The House of Delegates has approved legislation to allow localities statewide to use photo systems to catch people who run traffic lights.

The bill passed 63-to-35 Tuesday, one day after an amendments was added to give drivers an extra fraction of a second to get through the light.

Another change would make the images the systems record off-limits as evidence in lawsuits arising from traffic accidents. Pilot programs allowing so-called photo-red enforcement in several northern Virginia localities and Virginia Beach expired in July 2005.

Efforts to extend the program statewide have failed over the years. Vehicles that run red lights are photographed and 50-dollar fines are mailed to the address that corresponds with the car's license plate.

People who receive the citations in the mail could sign an affidavit that the car belongs to someone else or that the registered owner was not driving the vehicle in the photo.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)