Raw Data Set From College Station, TX

This is the raw data file from the City of College Station.  We were tired of getting told what the City wanted us to hear and asked for all the crash data for the past five years.

College Station, TX Accidents 2005-present if you want a data set that has been sorted to remove the blank lines in the City’s data set click here Accidents 2005-present – Blanks Gone

All Fatalities that are on the College Station system Fataliy Accidents 1992 – 2009

Are you going to make it?

The “jump in the car test”

If you jump in the car and drive through the intersection of Harvey and Munson what is the probability that you can make it across the intersection safely? On a standard day the probability is 99.99994099%  that you are going to make it across without a crash.  Stated another way the odds of you getting hit in during our “jump in the car” test of fate is 1 in 1,694,642.

How did I get the numbers?

The 2004 traffic count of Harvey Road was put at 26,000 cars a day.  The five year average number of crashes at Harvey and Munson is 2.8 per year.
Therefore:

• 26,000 crossings x 365 days = 9,490,000 crossing per year
• 2.8 crashes per year x 2 the number of cars in a standard crash= 5.6 crossing events per year
• 5.6 cars don’t make it a year / 9,490,000 events = .0000005901
• 1 – .0000005901 = .9999994099
• 99.99994099 % of the time you are going to make it

101% Jump in CSTX PD Citations

I recall Dennis Maloney, Council Member Place 3,  in an interview (go to the second half)  regarding the College Station Red Light Camera System stated his belief that the cameras make us better drivers and that he sees less driving infractions now that the City has Red Light Cameras.  This is the kind of statement that Mr. Maloney and others on City Council is now famous for; long on emotion and short on facts.

While it may appear to Mr. Maloney that everything is better.  The month over month citation numbers issued by College Station Police indicate that the police don’t see it that way.  August 2009 total citations were 3,454 up from an August 2008 number of 1,719.  Yes, that is a 101% jump in citations observed by College Station Police. (see table below)

I support the Police in their efforts and would like to add that everyone that received a citation from the College Station Police Department is presumed innocent, they have a right to a jury trial, they have the right to face their accuser, they have the right to appeal the Municipal Court Ruling if they so choose.  Had they been given a Red Light Camera Ticket they would have none of those rights.

The Table below is from the City of College Station’s Web Page.

Link to CSTX-PD Statistics Page

Red Light Cameras Save 500 lives in 10 days!

I have noticed that if you pay close attention to what the City of  College Station is telling you it becomes harder to understand the truth.  For example the Mayor of College Station the Honorable Ben White in a Feb. 15, 2008 open letter claimed that the red light camera system prevented “500 potential deaths or more”.

While you read the story linked below keep in mind that there has not been a fatality crash at a red light camera intersection in more than 5 years. (data source CSTX open records request for five years of crash data and all fatal crashes recorded on the CSTX system)

Keep in mind that the city picked Harvey at Munson as one of the Phase I red light camera intersections,  Harvey at Munson had 14 crashes in the past five years, one with injuries.  While Rock Prairie at Longmire Dr. had 37 crashes in the same period, 8 of them with injuries.  What does this say about the city’s motivation - money or safety.  Who lives within one mile of each of the intersections?  By the way there were other intersections with even more crashes than the ones sited.  Please email me and I will send you the raw city data if you want to run the numbers yourself.   jim@jimash.org

See the image of the letter below and link to the full report by clicking on the image.

Link to full letter

Fatal Crashes 2005-Aug 09

While we all morn the loss of life that is associated with driving, each of us takes a chance when we get behind the wheel to go where we need to go.  The City of College Station Council Members made statements in the council meeting on Aug. 27 that their goal is to just make sure one more person gets to go home.  This is a standard tool used by the state to make you think a problem exists that only the sacrifice of your rights can cure.

Mr. Crompton says he will fight for the red light camera $y$tem.  Perhaps he should start by answering why the City of College Station installed Red Light Camera$ where they did?

The map below shows fatal crashes between 2005-Aug 2009 and the location of the red light camera$.

Fatal Crashes 2005-Aug 2009

Council Expected More Crashes

In the email below City Council Member John Crompton states that the members of the City Council are aware that in the initial period the cameras are going to cause more crashes.  I wonder if that makes any one feel better that was injured as a result of the city’s actions regarding the red light camera system.  I can just imagine the RLC salesman saying right now “let’s do this; it will hurt some people in the near term, but…” no I don’t think they would ever say that.  However, that is the result of the action the city took.