Red light camera construction is in full swing in downtown Richmond

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- Work continues this week on installing red light cameras to nearly a dozen Richmond intersections, designed to encourage safety and catch poor driving.

It's part of the city's existing Camera Safety Program, and it long before we'll see the red light cameras lined up to capture reckless drivers.

Several people in and around E. Main east of downtown Richmond said they see accidents in the area and hope the cameras will help create a safer RVA.

Right on schedule from its announcement, crews started putting the camera pieces together to get red light runners.

N. 25th and E. Main streets will be one of the ten new enforcement locations across the River City, which adds onto the 13 existing speed camera locations around school zones.

"I approve of them 100%. I think they're fantastic," said Ann Uhalie.

Visiting her daughter who calls RVA home, Uhalie said she's watched the cameras help deter accidents near her Pennsylvania home. Under the Camera Safety Program, Richmond Police and the city's public works department hopes to do just that.

"Where I'm from, it catches a lot of people that just want to run those red lights. They want to get through the very last minute, and then it can cause an accident," Uhalie said.

The city has not answered yet when the 25th and Main intersection will go live, but has said the cameras will operate 24 hours a day and issue $50 citations for each instance to the vehicle owner for running a red light.

After each location goes live, there will be a 30-day grace period, however.

Hopefully it becomes an initiative that saves lives. Each year, hundreds of pedestrians and drivers are killed from red light running in the U.S., according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Thousands more are injured from it.

"As a pedestrian has the right of way. If that car doesn't stop, they're right in their path, and that's something that frightens me a little bit down here because people are not stopping. Most of them do, but some of them act like, 'well, I own the road, so you can't be walking here.' That's not what the law is," Uhalie said.