The red light cameras allowing officials to regulate Louisiana drivers who run a red light could be uninstalled by the end of the year if a piece of proposed legislation is approved. Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, and Rep. Jeff Arnold, D-New Orleans, are proposing a bill in a legislation that would prohibit local authorities in any parish from enforcing traffic laws with red light cameras — and the House Transportation Committee will hear the bill in the legislative session that started Monday.  The bill would not allow parish authorities to enforce traffic laws with the cameras, install new cameras or impose or collect any civil or criminal fine from an image of camera. Louisiana is not the first state to try to ban the red light cameras. While at least 18 states have allowed red light cameras, six states have banned or restricted their use, according to a report by the National Conference of State Legislatures.   Traffic Engineer Sarah Paul-Edel told The Daily Reveille in February the revenue from the tickets goes back into the Traffic Engineering Division for traffic maintenance, and the cameras help reduce t-bone crashes.”[Red light cameras] are just a revenue generator,” Richmond said. Richmond said the red light cameras are unconstitutional in several ways, explaining an information officer decides if a person is guilty of violating a traffic law and the civil suit is served through the mail when all civil suits are legally suppose to be served personally. The company that installs and manages the red light cameras is a private company. In East Baton Rouge Parish alone, the Traffic Engineering Division of the Department of Public Works issued 27,742 citations from February 2008 to February 2009. A first-time violation is $117 and a second-time offense within 12 months is $167, according to traffic engineering division. Sixty-five percent of the revenue generated from tickets goes back to the Traffic Engineering Division and the other 35 percent goes to American Traffic Solutions, the company the parish hired to install the cameras. Rep, Eddie Lambert, R-Gonzales, proposed a separate bill about red light cameras that gives 50 percent of the revenue from the camera’s tickets to the state. Lambert’s proposal would allow the cameras to remain in use.Richmond said even if the cameras weren’t unconstitutional, they increase rear-end collisions because the driver has to make sudden stops. “If you want to reduce the number of crashes … you extend the yellow light by one second,” Richmond said. If the bill is approved, any parish using the cameras would have to discontinue use by Jan. 1, 2010,.Richmond said the contracts parishes made with private companies would be void if the bill passes because the cameras would be running against the law. Josh Weiss, ATS director of communications and public affairs, said he could not comment on the state ending its contract but said the cameras have reduced the number of speeders and the number of traffic violations. —-Contact Joy Lukachick at [email protected]