With the start of school, the Marietta Police Department is supporting National Stop on Red Week, taking place Aug. 2-8.
Sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration, this week is dedicated to educating the community about the dangers of running red lights to reduce the number and severity of crashes.
Red-light running is the leading cause of urban crashes, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
The National Coalition for Safer Roads (NCSR) advocates for the use of red-light safety cameras to help enforce laws regarding red lights, speeding and school bus stop-arms in communities across America.
Nationwide, more than 3.7 million drivers ran a red light in 2014, mainly during peak summer travel periods and mostly in the afternoons and on Fridays.
NCSR's best practices are:
- Practice caution.
- Stay focused.
- Limit distractions.
- Ensure all passengers are buckled up.
- Give yourself plenty of time and distance to react to traffic around you.
- Drive the speed limit.
- Stop at all red lights.
The Top 10 Reasons to Stop on Red, according to NCSR, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, are:
1. Red-light running is dangerous.
2. Between 2004 and 2013, an estimated 7,799 people were killed from red-light running incidents.
3. The cost to society of all crashes exceeds $230 billion annually.
4. One in three Americans knows someone who has been injured or killed in a red-light running crash.
5. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for children age 4 and the second leading cause of death for children ages 3 and 5 to 14.
6. About half of the deaths in red-light running crashes are pedestrians, bicyclists and occupants in other vehicles that are hit by the red-light runners.
7. In 2013, more than 697 people were killed and an estimated 127,000 were injured in crashes that involved red-light running.
8. Motorists in urban areas are more likely to be injured in crashes involving red-light running than in any other type of crash.
9. Red-light runners are more than three times as likely as other drivers to have multiple speeding convictions on their driver records.
10. More than 36 percent of drivers continue to run red lights and take risks despite the fact that 55 percent of the participants said it is a very serious threat and 73 percent acknowledged that running red lights is unacceptable.
To further emphasize the dangers of red-light running during Stop on Red Week 2015, NCSR is launching an interactive map on Aug. 5 which showcases the number of traffic fatalities caused by red-light running across the United States from 2004 to 2013.
The fatalities will be mapped to the city, state and intersection, where someone's life was taken by a collision involving red-light running.
With release of the map, NCSR hopes to mobilize others across the nation to share the map on social media, change their profile pictures to the Stop on Red icon and pledge to Stop on Red by signing the petition.
NCSR also is encouraging people to show their support via social media, using the hashtag #StoponRed2015.
For more information about NCSR's Stop on Red Week daily activities and ways to get involved, visit www.StopOnRedWeek.com.
