Mark your calendars for August 4th and get ready to take the pledge during Stop on Red Week! Stop on Red Week is observed across the country every year during the first full week of August to highlight the significance of red traffic lights and to curb the deaths caused by breaking the red-light rule. While following basic traffic rules might seem easy, statistics say at least 50 million people are injured or disabled by road traffic crashes yearly.

Stop on Red Week was created by the Federal Highway Administration in 1995 to reduce the severity of traffic collisions by educating the public. The week highlights the risks of running a red light and how reckless driving can destroy lives. The initiative was promoted by the National Coalition for Safer Roads to ensure communities around the country remain protected.

Red light runners cause hundreds of deaths and tens of thousands of injuries each year. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), in 2022 1,149 people were killed in crashes that involved red light running. Half of those killed were pedestrians, bicyclists and people in other vehicles who were hit by the red-light runners. More than 107,000 people were injured in red light running crashes.

In a 2022 national telephone survey by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, 83% of drivers said it is very or extremely dangerous to drive through a red light that had just turned red when they could have stopped safely, but 25% reported doing so in the past 30 days (AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, 2023).

Among drivers involved in fatal red-light-running multiple-vehicle crashes in 2022, the red-light runners were more likely than other drivers to be male, to be younger, and to have prior crashes or alcohol-impaired driving convictions. The red-light runners also were more likely to be speeding or alcohol-impaired at the time of the crash and less likely to have a valid driver’s license.