More red light cameras on the way at Ottawa intersections

CTV Ottawa: New red light cameras CTV’s Catherine Lathem tells us where the new Red Light Cameras are located, and how much revenue the City of Ottawa stands to gain.

Cameras currently installed    Future camera locations

It’s a campaign promise Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson is proud to keep, “a driver running a red light can seriously injure or kill someone.”

In an official announcement in Orleans, Mayor Watson says the City is installing 20 new red-light cameras in the next year-and-a-half, with five coming on board in the next few days.

One of those cameras is at the intersection of St. Joseph and Old Tenth Line Road, where several crashes, including one fatal incident have been recorded in recent years.

According to the city's statistics, there were 655 reportable angle collisions at signalized intersections in Ottawa in 2014.

“Driving through an intersection after a light has turned red is an aggressive driving behaviour,” says Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, “it contributes to Ottawa’s collision rates.”

“These new cameras will not only reduce infractions, but will also allow police to focus their attention on other enforcement needs across the city,” added Watson.

"Stats show that a number of times you cannot make it through (the intersection) and you cause serious injury, or harm to somebody else," said Sgt. Mark Gatien with the Traffic Escort and Enforcement Unit. "These will be a big benefit to us."

Gatien agrees with Mayor Watson, adding the cameras will free up officers to work on other traffic issues.

"The ideal world would have (a red-light camera) in every intersection, but then we'd have people all over us saying it's a big cash grab and it's not," said Gatien. "They have to understand it's not a cash grab. It's a safety issue. People are running red lights. We're having bad accidents there. Hopefully the camera will deter them from running a red light, even if they think they can make it and they look both ways and no big deal. It is a big deal. In fact running a yellow light is the same fine as running a red light."

Watson said the revenue gleaned from red-light cameras goes back into road safety initiatives.

In 2015, the city issued 18-thousand red light camera tickets, bringing in $3.9million.

Currently there are 34 red-light cameras in Ottawa - by the end of 2017, there will be 54.

Quebec-plated drivers still cannot be fined for blowing a red, but the City hopes to have an agreement in place by January to change that.

The other four red-light cameras being installed this year will be at Bank/Riverside, Kirkwood/Coldrey, Gladstone/Rochester and Kent/Catherine.

~with files from 580 CFRA’s Alison Sandor