Let’s embrace technology to save lives

Last week, a state-employed bus driver was arrested for sexual assault of a mentally-impaired passenger in a state-owned bus.  The woman made a verbal complaint. A brief investigation followed.  Brief because it doesn’t take a lot of investigation to substantiate a crime recorded by a video camera.

The bus was equipped with a camera that recorded the assault.  Through further use of technology – in this case a Global Positioning System – the exact location of the assault was determined. That’s useful for deciding what court will handle the case.

Technology made this an easy case to investigate. Having cameras on board buses will increasingly serve as a deterrent for criminal or improper behavior.

During the same days this crime was reported, the sadness of another fatality on Route 1 south of Milford spread through the news.  At the dangerous Wilkins Lane and Route 1 intersection, near the northern end of Route 30, a crash left a motorcycle driver dead and injured two people in the car struck by the motorcycle.  Police said speed on the part of the southbound motorcyclist might have been a factor.

Even if speed weren’t a factor in this case, it does contribute to many serious crashes and fatalities. Just as technology was used to quickly substantiate the sexual assault claims aboard the bus, it could be used to bring a sudden and lifesaving reduction in the speed of traffic cranking along our highways.  It’s time for Delaware to catch up with the times and start deploying speed-enforcement cameras.

On Route 1 in particular, much of the southbound traffic south of Milford has just left the high-speed confines of the toll road north of Dover.  Many drivers have traveled high-speed interstates to get here. If they were warned that speed cameras were tracking their speeds, and immediately issuing tickets through the mail, drivers would slow and our roads would be safer.  No more radar and radar-detector games.  No more need for valuable police time to be spent lurking behind billboards or trees.  Lots more speeding tickets. Lots more money for budget-pinched governments and much safer highways.

Let’s get with it Delaware. Speed cameras are a no-brainer!