Red-Light Video Captures Near-Hit in Action

CLEARWATER, FL – Two wrongs don’t make a right, but the equation doesn’t always end in disaster. Fortunately for two motorists in Clearwater, the sum of their recent actions behind the wheel didn’t add up to a crash.

The incident in question unfolded recently at the corner of Fort Harrison Avenue and Chestnut Street. A red-light video camera set up at that corner happened to capture two motorists making potentially deadly driving mistakes at the same time. As the traffic light at the intersection turned red, a vehicle blew through the light to continue on Chestnut, a one-way street. At that exact moment, a driver on Fort Harrison decided to make a westbound turn onto Chestnut.

The problem with the second driver’s decision, the Clearwater Police Department pointed out, is that Chestnut is a one-way street. That one-way happens to run east, not west.

The two vehicles nearly collided, but managed to avoid that eventuality.

“Talk about a recipe for disaster,” the police department posted on Facebook along with the video. “Thankfully, there was no accident.”

The red-light runner, however, is likely to get a surprise ticket in the mail as a result of the infraction. As for the wrong-way driver, that person’s luck seems to be holding out. The red light cameras are not set up to capture tag information related to drivers going the wrong way, the police department told Patch.

Clearwater Police Department video screenshot

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