Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 30, 1995                   TAG: 9508300076
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

PENA: STOP (ON RED) IN THE NAME OF THE LAW

The light turns yellow. You're five feet from the light. Do you feel your foot hovering, itchingly, over the gas pedal?

From Washington, the word from your government is ... stop.

Stop? What do they know, right? That red light lasts, like, forever.

Uh-uh. Just stop it.

The federal Department of Transportation is launching an effort to crack down on motorists who run red lights. Saying that nearly one-fourth of traffic accidents are caused by motorists trying to squeeze through intersections before red becomes, well, really red, the department is planning to step up enforcement and education programs.

On Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Federico Pena announced that 32 communities will receive $600,000 in federal highway funds to teach drivers what they should have learned in kindergarten: Red means stop.

``The light is red for a reason,'' Pena thundered from the dais, his eyes stern. ``Stop.''

The communities winning the grants, ranging from Columbia, S.C., to Jackson, Mich., from Lancaster, Pa., to Anchorage, Alaska, and including Richmond, Va., were chosen on the merits of the programs they have proposed. Many have serious traffic-accident problems, but they are not the only cities where motorists run red lights.

``People are in a hurry, they are stressed, they think they won't be caught by the police,'' Pena said.``... Twenty-two percent of accidents in cities are caused by people who run a red light. It costs the country $7 billion a year.''

Pena and other officials indicated that part of the money may be spent on electronic surveillance equipment with of the kind being used in New York City and a few other cities.