School zone speeding next to Collier County deputy caught on camera

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Deputy flahes his or her lights when a vehicle speeds on the adjacent roadway just feet away. (Credit: WINK News)
Deputy flahes his or her lights when a vehicle speeds on the adjacent roadway just feet away. (Credit: WINK News)

A driver speeds by a marked squad car in a school zone on Thursday and does not stop. A Collier County woman caught it all on camera.

The dashcam video from a WINK News viewer shows a white SUV speeding through a school zone on Airport Pulling Rd. nearby Pelican Marsh Elementary School.

Lights go off, but the driver did not get pulled over.

“I was actually horrified the school zones and the lights are flashing and the speed limits are there for a reason,” Tiffany May said. “It’s to protect the children.”

So far this school year, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office has written 76 citations in school zones.

The department, in a statement, told WINK News:

“We have been able to determine the identity of the deputy who was in the video you sent us Thursday. We have also determined that the reason he did not pull over the speeding driver in the Pelican Marsh school zone is that he was leaving the spot to respond to a report of a violent suicidal person in the area of Venetian Plaza. Venetian Plaza is near the intersection of Airport-Pulling Road and Vanderbilt Beach Drive. The deputy was documented to be on scene at that call at 3:19 p.m.“

Also, the deputy may not have had a radar gun to gauge the speed accurately the car was moving at, could have been writing a report, getting ready to go on a call or he or she was a volunteer that did not have the legal authority to make a traffic stop.

“Here in Collier County,” Melanie Linstrom said, “I know that it’s a pretty much a zero-tolerance. My mother was pulled over for the same thing speeding through a school zone, so I’m surprised.”

The Sheriff’s Office said it does want to use this example to remind drivers to slow down, particularly in a school zone and near bus stops. Additionally, it is investigating the incident and trying to identify the person in its vehicle.

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