Think twice about running light

By The News Virginian Staff

Published: May 15, 2008

Running red lights appears to have become a Charlottesville tradition. Not one day goes by that I do not see someone running a red light, not just as it turns red, but two, three, four, even five seconds after a full red light.

Personally, I have learned that you cannot move into an intersection as soon as a light turns green – that you have to wait two, three, four, even five seconds because there is a good chance that someone will run the light. However, a 16-year-old new driver does not have that experience. She may actually believe that other drivers will follow one of the most fundamental principles of driving: stop when the light turns red. This potential tragedy became a real one on May 9.

I’m sure these people running red lights are otherwise law-abiding citizens – parents, sisters, brothers, teachers – who are not trying to hurt anyone, but how many tragedies do we have to experience before these people realize that they are playing a form of Russian Roulette? Is saving a few seconds or even minutes worth the potential harm of an accident?

I naively believed that the death of a young woman might cause some drivers to think twice before running a light, but I was wrong. Just this morning, in my 20-minute commute, I saw at least three cars go through red lights at major intersections. The police need to step up their enforcement of red-light running. But more importantly, people need to ask themselves how many tragedies will it take: two, three, four, even five.

Brian Nagel

Crozet