NASHVILLE -- Last week, Sen. Todd Gardenhire got an icy response from Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Jim Tracy when the Chattanooga Republican brought up his bill seeking to ban Tennessee cities' use of unmanned traffic enforcement cameras.
This week the bill finally pulled out of the ensuing tailspin and passed through Tracy's panel.
But after Gardenhire and Tracy, a Shelbyville Republican, worked on it for "a couple of days," the measure looks a little different. For example, it no longer bans unmanned traffic cameras.
As amended, speed-enforcement cameras could not be used to issue the $50 citations to drivers unless the vehicle is going at least 15 mph above the posted speed limit.
Another provision prohibits issuing traffic camera citations unless the signal's yellow caution light lasts at least six seconds. And if photos show any portion of the vehicle's tires have already entered the intersection, no citation can be issued.
Asked later about the changes, Gardenhire smiled and focused on what the bill now does.
"It raises yellow lights from three seconds to six seconds and puts the same qualifications in so far as where the tires are," he said. "Speed cameras, you can't get a citation unless you're 15 mph over the posted speed limit. The cameras will still be there."
Without elaborating, Gardenhire said he is coming back next week with another bill to "do some other things" because the original ban bill opened up a single section of state code and thus "was too narrow to do some other things."
House Transportation Committee members last week passed a straight camera-prohibition bill, defining the ban to include automated cameras operated by for-profit vendors as well as by cities themselves.
CAMERA CAUTIONS
The amended Senate bill would allow cities to use traffic cameras, but tickets could be issued only * If vehicles are moving at least 15 mph over the posted speed limit * If the traffic signal's yellow caution light lasts at least six seconds * If the vehicle's tires aren't in the intersection when the light turns yellow
Senate Minority Leader Lee Harris, D-Memphis, who supported Gardenhire's original bill, said the committee compromise still benefits motorists and strikes another blow against the for-profit vendors who usually take the lion's share of revenues generated by the cameras.
"Today we're one step closer to driving red light camera operators out of Tennessee," Harris said in a statement. "Extending yellow lights to six seconds at these intersections will cut down on accidents and spare citizens the frustrations of these frivolous tickets."
Legislative critics for years have attacked the cameras, charging they were more about revenue than safety and in some instances actually cause accidents.
In 2011, Tracy and then-House Transportation Committee Chairman Vince Dean, R-East Ridge, put together a bill that reined in the worst camera abuses.
For example, it eliminated citations for right turns at red lights, where the vast majority of citations were issued to motorists who did not come to a complete stop. That helped bring the city of Red Bank's program to a crashing halt.
"We spent two years working on this, changed a lot of things people were talking about, Sen. Gardenhire," Tracy told the lawmaker last week. "Since that time we've had very few complaints in my office."
Contact staff writer Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550.