By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Motorists who pass through the intersection at Route 1 and Bakers Basin Road and Franklin Corner Road should be prepared to smile, just in case they are captured by the camera that is going to be placed there.
Lawrence Township has been chosen to take part in the state Department of Transportation’s Red Light Running Automated Enforcement Program, Municipal Manager Richard Krawczun told Township Council last week.
The township applied to take part in the pilot program last summer, and learned in a Jan. 29 letter that its application had been approved. The next step is for Township Council to adopt an ordinance to implement the program and then to seek bids from a vendor to operate the camera, Mr. Krawczun said.
“(The vendor) may install the equipment at their expense, and we get some of the revenue,” he said. The fine for running a red traffic light is $85, but there are no points attached to the driver’s motor vehicle record.
The vendor would forward the photographs to the Lawrence Township Police Department, which may issue a traffic ticket if it is determined that the car did not stop for the red traffic signal, Mr. Krawczun said.
The traffic ticket would be sent to the registered owner of the car, based on the photograph of the license plate. The driver would not be ticketed because taking a photograph of the driver is not allowed, he said.
“This is our highest (accident) intersection,” Mr. Krawczun said of the Route 1/Bakers Basin Road/Franklin Corner Road intersection. Bakers Basin Road is on the east side of Route 1 and Franklin Corner Road is on the west side.
There were 88 accidents at that intersection in 2007 and 36 accidents in 2008, according to the Lawrence Township Police Department records.
