It was about time the California government realized this: students do not make the best drivers. Far from it, in fact; studies indicate that teenage drivers are nearly three times as likely to get into fatal accidents than any other age range. It is no different in and around Claremont either, as there have been countless automobile fatalities from a teen driver who drove over 100 mph and killed two students north of Claremont to a hit-and-run that killed another two students in Pomona last May. Evidently, there is a problem. Fortunately, Governor Gavin Newsom has caught on to the issue and attacked it at the root: speeding. To combat the perpetrator of about 31% of all traffic fatalities, a solution was just as speedily thought up: wide-scale use of speeding cameras. And it worked; the solution was approved when Governor Newsom signed bill AB-645 into action last September.
The bill will carry out the implementation of speeding cameras across Southern California, including parts of LA county such as Glendale and Los Angeles. Claremont is located in LA county itself, meaning that students traveling in the future should keep an eye out for cameras in high-traffic zones. These cameras will track the license plates of any cars found going over the speed limit by 11 miles per hour. But before any Driver’s Ed frequentists freak out, one must know that any first violation linked to a vehicle will only result in a warning, before hitting $50 for a second violation.
Though it might seem like a pretty lenient solution, speeding cameras have been proven to work. New York City has implemented them and seen a 73% reduction in speeding, and what this should result in is Claremont’s surrounding area being safer for its larger-than average student demographic.
About 7,000 of the 9,000 students at the Claremont Colleges use a bicycle to get around the city, all while in the proximity of equally young drivers. It is to no surprise that with so many youths and pedestrians, the street safety of Claremont has come into question in recent years. In fact, researchers at the Claremont Colleges found that four out of every ten people they surveyed knew a person who had been injured while riding a bike in Claremont and eight out of ten people surveyed listed proximity to cars as their biggest fear while riding one themselves. With the implementation of speeding cameras, precautions and increased safety of automobile drivers can make an exceedingly pedestrian city like Claremont much safer to traverse on bike and on foot.
But beyond the numbers, this action will help alleviate student fears. Sebastian Quadrini, a senior at CHS, finds that he and many others would feel much safer with these cameras in place.
“I know several people who have already crashed their car,” Quadrini said. “Just about everyone I know speeds, and people do all sorts of hooligan tricks like running red lights and driving drunk, which is more common than you think at this school. Many people drive recklessly and never consider the consequences of such behaviors. The world might be a “less cool” place if no one could speed, but a lot less pain would result.”
With cameras in place, student actions would have consequences and a trial-and-error process that is hopefully error-lenient will lead to a much more prudent demographic of teenage drivers. But that starts with all drivers. Please do not make a $50 fine the only reason to be responsible, and be a civil person who is responsible on the road in spite of it. From the Wolfpacket staff to the CHS student body, please drive safely.