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Red light violations not getting any better

You've read or heard about it in several places in the past couple of years.

From this newspaper to the 6 o'clock national news, there have been reports about drivers increasingly running red lights.

It's not getting any better in this neck of the woods. In fact, motorists who want to avoid accidents need to assume that as they approach an intersection with a green light for them, that someone is about to cross their path by running a red light.

The violations range from those trying to stretch a green light through the yellow and into the red, to those who just plain ignore the red light ... at or above the speed limit.

It happens every day. You don't have to look far to see it. You also can see right-on-red practiced without the required stop, plus the innovative left-on-red and straight-on-red.

The police can only do so much. For this problem to be solved, most drivers will have to do their part.

Many of them simply need to realize that:

n At the best, taking care of what is required after a non-injury accident in which they are at fault would take vastly more time than the seconds they might save by cheating on a red light, or,

n At the worst, what might seem like a time-saving maneuver just might lead to their conviction for vehicular homicide.

Traffic signals are not put in place to impede motorists. They are there to prevent cars and trucks from smashing into each other.

Red lights can only be effective if they are obeyed.