As Virginia Beach gets ready to launch it’s fifth set of red light cameras this week, drivers have come up with a new way around them. As NewsChannel 3′s Dan Tordjman found out, police do not have any problem with it.
If you run a red light in Virginia Beach, expect a picture in the mail and a $50 fine. The city has put up red light cameras at four of the city’s most dangerous intersections, driving some people crazy, compelling others to fight back.
Kelly Miltier’s GPS starts beeping as he approaches Military Highway and Indiana River Road. On it, a database he downloaded from the website Phantomalert.com. Miltier says, “If you got the program, it beeps, you’re going to slow down.” That is because the program contains information on more than a hundred-thousand areas, reported by other drivers as speed traps, school zones, driving under the influence checkpoints and red light cameras. Miltier describes it by saying “It’s evened the playing field for the driver versus the ticketing authority.”
Unlike traditional radar detectors, authorities say Phantom Alert is completely legal. The company’s web site also has Google maps, with driver warnings for just about every city in the United States. In Virginia Beach, little red boxes mean red light cameras. Expect to see more of them, at Dam Neck Road and General Booth Boulevard, starting next week.
In all, 20 cameras city-wide are expected to generate about $300,000 in fine money for Virginia Beach. So it might surprise you that the officer in charge of the red light cameras told NewChannel 3 that, “I like Phantom Alert. I think it is a great program.” Officer Brian Walters says these cameras aren’t about making money, they are simply here to make people slow down. Walters says, “The officer’s job is to get people to obey the law, not necessarily catching somebody.”
While Walters likes Phantom Alert, he thinks the company is driving a hard bargain, charging between $10 a month to $100 for a lifetime membership. Meanwhile, the city itself posts red light camera locations on its own website and on roads leading up to the cameras. But at Miltier points out, “that sign is not gonna beep and talk to you” and “it is a $100 for life. Two of these tickets and it’s paid for itself.”
At the very least, it makes Miltier feel like he really is in the driver’s seat and ahead of the curve.
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