Federal Heights adding traffic, red light cameras after fatal crashes
“What we really want is for people to slow down. If we can save one life by doing something like this, it’s worth it.”
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Federal Heights officials will install traffic cameras to catch people speeding and running red lights in response to “out of control” driving that’s caused multiple fatal crashes, city leaders said Thursday.
The Federal Heights City Council this week unanimously approved an ordinance to add cameras at four locations, City Manager Jacqueline Halburnt said.
City officials were already working on implementing the system this year, but a series of fatal crashes added even more urgency, Halburnt said.
“Unfortunately it’s not just Federal Heights, it’s the whole north metro where speeding and running red lights is just out of control,” she said.
Halburnt referred to a crash in January where a driver hit a pedestrian on the sidewalk, killing her, and a crash in July where the driver died after crashing into utility poles at such a high speed that the car broke in half. Both occurred on 92nd Avenue.
The “automated vehicle identification system” will track drivers at the intersections of Federal Boulevard and Pine Street; Federal Boulevard and 92nd Avenue; 92nd Avenue and Tejon Street; and 84th Avenue and Huron Street near Pinnacle Charter School.
“Each one of those is in a place where we’ve had terrible crashes,” Federal Heights Police Chief Bob Grado said. “We’ve got to slow people down. For whatever reason in that corridor, coming down that hill, people speed like crazy.”
Officers frequently patrol the area looking for speeding drivers, but the new system will be on duty 24 hours a day, Grado said.
Drivers will pay fines up to $40 for speeding – $80 in school zones – and $75 for running a red light if caught by the system, according to the ordinance. The tickets won’t count as points against their driver’s license.
City officials will also put up signs in the area warning drivers of the traffic cameras. The cameras will be installed in April at the earliest, Halburnt said.
Federal Heights will pay a monthly fee to Verra Mobility for the system – between $5,000 and $6,000 per camera depending on if the intersection also has a red light monitor, Grado said. City officials estimate revenue from ticket fines will more than cover the cost of the program.
“We don’t want this to be punitive,” Halburnt said. “What we really want is for people to slow down. If we can save one life by doing something like this, it’s worth it.”
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