A recent traffic study in Philadelphia revealed that longer yellow lights and intersection cameras are effective in keeping drivers from running red traffic lights.

According to Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), who conducted the study, both approaches reduced traffic signal violations. However, the red light cameras made a more significant difference after the extended-yellow-light initiative was put in place.

The extension of yellow lights reduced signal violations by 36 percent, and red-light camera enforcement reduced violations by an astounding 96 percent.

“Violations virtually disappeared at the six approaches to the two intersections we studied,” said Richard Retting, IIHS's senior transportation engineer and lead author of the study, in a release. “This decrease in violations is all the more remarkable because the intersections were such high crash locations. In fact, they had been identified as having some of the highest crash rates in the nation.”

The IIHS reports that running red lights causes about 800 crash deaths per year, and half of those killed are pedestrians and people in vehicles that are struck by drivers committing the violations. Another estimated 165,000 people are injured in crashes caused by running red lights each year.