North Carolina’s highway safety laws have earned the state a top “green light” rating in a new 50-state report from a Washington-based coalition of insurance, safety and consumer groups.

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety says North Carolina should adopt three laws, proven to reduce crashes and save lives, that are not on the books here.

The report, "2009 Roadmap to State Highway Safety Laws," calls on the state to:

* Require ignition interlock devices for everyone convicted of impaired driving, including first-time DWI offenders. The device measures blood-alcohol content in the driver’s breath; if the driver is impaired, the car won’t start. Only 7 states require ignition interlocks for all DWI offenders.
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It was about a year ago that Helen Joostema got her red-light camera ticket in the mail from the town of Cary. A candid camera had snapped her as she turned left from Kildaire Farm Road onto Cary Parkway.

"I'm still fuming," she said on the phone today after she read this week's Road Worrier. "I thought I had gotten over it until I read your article."

Joostema didn't think the fleeting yellow light had given her enough time to stop safely before the light turned red, especially with another car right on her tail.

"If I just jammed on the brakes, I would have been hit from the back," she said.

She dialed the phone number on her ticket. She talked to a rude guy who insisted that the yellow light lasted 4 seconds. . . .

OK, maybe the Road Worrier's crude method of counting time won't hold up in traffic court ("Yellow is fleeting on Cary traffic light").

If the Road Worrier wants to do a more credible job of counting traffic signal times, reader Paul Ferguson points out that even cheap digital watches have timer options. Agreed.

But you get the idea: When you only get a brief yellow-light warning that you'll have to stop soon, it's easy to get caught running a red light.

How brief is the yellow light warning at some intersections in Cary's red-light camera program?

Cary says 3 or 4 seconds. I'm skeptical. And some readers are skeptical, too.

I really believe that the yellow traffic light at Kildaire Farm and Maynard goes off within 1 or 2 seconds - Trupti Desai . . .

Wow, I can feel the tension in those e-mails. Readers want to trust the Road Worrier — but sometimes they need to verify his advice. My advice.

They test my truthiness -- by poking it with a stick.

That’s good. Test me. I can handle it. I like it. It keeps me strong.

Take right-on-red and right-turn red arrows, a small subject of continuing interest to a steady stream of correspondents. Every year a few readers ask whether right turns are encouraged, merely allowed, or forbidden at red right arrows.

The Road Worrier reported ("The light's red, but it points to confusion") that North Carolina disagrees with some other states about rights and reds. Red arrows are used only in turn lanes, but in N.C. they carry exactly the same message as solid circular red lights for drivers (and for cops who enforce our traffic laws): . . .