LexFather

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.Man arrested for shooting traffic camera
Police have lost red-light cameras to traffic accidents but never to gun play. "This is the first one that's been shot," Capt. Gordon Catlett said of the wounded camera at the intersection of Broadway Avenue and Interstate 640 — one of 15 camera-equipped intersections in the city.

Clifford E. Clark, 47, was charged with felony vandalism and reckless endangerment for allegedly firing at least three rounds from a .30-06 hunting rifle at the camera, knocking it out of action.

He was arrested after patrol officers heard shots around 2 a.m. Sunday, spotted a minivan leaving the parking lot of a closed business and pulled it over. Inside they found Clark and the high-powered rifle.

Clark, now facing a $50 fine if convicted and loss of his rifle, refused to say anything about the incident to police, leaving the motive unclear.

Catlett, who oversees the red-light camera program, said 6,798 drivers have been photographed running the red light at Broadway and I-640 and ticketed since the camera was installed in 2006. Clark was not one of them, he said

http://www.knoxnews.com/


GO HIM!!!

mmarshall

That's going to be a pretty expensive ticket. I don't believe that it's going to be just $50........a new camera costs a lot more than that. (plus the money he will have to spend for a new rifle to replace his confiscated one).

Honestly, I don't know why a lot more of them haven't received pot-shots. When they first came out, I expected to see most of them taken out sooner or later. That hasn't happened.....I was wrong.

(I also want to emphasize that I myself don't condone that action, only that I expected more of it)

DJ TANTRA

I condone it!
Get them suckerssss

lol, actually....at least you dont get any point on ur license with the camera tickets!

nevermind! keep them! just lay off the 5-O

plex

iTrader: (11)

Wow at least if he got a ticket then maybe I would have understood why he did. He was better off just trying to paint the lens or something lol

bruce van

Give the man an award. I say we start a PayPal fund and drivers all over the country can donate $1 each and pay for all his expenses!

whoster

am i the only one who thinks there should be MORE red light cameras?

at least here in Socal...red light violations are RAMPANT--especially for dedicated left turns. During the day it's possible that anywhere from 3-5 cars will pass AFTER the oncoming traffic's light has turned Green. a few cities here and there have adopted red-light cameras to great effect. Where I live (Torrance) the red light violations are quite bad with out large intersections (Hawthorne Blvd. is bigger than a lot of freeways, for example), not to mention quite dangerous.

mmarshall

I understand your feelings on this matter (and I partially agree with them), but you also have to consider that those cameras aren't just there for nothing, even though I agree they are a pain in the a**. You don't people T-Boning your car at speed with a major side-impact, do you? Even with Subarus, which have B-Pillars so strong that firemen sometimes have problems cutting into them with the heavy-duty jaws, that's something that can ruin your whole day.

mmarshall

I'm partially (not completely) with you. They do serve a purpose, but they don't give you enough time after the light is red before they snap the picture. They should be reprogrammed and a little more forgiving....it is sometimes very difficult to judge a yellow light, and you sometimes get caught in the middle of the intersection after the light turns red trying to turn left because oncoming traffic just won't stop.

DJ TANTRA

Yeah, I'd be ok with that.
I'm surprised those suckers dont snap at Yellow..

NYC lovesss getting revenue from tickets!

jracerlmn

my mexican friends tell me it's because they drive like they're still in mexico...

Solo_D33A

The problem I have with red light camera are they only snap pictures if someone ran a red light in only one of the four directions. Thus only useful for someone running a red or if T boned with the culprit running the red went through the side with the camera, and serves no other purpose. (Though here in Winnipeg, they catches speeders too with the same camera...)

IMO these things are just used to generate revenue and annoy the general public while they think it'll decrease the rate of an accident, in a way, yes, in that particular intersection maybe, but people will speed up and not care anymore after they passed that intersection...(plus they usually put them in odd corners)

What I think they should do for those cameras is change them from snapping pictures only if a car ran a red, to record the intersection 24/7.

juniorEXE

we need more people with that kind of attitude!

whoster

this is a upper-middle class city with primarily Caucasians residents with the Asian-American community following somewhere behind. You know, one of those cities that kind of shut down after 9 PM because everyone's asleep for the day at work tomorrow...it's rarely ever the immigrants who drive like they don't have to follow the big red light which means STOP.

vince1128

thank god their arent any in my city. but when i was in arizona it was crazy how many. and then when the actual cops hideout they dont even pull u over. u see a camera flash from their car and realize youll be recieving a ticket in the mail. sucks. my uncle has an e46 m3 and he hadnt had any tickets in 12 years but since they put the cameras in hes had 7 in 2 years mostly for 51 in a 40.

Jakex1

I totally agree with that, and for people who may misjudge a yellow light and it turns red faster than youd expect it to. The driver obviously not wanting a ticket can slam his brake and possibly make the driver behind crash into him/her because the person in the back thought they would go through.