Hillsborough red light cams catch 1,000 violations

TAMPA - The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office says the message is simple: See red and stop.

"If people continue to run the red light and endanger motorists, they are going to get a violation," explained Cpl. Darrin Barlow of the sheriff's office.

Barlow says red light cameras have been installed at six busy Hillsborough County intersections and the violations are continuous.

"There's no excuse for that," he observed as he watched footage of an offender recorded by one of the cameras. "Extremely dangerous."

The cameras have been fully operational for a little over a month and so far close to 1,100 tickets have been issued.

"You can see there's hundreds in this case, over a thousand that didn't make it. And all the those instances are a recipe for a bad accident," Barlow continued.

And that's the purpose of the lights -- to slow drivers down and reduce accidents. But not all those behind the wheel feel it's working.

"I've seen people cut people off trying to get into the correct lane or try to beat the light, but I don't really see a big difference," driver Bonnie Zabytko offered.

Andrea Harring received a warning before the tickets were being issued. She says she didn't see the red light because she was behind a large truck.

"I was just a little surprised at that because, I mean, because we can't help it sometimes when those big trucks are going down Waters [Avenue] to all those warehouses, and it's just hard," she explained.

Cpl. Barlow says that's a common problem, but it's still considered a violation.

"Someone following an 18-wheeler and perhaps couldn't see the light.  And in those situations, increase your following distances."

You shouldn't be worried about what white line you're stopping on -- just stop. And deputies say you will only get a ticket for a right on red if you're going more than 15 miles per hour.

The sheriff's office says they are only looking for blatant violations -- those that had no intention of stopping or continue long after the light turned red.

"When a light turns yellow, you should be preparing to stop and you should be stopping," Barlow added.