BRADENTON, Fla. (WFTS) — Where there's a school zone, you can bet that there's a sign telling you to slow down, but Manatee County is taking it a step further by putting cameras at every single school zone, equipped to catch and ticket every speeder.
"The bottom line is making sure that we remind people, in whatever way we can, going through those school zones, the paramount importance is to slow down for the kids," said Bill Logan, the county's Information Outreach Manager.
David De La Espriella is the VP of Client Relations for Redspeed. RedSpeed is the company behind Manatee County's cameras.
"Our overall goal for this program is to modify the driver's behavior as they approach schools," he said.
The cameras were installed at the beginning of the school year. Since then, more than 9,300 citations have gone out.
"It's important to to kind of stress that when we run reports, it's really just a snippet in that instant, because as soon as we run the report, it could be obsolete, there could be five just in our conversation," he explained.
For the first few months, drivers were only issued a warning. But on Nov. 1, those citations started coming up with a price tag.
In that one month alone, citations totaled more than $878,000 in fines.
"I'm really not surprised that there's that many speeders. You know, especially on the off hours, which is also very important, meaning not the flasher times. Everyone that I come in contact with that is not on the law enforcement side is very surprised that there are this number of violators going through the schools," De La Espriella said.
Anyone caught going 11 miles over that speed limit in a school zone is hit with a $100 fine.
Here's a breakdown of where that money goes:
- $60 goes to Manatee County
- That includes a $21 fee to RedSpeed.
- $20 gets into the state's General Fund
- $12 goes to the school district
- $3 goes to FDLE criminal standards and training fund
- $5 goes to training and retaining crossing guards.
Manatee County Schools sent us this statement:
“The School District of Manatee County is thankful to the Manatee County Commissioners for initiating and instituting these additional safety measures to help keep our children and families safe as they travel to and from school.”
RedSpeed launched five years ago in Georgia. Within the first year, they saw a 90% drop in speed violations.
The initial data in Manatee County shows drivers get the message loud and clear. Less than one percent of the drivers cited even try to contest the ticket.
"It's creating a safer environment for the school zones for the teachers, the parents, the students that are going to and from class," De La Espriella added.
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