CHARLOTTE — Traffic safety advocates are urging the City of Charlotte to reinstate red-light cameras following the death of 25-year-old Lance Sotelo, who was killed by a driver running a red light on The Plaza.
Sustain Charlotte said their members have noticed a persistent problem with red-light running in the Charlotte area. According to North Carolina’s Vision Zero Safety Dashboard, more than 3,000 intersection-related crashes between 2019 and October 2025 in Mecklenburg County were linked to disregarded traffic signals, involving nearly 9,000 people.
“Charlotte already knows where and how people are being seriously injured and killed on our streets,” Shannon Binns, founder and executive director of Sustain Charlotte, said. “Red-light running is a documented and persistent danger at signalized intersections and red-light cameras are one of the most effective tools we have to address it. With the legal barriers now clarified, the question is no longer whether we can act — it’s whether we will.”
Charlotte previously had a red-light camera program but discontinued it due to legal and financial challenges, officials said.
The North Carolina Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling clarified that municipalities may recover operating costs from red-light camera programs, thus removing the previous barrier that led Charlotte to end its program.
Council Member JD Mazuera Arias said he knew Sotelo, and expressed that he supports this initiative.
“Sotelo’s death was heartbreaking — and it was preventable,“ Mazuera Arias said. ”We know that red-light running and unsafe intersection design lead to the most severe and deadly crashes on our streets. Red-light cameras are a proven safety tool and with the recent court ruling, Charlotte now has a clear path to use them responsibly to save lives. We owe it to Lance and to every neighbor who uses our streets, to act.”
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