Medford police say the new red light and speed camera being installed at Delta Waters Road and Crater Lake Highway (Highway 62) is aimed at reducing crashes at the nearby Crater Lake Highway and Poplar Drive intersection.

Installation of a new traffic camera at Delta Waters Road and Crater Lake Highway in Medford began Monday, an effort by the Medford Police Department to use enforcement at the busy intersection to reduce collisions at the city’s most accident-prone intersection — Poplar Drive and Crater Lake Highway, located about eight-tenths of a mile away.

Officials believe the new red light and speed camera at Crater Lake Highway (Highway 62) and Delta Waters, to become fully operational by Aug. 21, will help decrease accidents at Crater Lake Highway and Poplar Drive, Medford police stated in a news release issued late last week.

“In order for us to affect change on a very dangerous stretch of roadway, between Delta Waters Road and Poplar — which is our heaviest intersection — we feel the spillover effect from enforcing and regulating the intersection of Delta and Highway 62 will impact safety at Poplar,” Medford police Lt. Geoffrey B. Kirkpatrick said in an interview.

“The most dangerous intersection in the city is consistently identified at Crater Lake Highway and Poplar Drive, but for various reasons we could not install photo radar cameras at that intersection,” Kirkpatrick said is the news release. “We believe that by enforcing speed and red-light violations at nearby intersections we can affect traffic safety at the intersection that needs it most.”

He said the police department is not trying to get more money or increase the number of citations it issues with the installation of a new traffic camera.

“That’s never been the goal of this program,” Kirkpatrick said. “We want a reduction in speed. We want a change in behavior.”

The installation will involve some general construction but should not impact traffic, the lieutenant said.

Once the camera is installed, an “educational/warning” period will occur until Sept. 20 to get drivers acclimated to the new monitoring equipment, the police department said.

“What we’re trying to accomplish with the grace period is fairness,” Kirkpatrick said. “It would be unfair to the public to secretly put up a camera system and then say, ‘Here it is. You’re going to get a ticket.’”

The installation of the Delta Waters-Crater Lake camera will be the fifth of its kind since the launch of the city’s traffic camera program in 2004. Cameras can also be found at East Barnett Road/Stewart Avenue; East McAndrews Road/Biddle Road; Riverside Avenue/Eighth Street; and Central Avenue/Fourth Street.

“I think the program is very effective,” Kirkpatrick said. “We have seen reductions in serious motor vehicle accidents.”

A report the department issues to the Legislature on red light violations and crash statistics seems to bolster Kirkpatrick’s point on the program’s effectiveness.

In terms of collisions, Biddle/McAndrews saw 28 in 2006 compared to 17 in 2022; Riverside and Eighth saw 11 crashes in 2006, compared to seven in 2022; Central and Fourth saw 14 crashes in 2006 compared to four in 2022; and Barnett and Stewart saw 12 crashes in 2006, compared to one crash in 2022.

“It’s important to us. It’s vital to us. It’s our mission to reduce harm to the public, and this is one of those ways we do it,” Kirkpatrick said.

At the intersection of Crater Lake and Poplar, there were 35 crashes in 2019; 37 in 2020; 32 in 2021; and 37 in 2022, for a total of 141 crashes over the past four years.

At the intersection of Delta Waters and Highway 62, there were 94 crashes over the same time period, with 21 in 2019; 30 in 2020; 21 in 2021; and 22 in 2022.

Kirkpatrick said the two intersections have the most crashes in the city.

“They’re dangerous intersections. That’s why we’re putting in photo radar and photo red light cameras at Crater Lake Highway and Delta Waters,” the lieutenant said.