Accidents rise at Roosevelt Field entrance

It's the only intersection with cameras in the county where accidents increased after the cameras were installed and also the location that generates the most red light camera citations -- by far.

Roosevelt Field's main entrance is at Old Country Road and the mall's Ring Road. Cameras were placed there in November 2009. In the 12 months after they began operating, total crashes rose 86 percent over the prior year period, going from 49 to 91.

Rear-end collisions grew 94 percent, from 31 to 60, side-impacts increased by 67 percent, from 15 to 25 and head-on strikes doubled, from 3 to 6.

When it comes to the side-impact and head-on collisions, Mistron is unsure why they rose. "It's something that we are going to monitor," he said. "It's perplexing."

Cameras at the location produced 34,709 tickets in 2010 -- nearly 100 a day -- dwarfing the number generated at all other county intersections with cameras. At $50 a ticket, that works out to $1.7 million in potential collections from that one spot.

Most violations, 73 percent, were for right-turn violations, such as not stopping completely before turning. Program-wide in 2010, 37 percent of tickets were for right-turn violations.

"You have to stop and then you can proceed," Mistron said. "We are looking for the cessation of movement."