22,000 traffic citations issued by APD so far this year

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Albuquerque Police Department is trying to crack down on red light runners.

The department took crash data from around the Albuquerque metro to figure out the 20 most dangerous intersections, including Coors and Montano and Rio Grande and Mountain.

According to APD Lt. Chris Patterson, officers are systematically going to those 20 locations for two-hour intervals and giving out citations. He said this operation is in response to how many fatal crashes the department has had to respond to lately.

The operation deals with both red light runners and stop sign runners.

Patterson said in one day, they issued 72 citations at one location. Again, that’s within a two-hour time span. He said the data approach seems to be working for them. Last year, they had over 30,000 citations for the entire year.

Right now, APD has about 22,000 citations issued so far this year – that’s from the combined efforts of several operations.

The red light runner operation will end next Friday.

As it warms up outside, the community can expect more people and bikers out and about. APD wants to remind the public to slow down because that could mean one less fatal crash.

Here are the worst intersections for crashes:

1. Menaul Blvd/Frontage Road North and South
2. Second Street/Frontage West and East
3. Coors/Montano Road N.W.
4. Osuna/San Mateo at Frontage Roads North and South
5. Avenida Cesar Chavez/I-25
6. San Mateo/Montgomery N.E.
7. All intersection Frontage Roads under I-25
8. Lead Ave./Oak and Locust S.E.
9. Coal Ave./Oak and Locust S.E.
10. Martin Luther King Jr./Oak and Locust S.E.
11. Juan Tabo/I-40 N.E.
12. Wyoming/Central S.E.
13. Louisiana/I-40 N.E.
14. Second Street/Mountain Road N.W.
15. Tramway/I-40 N.E.
16. Coors/Dellyne N.W.
17. San Mateo/Lomas N.E.
18. Montano/Culture N.E.
19. Montano/Pan American Freeway N.E.
20. San Mateo/I-40 N.E.