Joe DraegoFor the better part of two years, I have engaged ten different county supervisors, both past and present in a dialogue concerning the Big Brother, revenue-enhancing, unconstitutional, red-light traffic cameras at the Rio Road / Route 29 intersection. Like a holy mantra, these supervisors all chanted the same message: Cameras enhance our driving safety. These ten allegedly selfless servants of the people cloak themselves in the noble cape of “safety.”  Strange, thought I. I had submitted for their consideration, document after document—all accredited reports from our country and the world over, including two from the Virginia Department of Transportation. All of these reports reached the same conclusion: red-light surveillance cameras increased the number of accidents and injuries. Decreased safety. Increased danger.

Thus far, these allegedly selfless supervisors have dismissed all empirical fact and evidence submitted, not to mention my hard work. An inconvenient truth trumped by the lust for money and control. Now, the icing on the cake: A recently received document produced by the Albemarle County Police Department in response to a Freedom of Information Request, conclusively shows the traffic cameras to be injurious to the welfare of our people (see chart below).

Red-Light-Camera-Chart-600

At the Rio Road/Route 29 intersection, over a three-year period following installation of red light surveillance cameras, crashes resulting in injuries DOUBLED:  from four to eight.  Injuries to drivers TRIPLED. Injuries to passengers more than DOUBLED. Increased danger. Decreased safety.

In light of the prima facie evidence countermanding Albemarle County government’s claims of red-light surveillance camera safety benefits, can it be said that these elected public servants truly champion the people? Or are they actually caretakers of a corrupt system that has its own secret agenda:  in this case, money, power and control.

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9 COMMENTS

  2. also, last year a new guy moved into the place next door to me and this year there's been more snow than last year, so clearly my new neighbor causes snow…google the "post hoc, ergo propter hoc" fallacy please

  3. Great points, Zach. But on the Schilling Show, every liberal policy is attributed to “the lust for money and control” and general bad character.

  4. Friends, neighbors, countrymen, lend me your ears. On my sacred honor I am not a democrat, republican, liberal or conservative. I am a free man seeking the truth in so far as I can understand it. As you fellows probably know an empirical fact is an observable, provable fact. Not mere opinion or wishful thinking. I am using the same statistical methods that the county police and supervisors are using to justify camera use. What’s good for the goose should be good for the gander. Let’s be honest fellows, the human race is innately selfish. Only through the practice of higher spiritual values are we then elevated above our animal nature. Selfless or selfish.How Do you fellows assess the conduct of our local public officials?

  5. I am using the same statistical methods that the county police and supervisors are using to justify camera use.

    Zach’s, right. You have to look at previous years as well, and you have to ask if other factors (like increased texting) might account for the increase. Three years is a pretty small a sample to draw conclusions from, and crashes may have doubled, but there were still only a handful of them.

    Life is black and white, and only liberals are innately selfish. Liberals “hate” God.

  7. Go figure. Who knew that the supervisors and police chief were liberals? Who cares if they are or are not. Axes to grind do not change the facts. Changing the yellow light duration is commonly done when cameras are installed to enhance revenue collection. There are human ethics that transcend divisive name calling.

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