It’s because the person that realizes the light is changing, slams on their brakes in order to not get a ticket. The person behind them slams into them expecting them to go through the light. I read an article about this last week. Some cities are taking them out because the rear-end collisions have doubled and tripled.
While collisions have gone up fatalities have gone down. No I can’t find the link where I read this. The conclusion was that the rear end collision when someone was trying to stop for a light was far less dangerous that someone getting T-boned by someone running a red light.
They have removed some camera's here in the Montgomery area for just that reason. The cost of responding to the increased accidents was turning out to be more than the revenues the cameras were providing.
I don't like those types of drivers either. But they are out there and we are stuck with them. The cameras aren't causing people to tail gate through a light.