Lexington police are catching a lot more red-light runners. What has changed?

An emphasis on enforcing seat belt use and stopping drivers who run red lights led to major increases in tickets for traffic offenses issued by Lexington police in 2018.

Traffic citations issued by the police department were up 10.3 percent from 2017 to 2018. The number includes a 28 percent increase in drivers caught running red lights, as well as a 22.6 percent increase in seat-belt violations, according to new data released by police Wednesday. There was also an 11.3 percent increase in car registration violations and an 8.8 percent jump in speeding charges.

It’s the second, consecutive year the city reported an increase in traffic tickets issued, according to the police department. Following 34,002 issued in 2016, there were 43,320 issued last year.

After 661 citations were issued for running red lights in 2017, there were 846 in 2018. Increased enforcement led to a 6.6 percent decrease in red-light-running collisions and 17.4 percent fewer injuries, according to Lexington police Sgt. Randall Combs.

“We knew red light running was a problem in the city,” said Combs. “With that and seat-belt violations, it was significant for us and something we tell our officers to look for.”

The intersections with the most collisions from ignoring red lights were East Main Street at Elm Tree Lane and Moore Drive at Nicholasville Road — each with seven crashes last year.

The city’s traffic unit increased in size, which has helped police better enforce traffic laws with more officers on the streets, Combs added.

Other improvements Combs noted in the new traffic report were decreases in alcohol-involved collisions (4.1 percent) and DUI arrests (9.1 percent). He said police are seeing fewer impaired drivers.

“With the presence of so many options, like Uber and Lyft, people are taking advantage of those when they can,” Combs said.

Lexington had a 3.9 percent decrease in the total number of collisions in 2018 with 16,431, according to the report. Prior to 2018, the city reported an increase in collisions in five consecutive years. There was also a decrease in the number of injury collisions.

Nicholasville Road between Lexington Green Circle and Reynolds Road was the top collision location with 38 in 2018. North Broadway at West New Circle Road had the most intersection collisions with 35.

The traffic report also highlighted some troubling issues. There were 15 fatal collisions involving pedestrians in 2018. The total was the most ever recorded by the city in a single year.

And while the number of fatal wrecks — 31 — in 2018 was down 8.8 percent from 2017, the number of fatalities was still larger than any year from 2012 to 2015.

“We want to see those numbers much lower,” Combs said. “Just because it’s down from last year, we don’t consider that a win. We want to see the number at zero.”

The annual traffic report does not include data from other law enforcement agencies, including University of Kentucky police and Kentucky State Police.

This story was originally published March 6, 2019 at 3:46 PM.