More Locals Nabbed by Red-Light Cameras

It turns out more local motorists received tickets in 2011 via Gloucester Township's red-light camera enforcement program than the program's operator had previously indicated.

American Traffic Solutions Inc. (ATS), upon receiving a request for clarification by Gloucester Township Patch, recently acknowledged that a piece of data it provided in early March was inaccurate. The firm withdrew its earlier assertion that 98 percent of motorists cited in 2011 for violating state red-light laws at the four controlled intersections along Blackwood Clementon Road were driving vehicles registered outside of Gloucester Township.

The Arizona-based company erroneously used ZIP codes from Gloucester City when compiling the information for Gloucester Township's program. ATS sent out the data as part of a March 12 media release that provided a host of information from 2011 for six of the 17 New Jersey towns where it does business.

ATS recently provided a breakdown of the towns where vehicles were registered at the time those driving them were issued tickets as a result of the red-light cameras at the four intersections in 2011.

The top 10 were:

1. Blackwood - 2,039

2. Sicklerville - 1,579

3. Clementon - 1,450

4. Philadelphia - 1,070

5. Pine Hill - 802

6. Lindenwold - 778

7. Camden - 677

8. Erial - 559

9. Berlin - 484

10. Sewell - 463

ATS reports that more than 21,000 red-light tickets were issued through the township's red-light program in 2011. A total of 10 cameras are operational at four intersections along Blackwood Clementon Road—at Little Gloucester, Millbridge and Erial roads and at Cherrywood Drive.

ATS stands behind the data it provided regarding significant reductions in red-light violations when comparing January 2011 and December 2011 statistics for the four intersections.

At the intersection of Blackwood-Clementon and Millbridge roads, red-light offenses fell by 73 percent when comparing the two months. The results were not as significant at other intersections when comparing data from the two months: 37 percent reduction at Blackwood Clementon Road and Cherrywood Drive; 34 percent reduction at Little Gloucester and Blackwood-Clementon roads; and a 28 percent reduction at Erial and Blackwood-Clementon roads.

ATS also reports that red-light violators in Gloucester Township learned their lesson the first time they were ticketed, with 89 percent of offenders receiving only one ticket in 2011.

A February report by Gloucester Township Patch found that the township had brought in a total of $2,529,685 in fines from the program's inception in July 2010 through Jan. 30, with more than $1.3 million of that finding its way into the township's coffers.