School zone cameras are meant to slow drivers down, but some motorists say the rules are speeding past common sense.
Channel 2 investigative reporter Ashli Lincoln found drivers being ticketed outside posted school zone speed limit hours, with unpaid fines potentially putting the brakes on tag renewals.
Drivers were stunned to learn some school zone cameras continue operating as regular speed enforcement cameras long after a school’s morning bell.
“Never had a ticket,” Clayton County driver Norbert Raith said. “Why did I get a ticket after school hours?”
Raith and his partner Carol Crooks say they prefer to take life in the slow lane.
“He doesn’t speed,” Crooks said. “I can’t get him to go the speed limit period.”
That’s why he said he was shocked when he received a school zone speeding citation in January.
Lincoln followed Raith to Lamar Hutcheson Parkway in Riverdale, where he says a citation came not from an officer, but from a camera. The alleged violation happened around 10:30 a.m. outside the posted school zone hours.
Since then, he says he is careful to abide by the speed limit.
“I did 25 miles an hour all the way through,” Raith said. “People were passing me.”
So he was shocked when he got another ticket in May.
“I was very frustrated,” Raith said. “I just still feel like it’s like a scam.”
Raith wasn’t alone.
“I know it’s my fault,” said Lilburn driver Rick Marlette.
He admits he was going with the flow of traffic, driving 52 miles per hour in a 40-mile-per-hour zone on Lawrenceville Highway.
The stretch of road was right outside Lilburn Middle School.
“Obviously, you should not speed in the school zone,” Marlette said.
But he questions when the citation was issued: at 11:21 a.m., nearly two hours after the morning bell when reduced school zone speeds were no longer in effect.
In the morning when kids are coming to school and in the afternoon as they are leaving, lights flash to indicate that the reduced speeds are in effect.
“These lights were not flashing,” Marlette said.
Many drivers expect that the flashing lights will also indicate when the cameras are operating. But several cities have cameras in operation outside of schools throughout the day, even when the roads return to their normal speed limit.
A Stockbridge driver told me she was cited before the posted school zone hours.
“There were no blinking lights when I went through,” Kapura Amos said.
Riverdale, Lilburn and Stockbridge all say school zone speed limits are reduced to 25 or 35 miles per hour during designated times.
And the cameras have designated times too. The speed cameras operate from one hour before school until one hour after school, continuously monitoring speeds during the middle of the day.
It’s a common point of confusion for drivers, with some feeling the lights should be in effect throughout the day to get drivers to slow down.
Channel 2 Investigates analyzed RedSpeed violations in Lilburn and found both average speeds and citation counts fell when caution lights were flashing around school pickup and drop-off times.
It highlights what drivers like Marlette say is common sense.
“When those lights are flashing, people slow down,” Marlette said. “The lights work. This doesn’t work.”
Illinois-based company RedSpeed operates these cameras. Georgia Department of Transportation data shows at least 123 RedSpeed cameras across north Georgia.
Channel 2 Investigates requested the number of violations for the camera that clocked Raith on Lamar Hutcheson Parkway.
It generated more than 6,000 tickets between January 1 and March 10 of this year. That total represents almost twice as many tickets as the remaining seven cameras in Riverdale combined.
“I just think it’s totally unfair,” Raith said.
The cameras outside Lilburn Middle School where Marlette was cited have issued more than 11,000 tickets since January.
“I began to get calls, people complaining about them,” said State Rep. Dale Washburn of Macon.
Washburn represents Georgia’s 144th District. He said two schools in his district removed the cameras after officials found more citations were being issued outside school zone hours.
“It is not about kids’ safety,” Washburn said. “It is about raking in money for local governments, but also for out-of-state camera companies.”
In a statement, RedSpeed representatives said their mission is to slow drivers down in school zones so children can get to and from school safely.
“The data is clear: schools that have opted to install cameras see speeding in school zones drop by more than 90%,” RedSpeed said. “A similar percentage (90%+) of drivers who receive a notice of violation for speeding in a school zone never receive a second one. The use of technology to enforce speed limits in school zones not only changes driver behavior; it also saves lives.”
Washburn said he received a citation from a school zone camera himself.
“That, combined with me getting increasing phone calls, I began to investigate it,” Washburn said. “The purpose of it is to rake in money, not to protect children. And that’s the thing I despise about it the most.”
Washburn sponsored House Bill 225, which would have banned speed cameras. That bill stalled last session in favor of a compromise that he says will allow taxpayers to vote on speed cameras.
Gov. Kemp signed House Bill 651 into law to do that. The law will also require school zones to have more visible warning signs with flashing lights during times the cameras operate.
“A local community, to either implement the cameras or to extend them, must have a local referendum where the people approve that,” Washburn said.
Drivers like Raith say the governor’s signature on the passed bill couldn’t come soon enough.
“I think it’s just a moneymaker,” Raith said.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]