Taking The High-Tech Road Sarah Harney | May 2003 For nearly two years, traffic managers in Kentucky eavesdropped. Their target: a Louisville intersection that had become the scene of an inordinate number of accidents. They set up two sound-sensitive cameras to record traffic continuously. When the cameras recorded the common sounds of an accident--the squeal of tires, the smack of metal hitting metal--the system stored the film clips from four seconds before and four seconds after the incident. By studying the aural and visual evidence, the managers were able to design several collision-reducing improvements for the intersection-- extra signs, new lane stripings, an extension to a traffic island. When project manager Jeff Crossfield compares the $50,000 investment in the portable cameras with the $5,000 to $10,000 a month and several months it takes to study an intersection using more traditional means, he says, "It doesn't take much to make this worth the investment."