Governor orders red light photo enforcement for Main and Washington Streets

Governor orders red light photo enforcement for Main and Washington Streets

As part of a state-wide crackdown, Gov. Schwarzenegger has ordered red light photo enforcement for many California highway intersections, including the corner of Main and Washington in Julian, which is also the corner of Hwy. 78/79. He said, “This program would greatly cut the number of red light runners. There are too many people suffering from accidents with red light violators and when people are suffering, they can’t pay their taxes. When they can’t pay their taxes, we can’t balance the budget and everyone suffers.” He also noted that all the increases in productivity from red light accidents such as labor for auto body work, doctor bills and accompanying lawyer fees and insurance payouts are not subject to sales tax, yet. “If we can get those categories covered under the sales tax, it would be better to pull the cameras out. Just think how much tax we could get from lawyer fees alone,” he stated. When informed that there was no traffic signal at the intersection, he muttered something about how critical it was to bring everything in the state up-to-date and ordered one put in immediately. When then informed how much the light installation would cost even after raiding the county fund for the purpose, he cancelled the order. He said, “Julian and the back country have suffered after all the fires, but we don’t need to spend this much on them.” The red light photo enforcement order has also been changed to “stop sign photo enforcement” as soon as they can figure how to do it.

©2008 Eric Stamets