LETTER: Red light cameras and Wile E. Coyote

Your recent articles discussing the pros and cons of traffic enforcement cameras have been both informative and, at the same time, extremely frustrating. Although the Clark County sheriff is in favor of using intersection cameras, there are lawmakers in Carson City who are using “end result” logic to oppose their use. Simply put: They don’t like cameras and are making up ridiculous, nonsensical excuses to outlaw them. Here is a partial list.

1. They violate privacy rights. (There are none).

2. The owner of the car caught on camera might not be driving. (Don’t loan your car to bad drivers.)

3. Cameras raise too much revenue. (Who cares?)

4. It’s too hard to track the revenue stream tickets would produce. (So? Develop a system).

5. Not having a front plate (legal in Nevada, in some circumstances) complicates the process. (How many times will this happen?)

6. Camera-generated tickets are racist because they disproportionately impact minorities and lower income individuals. (I have no idea what this means.)

There are other excuses, however, that the Carson City crew missed. What if Humpty Dumpty fell into a camera and broke it? What if Wile E. Coyote, while chasing the Road Runner, ran into a camera by mistake? What if lightning hit a pole-mounted camera? What if there’s an earthquake or a tornado and all the cameras went down?

In my opinion, if an intersection camera will cause even one careless driver to rethink driving though an intersection at a high rate of speed and killing someone in the process, that, by itself, justifies their existence. Leave Humpty Dumpty and Wile E. Coyote in the cartoons where they belong.