BOISE, Idaho — In 2024 so far, 156 people have died on Idaho roads, according to the Idaho Transportation Department(ITD). While the number has decreased from 2023, it’s still a sad statistic, said Jimmy Hallyburton, a Boise City Council Member.
Hallyburton, alongside others, started the City’s Traffic Fatality Review Task Force – with the goal of eliminating all crashes on Boise’s roads – especially fatal ones.
“If we can reduce the amount of times that a pedestrian, a bicyclist, children, a brother, sister, mom, someone in your family is killed, then that's worth it,” Hallyburton said.
The Traffic Fatality Review Task Force reviews every fatal crash that happens in Boise on a quarterly basis and found the most common reason for fatal crashes was speeding, driving under the influence and running red lights.
“We're evaluating what could have been done to have prevented it, whether that's the design of the actual intersection or street, or if it's policy that ACHD or the City of Boise could pass to reduce the chances of it actually occurring,” Hallyburton said.
Based on those statistics, the City is partnering with ACHD to bring red-light cameras to Boise – one initiative Hallyburton said has proven to keep roads safer, based on data from other cities who already have red light cameras installed.
“These cameras give us an opportunity to ticket really aggressive bad behavior that's causing people to get seriously injured or killed,” Hallyburton said.
The cameras wouldn’t just catch when someone is running a red light, but they would also be able to store footage from crashes – so the Traffic Fatality Review Task Force could go back and see what could have prevented the crash from happening.
Police officers will still go through any footage that the cameras do catch of people running red lights, and the City said they will start by focusing more on warnings, not even tickets, as the goal is simply to just make the roads safer.
“People think that someone's going to automatically get a ticket. That's not the case. This is just the way for us to be able to review what's going on at an intersection on a regular basis,” Hallyburton said.
The logistics of the cameras are still being sorted out – like where exactly the cameras would go and the budget for the project. Hallyburton said the goal is to have 2-4 cameras up in Boise intersections by 2025.
“This is something that we can agree upon. We want less crashes. We want less people running red lights. This is a way that we can do that,” Hallyburton said.