OCOEE, Fla. – Making Ocoee PD's new top 10 list is not an accomplishment. It's a monthly video compilation of the worst red light runners recorded at four city red light cameras.
The No. 1 video clip from June's top 10 list shows a driver speeding through a red light and braking when it was too late, then T-boning a car coming the other way. One person was injured in the crash and taken to the hospital.
July's No. 1 video clip shows a driver slamming on the brakes so hard the car fishtails and the tires smoke. That driver narrowly avoids slamming into a car coming the other way.
Ocoee police traffic Officer Kevin Birdsong, also a traffic homicide investigator, edits the videos.
"If I couldn't make a video of the top 10, that'd be a good problem to have," Birdsong said.
Last year, Ocoee's four red light cameras sent out nearly 6,000 red light running tickets, Birdsong said. The cameras have been in operation since 2009 and have reduced the number of red light runners and crashes, but not enough, Birdsong said.
"Not enough people were getting the message," Birdsong said.
Birdsong's supervisors asked him to create the monthly top 10 video compilation of "essentially of the most egregious violators" and post it on Facebook.
Last month's compilation has been viewed on Facebook more than 3,300 times.
"We've seen a lot of people tagging each other, saying is this your vehicle, or a friend or family member," Birdsong said. "It could be a shaming deterrent if anything."
Drivers are behaving differently when they approach intersections, according to Ocoee police.
"We're noticing results that people are stopping at the intersection," Birdsong said. "People are approaching the intersection as if a cop was sitting there."
Red light running crashes are among the most dangerous because of the speed and angle.
Drivers who run red lights often do so at full speed, even above the speed limit in an attempt to beat the light. The impact is often on the driver's side or passenger's side where occupants are most vulnerable.