By Debby Woodin
dwoodin@joplinglobe.com
It might be just as well that Joplin decided not to use red-light cameras, especially if the city had gone with Springfield’s system for handing the resulting traffic tickets.
The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out the Springfield system.
“This is a $100 case. But sometimes, it’s not the money — it’s the principle,” Judge Mark Fitzsimmons wrote in the court’s unanimous decision.
The court said Missouri cities, with the exception of Kansas City and St. Louis, are required to take all moving violations to a court rather than dealing with them in administrative hearings.
In the Springfield case, Adolph Belt Jr., a 30-year veteran of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, was issued a notice that his car had been photographed running a red light. Belt, described in the court opinion as a traffic expert, timed the yellow light at the intersection in question and “found that it was rather quick.” He also contended that the traffic signal and the cameras needed to be synchronized.
Belt’s challenge was denied by the hearing examiner in his case and, since it was an administrative procedure, he also was denied a chance to have his concerns heard in court. He was fined $100.
Missouri’s high court wrote in the opinion that Springfield’s ordinance allowing the red-light cameras was barred by Section 479.010 of Missouri law.
Some cities have been joining with private companies to install the camera systems, bypass courts and split the proceeds of the tickets, which in most cases carry a $100 fine. Because the tickets are handled in administrative instead of judicial proceedings, though, they don’t go on a driver’s license record or against a motorist’s insurance policy.
A similar system was proposed last year to the Joplin City Council, which rejected it after some consideration.
The council in February 2009 heard a proposal from a private company, Red Speed USA, of Chicago, Ill., to install cameras at specific intersections and to issue tickets to the people listed on the tag registration as the owners of the autos that failed to stop at traffic signals. The company would issue $100 fines for civil violations and would pay the city $55 from each ticket.
After the council nixed the proposal, Joplin police conducted a traffic enforcement campaign to call attention to red-light violations. Officers stationed at various points on Range Line Road wrote 17 tickets in a few days. The department had written 73 tickets in the months of January and February last year.
Joplin’s assistant public works director, Jack Schaller, said Tuesday that the city is working with the Missouri Department of Transportation to decide whether to go to a system in which traffic signals would turn red in all directions for one or two seconds before changing to green for some lanes. He said half of the signaled intersections in the city belong to Joplin and half belong to the state.
That approach, he said, could prevent accidents caused by motorists running red lights.
About 30 Missouri communities use cameras to catch violations at traffic signals, but no other city relies on an administrative enforcement procedure like Springfield’s, said Scott Charton, a spokesman for American Traffic Solutions Inc., which supplies most of the traffic light cameras used in Missouri.
In Springfield, the city quit using its red-light cameras within hours of the high court’s ruling, said city spokeswoman Louise Whall. She said city leaders have not decided whether to start a red-light enforcement program under new procedures.
Whall said the ruling also may affect Springfield’s administrative procedure for handling other municipal ordinances, including tickets for alcohol violations or dangerous buildings.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Joplin lights
Joplin’s yellow lights are set to last three or four seconds, depending on posted speed limits, said Jack Schaller, assistant public works director. That is consistent with recommendations by the National Motorists Association Foundation.
