By APRIL AVISON

Eagle Staff Writer

In the first month of College Station's red-light camera program, a vendor has issued more than $112,000 worth of citations.

About 1,500 tickets have been mailed since red-light cameras became active at four city intersections in February. Another 600 are pending.

City officials have maintained that the program is a safety measure -- not a revenue generator. College Station entered a five-year contract with Scottsdale, Ariz.-based American Traffic Solutions to operate the program.

The vendor spent $19,000 to install the cameras. Once the $19,000 has been paid to American Traffic Solutions, College Station will subtract the cost of running the program and divide the remainder equally between the city and state. The city's portion is designated for transportation safety and traffic signal and intersection improvements, while the state funds are designated for trauma centers.

College Station police officers are spending about 15 hours a week to ensure that citations are issued fairly, said Assistant Chief Larry Johnson.

"We review every single citation that is not pre-filtered by the vendor," Johnson said. "If there's an ambulance with red lights and sirens on, [the vendor] knows there's no use in sending that one to us. But we see a vast majority of them. We review with close scrutiny and determine whether to approve or reject."

Johnson said he's not sure what percentage of the violations is rejected.

Cameras monitor the intersections of Texas Avenue and Walton Drive, Harvey Road and Munson Avenue, Harvey Road and George Bush Drive East and Wellborn Road and George Bush Drive. The vendor sends $75 citations to the registered owners of vehicles that run red lights in those areas.

Texas A&M University student Ashley Zaragoza recently was cited for turning right on red.

"I got two tickets in two days at the intersection of Harvey and George Bush," she said.

That's the intersection with the most citations, said College Station Traffic Engineer Troy Rother. About 386 tickets have been issued for violations at that location, while 365 drivers have been cited at Texas Avenue and Walton Drive. More than 200 drivers have been cited at Harvey Road and Munson Avenue, and 73 tickets have been issued for violations at Wellborn and George Bush Drive.

Zaragoza said she knew immediately --both times --that she'd be getting a ticket in the mail.

"I saw it take my picture," she said.

When she got the invoices in the mail, Zaragoza said, she called the College Station Police Department.

"It will take your picture when you go right on red, no matter what, and then they review it later," she said she was told by a police officer. "They said it's OK to go right on red as long as you stop. They check your speed, and if you're going a certain speed, they can tell you didn't stop."

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Zaragoza said having to fork over $150 has raised her awareness as she drives around town.

"They give you the option of fighting it, but considering that I know what I did was wrong, there's no reason to do that," she said.

No challenges have yet gone through College Station's municipal court system, city officials said last week.

Assistant Chief Johnson said that it's too soon to tell whether the camera program is preventing accidents but that it has created a "halo effect" that has heightened awareness at intersections all over College Station.

"The cameras don't create a new set of rules," he said. "They just capture the activity. You're supposed to stop at red lights regardless of whether there's a camera there."

Rother said when the cameras were installed last month, he got phone calls almost daily. But the number of complaints has dwindled, he said.

"The last few calls I've gotten were people who were just mad that we have them at all," he said. "I've heard from a couple of parents [of Texas A&M students] who were worried that their son or daughter believed they ran a red light and they wanted to know what to do. But we can't look it up in the system until they get the ticket."

Both Rother and Johnson said they'd gotten some positive feedback about the program.

"What really made the biggest impact on me was when we started looking at red-light cameras and viewed video of crashes," Rother said. "Three percent of crashes occur after the signal has already been red for five seconds. That really concerned me. People get a green, hopefully look both directions and then proceed through the intersection. If someone else is running a red, that's when the fatalities occur."

• April Avison's e-mail address is april.avison@theeagle.com.

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