Yellow is fleeting on Cary traffic light

Town says 3 seconds; ticketed driver wonders

Camera or no camera, Eddie L. Smith of Raleigh could not believe he had run that red light.

"I've been driving quite awhile," said Smith, 81. "I've never had a ticket before."

He paid his $50 fine. Then he petitioned the Road Worrier for justice.

If it's any consolation, the traffic signals seem to be a mite quick on the trigger at the corner of Kildaire Farm and Maynard roads in Cary.

That's where Smith was nailed by a red-light camera when he made a left turn at 9:51 a.m. Sept. 30. The Cary police tell the story in three photos and an online video clip: A fleeting yellow arrow turns to an unforgiving red. A moment later, Smith's silver Taurus rolls through the intersection. The End.

Did I mention fleeting?

When measured Monday morning by the precise cadence of a Road Worrier drawl, the yellow caution signals at Kildaire Farm and Maynard lasted this long:

"One-thousand-one one-thousand-two one-th ... ."

You can quote me in court. No commas.

So how much warning time did Cary give Smith between laissez-faire green and ticket-writing red? It doesn't seem like enough. (Cary says it's 3 seconds for cars turning left, 4 for those going straight.)

In downtown Raleigh, the yellow lights linger longer -- all the way through one-thousand-three. (Raleigh says it's 4 seconds.)

This may give Smith a quantum of solace. But it spoils any alibi for the Road Worrier, who got his own red-light camera ticket from Raleigh police in the mail last week.

He -- OK, I -- was driving down Dawson Street in the rush at 8:34 a.m. Nov. 26.

A left turn was coming up, and I was two lanes over. I stepped on the gas to find a gap ahead in the left lane -- made it!

Then my smile turned upside-down. The light at Morgan was a remorseless red as I sped beneath it.

It could have been worse.

I'm lucky I didn't get a speeding ticket. The camera clocked me -- hey, if you believe these cameras, anyway -- at 40 mph.

I'm especially lucky I didn't hit another car on Morgan Street.

Smith had a hard time decoding the photographic evidence that accompanied his $50 ticket, and a harder time remembering what he had been doing on the morning of Sept. 30. At first he thought he'd been busted for making a lawful right turn -- after stopping and making sure no cars were coming -- on red.

He was surprised when he realized that the camera had caught him in a more dangerous maneuver -- turning left against the light. And glad he had avoided an accident at this busy Cary corner.

But he still couldn't believe he had done such a thing.

"I'm never in that big a hurry to run a red light," Smith said. "That's a place you cannot speed there. The only thing that could have happened is the light changed on me."

At least he has company.

Since 2005, Cary has issued about 1,000 red-light camera tickets each year at Kildaire Farm and Maynard. With a count of 897 through the end of October, it's on pace to break 1,000 in 2008.

It must be that fleeting yellow arrow.