The unexpected side effects of red light camera enforcement are now getting significant attention, and this in turn is causing some to trivialize just how serious rear end collisions can be.

For instance, the Philadelphia Inquirer editorializes today, "Rear-end crashes may spike as drivers stop short to avoid being caught on camera, but they are far less serious."

This contrasts with the description of a rear-end collision that happened Friday at an intersection in Winnipeg, Canada. A 1995 Dodge Dakota truck crashed into the rear of a 1991 Chevrolet Sprint convertible that was stopped at a traffic light. The Sprint then knocked a 2000 Hyundai into a light pole, injuring the Hyundai driver. The Sprint was "a tangled wreck of yellow metal, its roof torn away." Its driver, a 40-year old woman, was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Police blame the collision on icy conditions.

One woman was killed and another woman was sent to hospital with non-life threatening injuries following a three vehicle collision yesterday morning on Highway 59, just north of the Perimeter Highway. The pile-up occurred in the southbound lane of Highway 59 around 7 a.m.