Thornton gives the right of way for red light cameras

Along a busy intersection in the northern part of the Denver metro area at 88th Avenue and Washington Streets, Teresa De Jesus Aceves Pena has been serving up fresh elote dishes for the last three years.

"This is a heavily trafficked area, and there are a lot of accidents," said Pena in Spanish, referring to the intersection in Thornton.

Pena says that while serving their customers, they have also witnessed all the dangers that have taken place on the road.

"Lots. Lots," she said.

"Part of it is quite frankly people's driving behavior since 2020. They've in some ways lost their minds out there on the roads and are just not paying attention or heeding the things that need to happen," said Paul Hawkins, Deputy Chief for the Administration Division of the Thornton Police Department.

Hawkins says that is why police and city leaders have been looking at ways to change safety and driving behavior on the road.

"We're looking for alternatives that would work even when police officers aren't at the scene of places," said Hawkins. "Red light cameras are one of those things. They work 24-7. They don't require a police officer to be there."

Late last month, city council leaders approved using $204,805 from their annual budget to fund the initial costs of a new red light camera program.

A camera will be installed at two of the city's intersections that statistically have seen high severity, high frequency crashes: one at 88th Avenue and Washington Street and another at 120th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard.

"It's a three-year lease that we have to do initially on it, so we'll go out and we'll test it. We started small because we don't know what the effects will be on staffing as far as volume of paperwork that's coming in," said Hawkins. "So, we wanted to give it a fair shake and get it out there to see if it's something that's going to work. We're also interested to see the results. Is it going to do what we think its going to do."

Hawkins says they are in the process of getting bids from different companies to lease the red light cameras. Ideally, they hope to fund the project with the money collected from fines issued out through the cameras.

"We don't expect to make a ton of revenue. Quite honestly, I'll be happy if we break even on the thing," said Hawkins.

In 2022 and 2023, there were a total of 30 crashes at 88th and Washington and 38 crashes for 120th and Colorado for the same time period. These numbers account for crashes in the intersection and not rear end crashes that are outside of the intersection.

Hawkins says he hopes the cameras will change people's behavior on these roads based on statistics from other cities who have implemented them.

"If it does bring down the accidents at these locations, then we'll look at possibly adding more in the future," said Hawkins.

For residents like Pena, she sees this project as an opportunity to give more people the right of way towards feeling safe on and off the road.

"At the end of the day, it's something that's for the safety of everyone," she said.

The police department hopes to see these red light cameras installed and operating by the beginning of 2025.