A recent San Antonio accident caused injuries to one female motorist. According to News 4 San Antonio, it is believed the collision occurred when a driver ran a red light.  Motorists have a legal obligation to obey traffic signals, including stopping at a red light, in order to prevent collisions like this one. Unfortunately, many drivers fail to stop. If you or a loved one is injured by a red light runner, call a personal injury lawyer for help ensuring a claim for compensation.

Prevention of red light accidents is essential, as there are hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries each year that result from red light collisions. National Stop on Red Week is one part of the effort to reduce the number of red light running collisions.

National Stop on Red Week

The National Coalition for Safer Roads (NCSR) has organized National Stop on Red Week with the goal of educating the public about the scope of the risks that go along with running a red. According to the NCSR, there are around 8,700 fatalities in intersection accidents each year.

The Federal Highway Administration has specific details and statistics on the number of people who are killed in collisions when a red light has been run. For example:

• In 2008, 762 people died when they were involved in a motor vehicle collision caused by failure to stop at a red light.
• Annually, there are around 165,000 injuries that occur when drivers do not stop at red lights.
• In around half of all fatal accidents that occur when a driver runs a red light, the victim is not the person who failed to obey the traffic signal.
• One out of every three people report that they know someone who was either injured or killed in a collision that occurred after a driver ran a red light.

So many people are injured or hurt because there are far too many motorists running red lights. The NCSR published a report on red light violations after obtaining data from 20 states. According to the report:

• There were 570,122 red light violations recorded by traffic cameras on Fridays in 2013. Friday was the day of the week with the highest number of red light violations.
• There were 439,323 red light violations recorded by traffic cameras on Sundays in 2013. Sunday was the day of the week with the lowest number of red light violations.
• Around 1/3 of all red light violations occurred between the hours of 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. During this time, there were more than a million red light violations recorded in 2013.

The NCSR has encouraged all drivers to Take the Pledge during National Stop on Red Week, which took place from August 3-9 in 2014. The Pledge is a promise to obey the rules of the road and not to go through red lights.

The Federal Highway Administration also has suggestions for other activities during National Stop on Red Week including:

• Press conferences on the statistics about red light violations and related accidents and deaths.
• School events where kids wear red.
• Slides at movie theaters to encourage drivers to Stop Running Red Lights.
• Political activism to convince politicians to impose tougher penalties for running a red.

Hopefully, activities like these will raise awareness and fewer red light accidents will occur.

Contact a San Antonio accident lawyer at the Herrera Law Firm. Call 800-455-1054 for a free case consultation.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 21st, 2014 at 6:32 pm and is filed under Car Accidents. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.