A NEW ruling coming in a matter of days will see drivers hit with fines of $100 – although the enforcement largely depends on the time of day.
A series of speed cameras are set to be installed outside more than a dozen schools in a major county, becoming operational during specific times of the school day to encourage safer driving near school zones.
A series of speed cameras are set to be installed outside more than a dozen schools[/caption]
It comes as a new law, which will be active from August 14, will see drivers hit with fines of $100[/caption]
Those caught going 10 mph over the limit will receive $100 fines, with 30 days to pay or request a hearing[/caption]
According to Local10, the Doral area in Miami-Dade County, Florida, will be coming down harder on speeding motorists with those caught 10 mph over the limit to receive $100 fines, with 30 days to pay or request a hearing.
These cameras will be in operation 30 minutes before school starts, during the school day and 30 minutes after school ends – but will be inactive on weekends and holidays.
Furthermore, they will reportedly be clearly marked to alert drivers to reduce speed.
Doral Police Chief Edwin Lopez said: “We’ve had kids hit by motorists driving next to us, we’ve had students killed years ago in our school grounds here in Miami-Dade County as well.
“So this helps educate the community that we take an active stand towards this.”
Authorities added that drivers have a 30-day grace period to adjust before fines are issued – starting September 14.
This comes as a driver from Hillsborough County, Florida, recently complained he was unfairly fined $100 for allegedly speeding in a school zone.
Joe Weaver is among several motorists who blame a new law’s vague language for the citation and believes the state’s use of school zone cameras has become a money grab.
The speed cameras, installed in school zones across Florida, including Hillsborough County, are positioned near schools to monitor drivers and capture violations when they exceed the school zone speed limit – as designated by the signage in the area.
The law, which came into effect across Florida in 2023, mandates school zones to have signs indicating when the reduced speed limit is in effect.
However, the law does not require flashing beacons to be operational, even if the sign states “20 mph when flashing.”
This, in turn, has caused widespread confusion among drivers.
In Weaver’s case, a school speed zone camera caught him going 38 mph when he thought the speed limit was 40 mph.
And that’s because the school speed zone sign wasn’t flashing when he was driving past an elementary school near his home.
“I got a raw deal,” he told reporters.
And elsewhere, drivers who once relied on a clever backstreet shortcut to dodge a daily toll were met with an unwelcome surprise during their morning commute recently.
Previously, motorists found a hidden driveway at a service area was the perfect way to avoid paying a daily driving charge of $1.15.
But according to NJ, the driveway has since been converted to one-way, prohibiting traffic from exiting and skipping the toll.
The hidden driveway of the Garden State Parkway’s Connie Chung service area in Bloomfield, New Jersey, was once a favored route for sneaky New Jerseyans to bypass paying the southbound Parkway toll.
This driveway connected the service area to Broad Street, allowing drivers to avoid the $1.15 toll at Exit 151 Toll Plaza.
The clever hack was first discovered after the building was closed off some two years ago for workers to complete renovations of the service area.
How to fight a speeding ticket
According to a legally reviewed post, there are five effective strategies to fighting a speeding ticket if it was wrongfully issued.
- If pulled over and issued a ticket, drivers can argue or dispute a driver’s personal opinion. When issuing a speeding ticket, an officer is required to write their opinion and come to an “objective” conclusion. If the ticket was written based on that judgment, it can be contested. An example would be if you were going 75 mph in a 65 mph zone because others were traveling at the same speed, you could argue that it would be more dangerous to travel at 65 mph.
- You can dispute the officer’s presentation of evidence. If you were ticketed for something like running a stop sign or making an illegal u-turn, you can’t contest that if an officer saw you, but you can call things into court like eyewitnesses, diagrams, or photos.
- Argue that the ticket was issued by a “mistake of fact.” This is tricky, but a “mistake of fact” is a mistake made by a driver about a situation that was beyond their control, or if a driver legitimately did not know they were violating the law. For example, you were driving in two lanes because the lane markers were so worn down that you could not see them.
- You could say circumstances justified your driving. You could say you were speeding to pass a possibly drunk driver, or avoiding an accident by rapidly changing lanes. However, the argument won’t work if there’s proof you continued to speed after passing.
- Similar to the above, it could be argued that speeding was necessary to avoid harm. The key is to argue that if you weren’t speeding, you or someone else could have been harmed.
- Consult a traffic attorney, if all else fails. Many have free consultations to decide whether or not there’s a case.
Source: FindLaw
