The intersection of Waters Avenue and North Dale Mabry Highway saw a dramatic drop in the number of red light runners in 2011, according to traffic camera records.

Once notorious for traffic violations, the Carrollwood-area intersection had a 61.9 percent decrease in citations last year, the biggest decline among the six major Hillsborough County intersections equipped with red light cameras.

There were 2,759 citations at Waters and Dale Mabry in 2011, compared with more than 7,000 in 2010. Overall, citations at the six intersections fell by 7.8 percent, Brandon Patch reports.

Motorists caught running a red light pay a $158 fine. Of that, $75 goes to the county or city where the violation occurred with the remainder going to the state.

The company that installed the cameras — American Traffic Solutions — is paid $4,750 per month, per camera.

Crashes have also decreased at the intersections overall since the cameras have been installed, accident reports show.

The six intersections reported 395 crashes in 2008, 275 crashes in 2009, 270 crashes in 2010 and 240 in 2011, according to sheriff’s office reports.

Public awareness of the cameras is a major factor in the decline in accidents and citations, said Cpl. Troy Morgan, who oversees the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office's red-light camera program.

“We said from the beginning it would modify people’s behavior, and that’s what is happening.”

Drivers are now behaving as if a patrol car is sitting at each intersection with the added advantage “that the cameras can catch more than one person at a time,” Morgan said. “I can pull over one driver for running a red light, but I can only deal with one car at a time.”

For those not sold on red light cameras — and that opposition includes a recent USF study that questioned the need for red light cameras — Morgan suggests a little YouTube.

“You can go the sheriff’s office website and watch the videos of drivers running red lights and judge for yourself," he said. "I think any reasonable person would see the need for the cameras after watching these videos."

Other county intersections could use red light cameras, Morgan said, “but that is not my decision. I wish the red light cameras were not necessary. The cameras would go away if people would just stop looking for excuses and just stop for the light.”

Morgan also has some simple advice for anyone who gets a ticket: obey traffic laws.

“The program doesn’t cost taxpayers. It is paid for by those who run the red lights, these are the people who fund the program. If they stop running red lights it the program wouldn’t exist. It would be one less responsibility for law enforcement, and we have other important issues we could allocate our resources to.”