light

Hannah Cooper November 20, 2019

Red Light; Green Light

“Crash!” “Screech!” The sensation stunned everyone in the car, including me. Once we got out of the car, we saw that the front of our car was totaled. This happened when we were on our way to a barbeque at our church, and we thought everything was fine until that crash. Everyone was unharmed, though a little shaken, but we all wondered what happened. Later, we found out that while we had a green light, someone else who had a blinking yellow light ran through it without yielding, causing the crash.

This scenario is not uncommon, beings that according to www.marksandharrison.com in their article “Causes of Car Accidents: Disobeying Traffic Signals in Virginia” last accessed on November 20, 2019, “Reported in the findings of an eight-year study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there were on average 1,578 fatalities each year resulting from two-vehicle traffic crashes at intersections controlled by traffic signals.” This is 1,578 too many, and this isn’t counting injuries! Yes, we might be running late to an appointment or to school or what-have-you, but if we aren’t careful, that number will rise. The flipside to this is that we have a chance to lower that number.

Obeying traffic lights will not only be beneficial to our fellow man, but it will also be beneficial to us financially. According to Andy Medici from the Washington Business Journal in his article “The District Raked In a Record $199M In Fines Last Year. It’s Almost all From Traffic.” On January 6, 2017, “11.5 million came from red light fines…”, and according to www.traviscountytx.gov, the fine for running a red light/stop sign is $149.90, and if you include this with the court costs ($107.10), you have a whopping $257.00 to pay. How many of us want to pay that much for our actions? Unfortunately, as seen above, we do pay that price. The good news is that there are things we can do to avoid the fines and the fatalities, and they’re very simple.

First, never be in a hurry! If you have somewhere to be, leave the house early enough so that when you’re hitting every red light on your route, you won’t be freaking out and tempted to run the light. This will benefit you financially, physically, and perhaps emotionally.

Finally, be aware of your surroundings! I can speak from experience that if you aren’t paying attention to the lights, you will not see them, and you will run the risk of running through a red light. I was driving to my work in Sherwood, and I was going through a school zone. Now, usually, there isn’t a traffic light in a school zone, but this one was the exception. I had often seen it, and it was always green, so I naturally assumed that it was green this time. Unfortunately, it wasn’t, and my dad, who was riding with me at the time, had to bring that to my attention urgently. While it wasn’t an intersection, there was a crosswalk, and if there was someone walking through it, I would’ve most likely hit them. Being aware of your surroundings will make the difference between life and death not only for you, but for a pedestrian or another driver.

These two principles will make the difference between you in the hospital or the court, and you being safely at your destination. This understanding is also applicable to everyone on the road. So the next time you’re tempted to sneak through a red light, stop and think, because your actions will determine whether someone else will get injured/killed or not.

Works Cited

“Causes of Car Accidents: Disobeying Traffic Signals in Virginia”. www.marksandharrison.com. © 2019 Marks & Harrison. Last Accessed November 20, 2019.

Medici, Andy. “The District Raked In a Record $199M In Fines Last Year. It’s Almost All From Traffic.”. www.bizjournals.com. Washington Business Journal. Published January 6, 2017, 2:38pm EST. Last updated January 6, 2017, 2:54pm EST.

“Traffic Ticket Fines & Court Costs”. www.traviscountytx.gov. © 2019 Travis County. Last accessed November 20, 2019.