Should a journalist side with speeders who run red lights?

Road Warrior John Cichowski of The Record has been writing about red-light cameras for more than three years, but the first paragraph of his column today demonstrates that he completely ignores that kind of driver -- speeders -- who are most likely to blow through lights and cause crashes. The Hackensack intersection shown doesn't have a red-light-running camera.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Road Warrior John Cichowski claims drivers who pass red lights fail only to "slip through ... while it's still yellow," according to the first paragraph of his column in The Record today.

This is the veteran reporter's third column on red-light cameras this month, in what amounts to a campaign against continuation of New Jersey's 5-year pilot program (L-1).

The program ends at midnight, but many cameras will remain in place. However, violators will no longer be fined $85.

This was hardly the highest fine for a traffic violation, but complainers completely got Cichowski's ear, drowning out the majority -- police chiefs, mayors and other officials who wanted the "safety" program to continue.

Drivers who don't speed and blow through red lights think the fine is a small price for violators to pay to reduce intersection crashes and cut deaths and injuries.

Lives saved?

None of Cichowski's recent columns have reported just how many lives have been saved in the five years of the red-light camera program -- in keeping with his irresponsible journalism on the controversy.

"Right-angle crashes at red lights typically kill 14 to 18 [people] yearly statewide," he reports on L-6 today, without saying if the number has been cut since the program began.

Of course, Cichowski has made so many errors in the more than 11 years he has been writing the Road Warrior column, readers no longer know whether anything he reports is correct.

Crosswalk law

On Nov. 20, he reported incorrectly that one of the "Infuriating Driving Issues of the Day" is that drivers must wait for a pedestrian in a crosswalk to reach the opposite curb.

But there isn't a single crosswalk statute governing that; there are four, depending on the width of  the street, number of lanes and other factors, and drivers don't always have to wait until the pedestrian reaches the other curb.

In that Nov. 20 column, Cichowski also reported pedestrian deaths have fallen since the crosswalk law took effect in 2010.

But "pedestrian deaths for 2014 have already exceeded the final tally for all of 2010, and only fell in one of the previous three years," according to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers.

See: Infuriating Accuracy Issues of the Day