ATLANTA — A growing number of metro Atlanta cities are adding cameras in school zones to reduce vehicle speeds that have reached 92-miles-an-hour.
Signs are now up near Church Street Elementary School in Riverdale warning drivers that cameras are watching for anyone who exceeds the 25-mile-an-hour speed limit when school is in session.
Sgt. Victor Ortega said when the city tested the cameras to send warnings to drivers at the end of the last school year, people seemed to get the message.
“But we still see drivers doing 45-50 miles an hour in the school zone, and that’s unnecessary,” he said. “It’s not about the money. It’s about getting compliance.”
In nearby Jonesboro, where Haley Rounds walks her niece to Swint Elementary School, another camera watches busy Highway 138.
“They move so quickly in between traffic,” Rounds said of drivers in the area. “I think a lot of people don’t take it seriously unless it’s their child.”
Lawrenceville, Jonesboro, and Riverdale are among the cities where cameras went active this school year. They’ve been active in Gwinnett County for a year, capturing one driver traveling 92-miles-an-hour through a school zone last year, and another on the first day of school this year.
Gwinnett is planning to double the number of schools with cameras this year from three to six.
Fines vary from one area to another and by law are only for drivers going more than 10-miles-an-hour over the posted speed limit during school hours.
In one year, with cameras outside three schools, Gwinnett Police issued more than 25,000 citations.