(oops) ... need any assistance reaching the officers.

Thanks, Doug! The HOV lane area of Buckland is in Manchester. Hovering in the left lane covers both Manchester and South Windsor going north and going south. People hover in the left lane and go under the speed limit (say 35mph). This forces other cars to pass them on the right. I've seen instances where 6 or 7 cars will pass a car plodding along in the left lane and they do not get the hint. I usually avoid Buckland as much as possible. The cellphone and text messaging issue compounds the other problems and having a Liquor Store on Buckland isn't a terrific idea. The police can't stop anyone for using hand held cellphones, only if they're stopped for something else. By that time, they've ditched the cellphone. It's annoying the our state legislature spent an enormous amount of time on the cell phone bill and it's useless. I'm a techie at heart, but can't figure out why people text message. Oh well, we should be glad we're not the Fairfield County. Last month I was in back of someone on the Merritt Parkway who was driving inconsistantly. He stopped at the Fairfield rest stop and so did I. I looked into his car. He had his cellphone in his hand, his laptop was on the passenger seat at an angle for him to use while driving, and he had 5 post-its on his steering wheel.

You're welcome, Kathy.

However it sounds like you're talking about people driving on I-84, rather than town roads, so I think you'd want to contact the state police.

But I completely agree about distracted driving. That's the offense, by the way - distracted driving. Frankly I think we need cameras to bag people using cellphones behind the wheel. Like most traffic offenses, it's just not realistic to expect our officers to be able to change driver behavior with hands-on enforcement.

The guy on the Merritt is going to kill himself or someone else if he keeps driving like that. Sad and unfortunate.

Hi, Doug! Except for the Merritt comment (which I probably should not have thrown in), everything I've said pertains to Buckland. Getting off the HOV (while that's part of I-84), the road with the problems is Buckland with many people going through the light. One time when I was at the head of the line waiting for the light to turn green, I hesitated as I usually do to look right, left, right, left. The fellow in back of me honked his horn. Was going to proceed but a fellow on Buckland from WAAAAAAAAAAAY back ran the light. I would have had time to get through and he would have smashed into the fellow in back of me. I think that fellow in back of me realized that.

So you were pretty lucky there... funny how that works sometimes.

In terms of who to call, I'd try Chris Duchene and give him a good description of ask him about jurisdiction in terms of which department is responsible for that stretch, if not both. It's probably the busiest intersection east of the river.

All that said, I wonder if police would want to target that spot simply because any additional activity there could lock up traffic like a domino effect along Buckland, but I would hope that they could manage that.

Good luck, let me know how it goes.

Sent the note below by email to Town of Manchester, Citizen Service Center:

Tried to find a "traffic control" link on the police website (very good website). Below is the link from the Journal Inquirer's "click fix" describing my complaint about Buckland Road in Manchester (also SW). However, chronic running the lights on Buckland where the HOV intersects, relates to Manchester. I don't know if this is a State Road and a State Issue or if Manchester has some jourisdiction. Also realize that the town has to turn the money over to the State, so there's little incentive for a town to issue the tickets. This could be a way to help reduce the State Deficit and protect the lives of Manchester (and other) residents. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.

http://www.seeclickfix.com/issues/7733

The submission button below is: "save comment". Perhaps "send comment" would make more sense.

Good for you... let me know if you hear back from them.

I'm planning on writing something about this for the newspaper as well. Speeding and erratic driving are so rampant that it might be time to try some other things, such as traffic cameras at intersections.

Bad driving in intersections can be the cause of a lot of accidents and injuries. In Illinois, they have invested in cameras that monitor driver behavior at busy intersections. Folks receive tickets in the mail if they break the law. The cameras are successful on two levels: making intersections safer and raising a lot of revenue. I'm starting to think that there simply are not enough police officers on the job to enforce traffic laws and cameras are on duty 24/7.

What do you think?

Hi, Doug!

I'll let you know. Have already received acknowlegments from Manchester Town Hall and the Police Dept. I think your idea about doing an article is great!!!

When I exit the HOV lane toward South Windsor, I look left and right 2 times before I proceed. Also look to make sure everyone has stopped. One time I did that the person in back of me honked his horn. I did not budge. To my left a car quite a distance down the road, ran the light. He was far enough away, that I would have successfully made it through the light. The impatient person in back of me would have been T-boned and most likely killed. When I slowly proceeded through the light, he also crawled through. I'm sure he realized that I saved his life.

Thanks for doing this and all your hard work. Have enjoyed all your articles in the JI.

You're quite welcome.

And boy it sounds like you lucked out.

