A New Jersey pilot program to curb drivers from running red lights is having mixed results.

The state transportation department has been analyzing two dozen intersections with red-light cameras for two years. They found the number of right-angle crashes went down 15 percent in the first year. But, rear-end collisions jumped 20 percent and the cost associated with them is $1.2 m.

Steve Carellas from the New Jersey chapter of the National Motorists Association is an opponent of the program and says lengthening yellow lights by just one second could produce better results.

“You’ll get a reduction in crashes and a further reduction in violations. The real safety benefit is properly engineering an intersection. The component of that is to properly set yellow time and you’ll get much better results.”   

The study also shows two Newark intersections with cameras had an 85 percent drop in citations over two years.

State officials say more research needs to be done.