All three have managed to sneak through, luckily avoiding an accident, but probably not a ticket.

The first two red-runners are home safe. But wait, there's more. A third car decides to make a dash for it, metres behind the first red-light runners.

A second car also decides to take the gamble at the Karo Dr intersection, moments after the first.

One car decides to run the red-light at Karo Drive and Victoria St, but it's not the only one. The area is the worst intersection in the country for red-light accidents. Click through to see what happens next.

A police initiative to make Wellington's most dangerous intersection safer appears to have been ignored by drivers.

A camera monitoring red-light runners at the intersection of Victoria St and Karo Drive was first installed in February, and ran for three months, with considerable publicity, before going live.

But it has snapped more red-light runners in its first two months of going live than in the three months beforehand. That contrasts with two other cameras at dangerous intersections in Auckland, where offences have fallen as driver behaviour has changed.

ROSS GIBLIN/ FAIRFAX NZ Wellington drivers haven't stopped running the lights Karo Drive and Victoria St since the installation of a new red-light camera. The area is the worst intersection in the country for red-light accidents.

The Wellington camera caught 276 red-light runners in its first eight weeks, after going live on April 30. It cost $60,000 to install, but has almost paid for itself already, with $41,400 in fines issued to the end of June, at $150 each.

On Thursday six cars were observed running red lights between 3.19pm and 3.42pm.

Plasterer Matt Colquhoun, who had been working next to the intersection for two days, said he had seen multiple red-light runners and near-misses.

ROSS GIBLIN/ FAIRFAX NZ Plasterer Matt Colquhoun, who has been working at the intersection, said: "They're not slowing down for the orange, they're speeding up. You can hear them coming from up the road."

"They're not slowing down for the orange, they're speeding up. You can hear them coming from up the road," he said.

"They boost it through here. I don't know why they speed up, it's only 10 seconds to wait.

"You don't have to be here for long to see it, it's pretty dangerous stuff."

The Wellington intersection has New Zealand's highest injury crash rate from red-light running. In the five years to April, there were 19 injury crashes involving red-light running, including one death.

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The intersection at Te Irirangi and Ti Rakau drives in Botany, and at the Lambie Drive Interchange in Manukau, also had high crash rates, but red-light running offences have fallen since cameras there went live.

Wellington's figures, however, have increased. "When you look at Karo Dr [the numbers are] quite high, there are a high volume of notices still being issued there," road policing national manager Superintendent Steve Greally said.

"I wish and hope these numbers go down, because we don't want the tickets, we just want to make our intersections safer in the future.

"In the last eight weeks we're still seeing a steady number of notices being issued from baseline. It takes time to drive that down and learn behaviours."

The way the intersection was set up could explain why so many drivers were running red lights, he said.

"On Karo Dr there are a bunch of intersections controlled by traffic lights in close proximity. One theory could be that drivers are focusing on the one ahead, and they may be making an error of judgment there."

Wellington city councillor Andy Foster was shocked that Wellington drivers did not appear to have got the road safety message.

"I am left shaking my head at people's unwillingness to change their behaviour even when it's going to cost them," he said.

He wanted to see more red-light cameras installed across the city.

"This is not unique to this intersection at all, it happens all over the place. At some intersections almost every phase of the light you see someone going through, and it puts everyone else at risk."

AA central regional manager Brian Roberts said the organisation had pushed for a red-light camera at Karo Dr and would like to see more installed.

"It's obvious from the statistics that people are pushing the boundaries of going through orange and red lights.

"It will only be until the word gets around and drivers are ticketed that people will react ... so for a lot of [drivers] it will business as usual," he said.

CRACKDOWN ON RED-LIGHT RUNNERS

Total number of red-light runners in three months before cameras went live; total number of red-light runners in two months after going live; value of infringement notices issued:

Karo Dr: 264; 276; $41,400

Lambie Drive Interchange: 201; 156; $23,400

Ti Rakau Dr: 96; 49; $7350

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