Pointing to a need to better protect children, South Florida lawmakers Tuesday sought to build support for House and Senate proposals (HB 357 and SB 1474) that would allow local governments to install school-zone traffic cameras.
“This is a simple, effective and low-cost tool to save lives and prevent serious injury,” Senate sponsor Ana Maria Rodriguez, R-Doral, said during a news conference on the legislation. The measures would authorize local governments to contract with vendors to install traffic cameras in school zones.
The proposals aim to penalize drivers who are photographed travelling more than 10 mph over school zones’ speed limits. The House bill would impose a $132 fine for violators, about half of which would go to the state’s general revenue fund. The bulk of the remaining amount would go to the local government, with smaller amounts going to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the school district and certain children’s hospitals.
Under the Senate measure, drivers would get traffic citations if they are photographed speeding through school zones, and the money collected would be disbursed in a similar way as the House measure.
“The goal is not to issue tickets or collect fines, but protect our kids. Counties and cities with these safety systems would have to educate their communities about the cameras and issue warnings before any citations are issued,” said Rep. Nicholas Duran, a Miami Democrat who is a sponsor of the House bill. The state has long allowed cameras to capture images of people driving through red lights, and lawmakers have repeatedly considered repealing the law that allows the cameras.
–News Service of Florida
Jimbo99 says
“The proposals aim to penalize drivers who are photographed travelling more than 10 mph over school zones’ speed limits.”
Hmmmm, I’ve never witnessed that. Is there a study showing that is even worth the money to contract to safeguard children that are never at anymore risk than they’ve ever been ? I mean they put Wadsworth Elem & Taylor Middle school on a 4 lane divided road that has 2 lanes in each direction. Rymfire Elem, that’s far enough away from Royal Palms Parkway, so that leaves all those schools North towards Matanzas Woods (Belle Terre Elem & Indian Trails Middle). I guess FPC being located on FL-100 is another brain storm that made sense 50-60 years ago that really doesn’t today. Matanzas HS is another, but are those mostly the HS driving aged kids doing the speeding ? The speed limit is 20 mph for that particular school off Belle Terre (South), They’d have to be doing 30+ mph to get this citation thru the mail. I’m sure there have been some that may have been unaware that might’ve had to slow down from he speed limit approaching the school zone. But for the most part I don’t see anyone much beyond 20-23 mph and that’s based upon what I see on my speedometer as someone next to me, that is rolling a little faster than I am right at the speed limit. Just me, but it’s a waste of contract money if it’s anything like the Obama era traffic red light cams. The grossest offenders are usually handled because FCSO is there. The $ 132, it almost seems like there removing points against the motorist’s driver license ? It just seems absurd because school zone infractions & also construction zone infractions for worker’s present have always been a double up rule of a penalty for those. I don’t want to see Flagler County get involved in a contract & taxation crisis over the rare if never accident in a school zone over speeding cams in those school zones with an out of state contractor, like the red light cams became back at the front end of Obama administrations. Geez, this Biden-Haris era really has been 46 days of a reversal to & reboot of some really unnecessary & more importantly, failed policy & legislation.
Richard says
If it will save lives and keep our school children safe then it is a GOOD thing to do.
Jimbo99 says
Good then, you can pay for the cost of implementing them for every school in Flagler County. I see it as a waste of taxpayer money, if not outright a reason to increase taxes. Since locating here in Feb 2019. The only death in a school zone during school hours was a motorcyclist over at Matanzas HS. The speeding camera wouldn’t have made a difference in that one beyond getting video footage of the collision.
https://www.news4jax.com/traffic/2019/05/02/fhp-17-year-old-pulling-out-of-school-lot-kills-motorcyclist/