{"id":24391,"date":"2024-09-12T06:35:02","date_gmt":"2024-09-12T10:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=24391"},"modified":"2024-09-12T06:35:02","modified_gmt":"2024-09-12T10:35:02","slug":"residents-ask-for-action-on-red-light-runners-at-brick-intersections-no-return-of-cameras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2024\/09\/residents-ask-for-action-on-red-light-runners-at-brick-intersections-no-return-of-cameras\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents Ask for Action on Red-Light Runners at Brick Intersections; No Return of Cameras"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The intersection of Route 88 and Van Zile Road. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

A pair of Brick residents asked the township council this week for increased enforcement of red light violators at a number of prominent intersections, saying the number of drivers running red lights has grown out of control.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an epidemic of people running red lights,\u201d resident Dennis Veltri told council members. \u201cLiterally every day on the roads I see it happen \u2013 on the way here tonight, I saw it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Veltri and fellow resident Linda Ackerburg asked if police could refocus traffic safety efforts on red lights and, if possible, bring back red light enforcement cameras that had been present in town years ago.<\/p>\n

The return of red light cameras is an impossibility in New Jersey, said Township Attorney Kevin Starkey. Brick, under a previous mayoral administration, chose to participate in a pilot program that tested the use of red light enforcement cameras in a number of municipalities across the state. The cameras, in Brick, were deeply unpopular among residents and their removal was a major promise made by former mayor John Ducey during his first campaign to lead the township.<\/p>\n

Brick, under an order from Ducey, was the first town in New Jersey to voluntarily end participation in the camera program, leading to significant media attention and a statewide push to eliminate the cameras elsewhere. The election promise was delivered only months after the new mayor took office. After the statewide pilot program was completed, then-Gov. Chris Christie did not re-authorize its continuance, and such cameras remain illegal in New Jersey to this day.<\/p>\n

\u201cMayor Ducey was the first [mayor] the discontinue that program,\u201d said Starkey. \u201cThat\u2019s not an option for the town.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, officials suggested the residents work with the police department \u2013 specifically, the department\u2019s Neighborhood Watch officer \u2013 to identify intersections of concern.<\/p>\n

Ackerburg said she encounters daily red-light runners at a number of intersections, including Princeton Avenue and Post Road, Burnt Tavern Road and Maple Avenue, and Burnt Tavern and Route 70.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe police department does selective enforcement, and that\u2019s what they do when they\u2019re out on the road all the time,\u201d said Business Administrator Joanne Bergin, explaining that officers listen to concerns of residents during the Neighborhood Watch program meetings and often deploy focused enforcement on areas identified as being hazardous.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like it\u2019s happening every time we\u2019re on the road and it seems very dangerous,\u201d said Ackerburg. \u201cIt seems like 90 percent of the time I\u2019m at that light (Princeton and Post), people are going through the light on 88, and it\u2019s very scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A pair of Brick residents asked the township council this week for increased enforcement of red light violators at a number of prominent intersections, saying the number of drivers running red lights has grown out of control. \u201cThere is an epidemic of people running red lights,\u201d resident Dennis Veltri told council members. \u201cLiterally every day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[24,4484,722],"class_list":["post-24391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-police-fire-courts","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-featured","tag-red-light-cameras"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/route_88_van_zile_brick_003.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-6lp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}