LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – A deadly year on Las Vegas Valley roads has local leaders searching for ways to make our roads safer. FOX5 is aware of at least 54 traffic deaths in Clark County since January 1.
The Henderson Police Department hopes new technology is part of the solution. Red light indicators were installed at 12 intersections at the beginning of the year through a grant from the Clark County office of Public Safety.
“It’s not a camera, per se,” Sgt. Roger Matuszak explained. “It doesn’t photograph anybody. All it does is shoot a beam of LED light. It’s just a strong LED light.”
The light is aimed at a traffic officer sitting ready nearby, usually during high-traffic hours.
“When the signal turns red, this (indicator) illuminates at the exact same time to tell us that that signal is red,” Matuszak continued.
When the traffic signal turns red and the indicator lights up, that nearby officer will see it and watch for drivers running the red light, which the officer would otherwise not be able to see, since they’re set up behind the signal.
“We can sit in a driveway not immediately at the intersection further down the road so that we can enter the flow of traffic with moving traffic so that we’re not crossing into the cross-traffic in the intersection,” Matuszak explained. “It makes it safer for the officers conducting the enforcement.”
Those 12 intersections throughout Henderson were chosen by looking at crash data, traffic volume and citizen complaints.
“The more traffic through an intersection, the more likely you are to have red light violations,” Matuszak said. “The more likely we are to get complaints about it.”
Matuszak says the department is just now starting to collect data on these indicators and will be looking for the impact they have on traffic safety. After about six months of collecting data, he says the department will look at it and determine whether or not more intersections should be indicators.
Henderson police shared the following intersections that are equipped with indicators:
- Boulder and Lake Mead
- Boulder and Horizon
- Sunset and Marks
- Sunset and Stephanie
- Stephanie and Warm Springs
- St. Rose and Eastern
- St. Rose and Raiders Way
- Eastern and Horizon Ridge
- Horizon Ridge and Green Valley
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