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New Radar Lets Police Nab Tailgaters
AZ - If your idea of a sporting event is riding the tail of a slowpoke on the highway, think again.The Arizona Department of Public Safety is bringing a new device to the game in an attempt to take out tailgaters. Call the ploy laser tag. Using a new laser device that measures the distance between two moving vehicles, officers are citing hundreds of motorists with tailgating tickets that can run more than $100. And they are promising more to come. "Tailgating accounts for most of the collisions in the Valley," said DPS Officer Michael Beaudoin, who has written about 100 tickets using the laser in the past year. "The majority of the reactions I get from drivers are that they don't realize they are tailgating." Tailgating is not only a cause of accidents, it is also a factor in many road-rage incidents. Beaudoin said the new device is virtually argument-proof. With it he can show drivers exactly how close they were following another vehicle. "I love it. It seems to be a great tool," he said. "It seems to be educating the people I do stop." The device is sure to please people fed up with aggressive drivers whose cars fill the rearview mirrors. But it also rankles some who think officers have better things to do. "That's dumb," said Mia Hillery a 28-year-old event planner who drives daily between north Scottsdale and Chandler. "It seems like they could spend money on so many different things. . . . They need to catch speeders more than tailgaters." The Arizona driver's license manual cautions motorists to keep at least two seconds between their vehicle and the one in front of them. That's supposed to allow enough time to react if the front driver slams on the brakes. Beaudoin said he regularly targets cars with less than a second of distance between them. "I've seen people at 0.04 seconds. That is less than half a second," he said. The tickets are based on a state law that prohibits "following too closely." It doesn't define tailgating beyond "more closely than is reasonable and prudent." For Beaudoin, that means two seconds in typical driving conditions. Beaudoin, who is assigned to the East Valley, said the laser is most effective just before rush hour, when traffic is beginning to get heavy but is still moving fast. Typically, Beaudoin sets up on Loop 101. The laser is similar to a radar speed gun except it also can measure distance between vehicles. Beaudoin said he sets the gun to measure the distance from his position to the center of a traffic lane. When two cars pass that location, he uses the gun to track the speed of both vehicles and calculate the distance between them. The laser device, called a Lidar, is manufactured by Laser Technology Inc. of Colorado, which invented the radar speed gun. The Lidar is being used extensively in Australia, Canada and Hong Kong. The device also has proved popular among several police departments in Oregon. Unlike radar units for tracking speeders, the Lidar laser is much more accurate. For instance, a radar typically shoots a beam that is 12 feet wide at 100 feet. By comparison, the laser beam is only 3 feet wide at 1,000 feet. In addition to detecting tailgating, the Lidar device also can be used for speed detection and accident reconstruction. The cost of a tailgating ticket varies in each Arizona jurisdiction, state Motor Vehicle Division spokeswoman Cydney DeModica said. Fines for following too closely in Phoenix are $115 plus any court fees. DPS has nine Lidar units, all being used in the Phoenix area. But the department is looking at purchasing 19 more. Sgt. Tim Bolger of the Highway Patrol Division said the DPS has an $80,000 grant that probably will be used to buy the guns, which cost about $3,995 each. But he said there is one drawback: repairs. If a gun gets damaged, the department has no choice but to send it back to the manufacturer. Bolger said the DPS is hoping the manufacturer will train and certify officers to do standard repairs on the device to reduce costs. "We have the grant, and we are moving forward with the process," Bolger said. Lydon Fitzgerald, 19, who drives daily between Mesa and Tempe, said the thought of a tailgating gun will make him more careful. "I'm going to watch my tailgating. I'll be going, 'One 1,000, two 1,000.'" Arizona cities are on the cutting edge of using motorist citations to raise revenues. Abandoning accident prevention as the real motive, the effort is now to punish bad driving like they punish smoking, with "sin taxes". But the bottom line of more money has already encouraged things like shortening "yellow light" time at intersections, to catch more red light runners. Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-12-04 |
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