The camera concept isn't new. I've written a few stories about it myself, back in the 1990s covering the danger of driving on Route 6. Andover residents were desperate to slow down traffic there, and suggested the state try a pilot program with speed cameras. But people raised the privacy issue (privacy on a public road?) and killed the idea.

But cameras at intersections might be the compromise. I'll do some research on the program in use in Illinois and other states. Might take me a week or two to get it all together.

Hi, Doug, A very speedy response from Manchester PD. Sent a thank you reply back. Kathy

The Police Department does not condone anyone running traffic lights on Buckland St.
I will have our district officer give the area some extra attention. I will also pass your complaint onto the supervisor of our Traffic Division (Sgt. Minor 643-3325) so that he can put some resources on the issue. Please realize we have limited resources and can not place an officer on Buckland St all the time.

Captain Neiswanger

Town of Manchester
41 Center Street
Manchester, CT 06040

That's excellent! Let's hope it works and the impact is lasting. I suspect that there's so many people that come through that stretch of road that the enforcement won't mean much to out-of-town visitors. But I hope it will help. I'll call Sgt. Minor myself and try to ascertain how many tickets are written there when they apply themselves to the location.

Hi Kathy ... mentioned your report in today's column:

http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2009/09/21/page_one/doc4ab793e1802df533215035.txt

Thanks for mentioning this in the column.

You're welcome, Mark. Apparently there are a lot of other spots and fed up people. I've gotten some emails and calls since yesterday's story hit the stands. Going to have to follow up.

Good job, Doug, and great article in yesterday's JI. Thanks for the "heads up".

Definitely! Check for traffic in New Haven and you'll find tons of issues there, too. We need to make this into a statewide issue.

Right now, the towns only get $10 per ticket (regardless of the value of the ticket) in revenue, so they have less of an incentive to enforce the laws since it costs them so much in policing resources. I think the ticket revenue should be split 50/50 between the state and the towns.

Please contact your legislators and encourage them to pass legislation this session that:

1) makes texting while driving equivalent to drunk driving (as it is in Utah for example... see the ongoing NY Times series about this); and

2) allows communities to begin testing "red light camera" automated enforcement systems. They are currently used in 400 cities around the country, but Connecticut currently doesn't allow that. That would be easy enough to change with a few words in a bill.

Great idea about contacting Legislators, but only if they enforce it. I was told the police can't stop anyone solely for using a hand held cell phone. They can only add that on, if they stop them for something else. Also, I've seen a fair number of State and Municipal Police driving using hand held cell phones. Boston Globe had an article recently about Maine passing a Distracted Driver law. Covers everything, so folks who text and talk on hand held cell phones can't whine about people smoking, eating, drinking coffee etc.

Kathy, I've been told that if a police officer clearly observes the hand held being used for more than two blocks, they can make the stop.

Unfortunately, it's hard to prove that someone was eating when they are in a crash. But it's easy to determine if they were texting or talking on their phone -- that's why states like Utah have passed laws making texting equivalent to drunk driving.

If you text and get in a crash, you will be sent to prison for 10 years. I'm glad they recognize how dangerous this behavior is and I hope we'll see similarly swift action at the state and federal levels.

Great discussion here. I'm researching camera technology for another article right now. In West Hartford, they're using cameras to photograph speeders, and they're sending letters to the drivers letting them know how fast they were going, where and when, and also how much they would have been fined. They say they're getting results. I'll be writing about that later this week or next Monday. Tomorrow's piece is on the speeding topic but it's based on the calls I've been getting since last monday's piece.

Here's today's story on the speeding topic:

http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2009/09/28/page_one/doc4ac0f39cbe4db550752367.txt

Mark, thanks for the info on the police being able to stop people with the handheld cell phones. And, Doug, glad you're investigating the cameras. A funny thing I've noticed watching folks with cell phones who run the lights for the past 3 years, it's not teenagers or seniors. Almost all were folks from the 30s to the 50s in age range. Not generalizing here, but might include some folks from the self absorbed self esteem generation. Perfect in every way and rules are only for other folks.

The entire stretch of Buckland Road from the Exit 62 off-ramp to Pleasant Valley Road is a disaster.

It starts at the off-ramp. People turning left from the far left lane cut off people turning left from the middle lane. This causes near accidents under the overpasses.

Continuing towards South Windsor, people just can't figure out which lanes do which. People in the "straight" lanes jockey left to turn on Pleasant Valley, while people in the left lanes cut off traffic because they actually meant to go straight.

It's really frustrating for those of us who actually know how to follow the basic rules of the road.