Cindy Gonzalez
LINCOLN — Nebraska lawmakers are considering high-tech tools and new civil sanctions to make roads safer, including automated cameras that could send red light runners to a “stop” class or cost them money.
A pair of Omaha state senators on Friday laid out their respective bills to the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, both saying they were open to tweaks that would help green light the measures.
“We have had too many people die on roads, and I am interested in making this work,” State Sen. Wendy DeBoer of Bennington during a public hearing at the Capitol. “Let’s figure out a way.”
Record pace
Nebraska had 251 traffic fatalities in 2024, the highest single-year total since 2007, which had 256, according to the Nebraska Department of Transportation.
DeBoer’s Legislative Bill 600 in part would give the Transportation Department the power to set up speed-detecting systems in highway work zones and to lower speed limits in dangerous areas.
Legislative Bill 616, introduced by State Sen. John Cavanaugh, would authorize the use of automatic license plate reader cameras for red light violations and provides for civil enforcement.
Cavanaugh said his goal was to create a noncriminal way to deter reckless driving on city streets. A violation would result in a civil fee that could be waived if the driver participated in a no-cost safety program he called a “rehabilitative stop” class.
Any fees paid by those who choose not to take the class would help cover someone else taking the class, he said.
No points would be assessed against the violator’s driver’s license. No warrant would be issued. If someone failed to pay the fee or complete the class, a charge would be assessed as a condition of renewing the vehicle’s registration.
Any evidence or information obtained from the camera is not to be used for any purpose other than that particular statute.
“Someone is not going to find themself incarcerated as a result of a red light camera,” Cavanaugh said, adding that the threat of jail should not be the only way to improve public safety.
Acknowledging that the bill needs work, Cavanaugh, a lawyer, chuckled that a pair of typically at-odds parties were unified in their objection to his bill. “That’s a real accomplishment,” he said of the alliance between the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska and the Nebraska Sheriffs Association.
‘Harvest, collect and sell’
Bryan Waugh, the Kearney police chief, spoke on behalf of the Nebraska Sheriffs and Police Associations. He said cameras can be helpful in fighting violent and property crime and in alerts for missing persons — and said his city has 28 in use.
But Waugh does not think they are intended for “minor traffic or parking violations.”
“While we appreciate the focus on traffic safety, we believe intermingling this technology for traffic enforcement may negatively impact the effective use of the technology for crime prevention, solving crime and keeping the community safe from crime,” he said.
Waugh said his research shows that cameras targeting red light runners could increase the likelihood of a traffic collision, if people slam on their brakes to avoid getting caught.
Spike Eickholt, representing the ACLU and the Nebraska Criminal Defense Attorneys Association, expressed concerns about license plate reader companies and how they “harvest, collect and sell” license plate data.
His bigger worry, he said, is that traffic infractions in Nebraska are criminal in nature and that those charged or cited have rights, including to a trial.
“I don’t think that the Legislature can make something that is criminal, civil, just due to the enforcement mechanism that happens to be different than an officer actually observing a red light violation and writing a citation,” Eickholt said.
Behavioral change
Supporters of the change included Timothy Adams, an engineer specializing in roadway safety. He told the committee that 80 people died in the Lincoln and Omaha areas alone at signalized intersections over the past five years.
“These cameras serve as a strong deterrent leading to long term behavioral changes that make our roads safe.”
DeBoer said a multifaceted LB 600 aims to improve safety around highway worker construction areas and at-risk spots and intersections.
As written, DeBoer said, the law would empower the Transportation Department to assess administrative civil penalties to the registered owner of a vehicle recorded by special technology traveling at excessive speed through a marked area.
For a highway work zone, that threshold would be eleven miles per hour or more over the speed limit. The first offense would be a warning. A second offense within three years would be $75. She said she is open to considering a criminal violation route.
17-year high
Vicki Kramer, director of the state Department of Transportation, supported the bill.
She told the committee that in 2024, Nebraska’s roadway fatality count spiked to a 17-year high, despite national statistics for crashes trending down. She said that motivated the department to research counter measures. Among the department’s recommendations, she said, were speed safety cameras or devices in work areas and variable speed limits in danger zones.
“The provisions are not intended to generate revenue, but to influence driver behavior,” she said.
The Judiciary Committee did not take action on either bill.