New proposal to put cameras in school zones and reduce speeding

A new form of cracking down on speeding could be coming to schools zones across Florida. Law enforcement has a plan to keep its eyes on you.

Parents say this new legislation is necessary. One mom even described it as life-saving. The measure, if it passes, would give counties and cities, like Lee County, permission to install cameras that can detect speed in a school zone.

Drivers who do speed would get a ticket in the mail.

Cars seem to be going too fast inside of school zones. Jami Biliter is a mom in Lee County. “How important is your kid’s life? That’s what it boils down to for me,” Biliter said.

Her kids go to Harns Marsh Middle School and she’s realized the problem. Biliter has even contacted the Lee County Sheriff’s Office for help.

“They came out a few times. they say there, wrote some tickets but coming out once a year doesn’t cut it,” she said. She believes if they don’t do something soon that “someone is going to get hurt.”

State Representative Nick Duran is from Miami-Dade County and is also afraid of children getting hurt. “When I started taking my two children to school,” said Rep. Duran. “I noticed that a lot of cars would ignore the school safety zone speed limits, and were kind of just kind of flying through there.”

So, Rep. Duran has introduced legislation in the House that would give cities and counties an option to install speed cameras in school zones. House Bill 189 lays out how those speeding in school zones will be fined. If the camera catches a driver going 10 or more miles over the speed limit an hour before or an hour after school, that driver will receive a ticket in the mail.

“Most people say, ‘Oh, this is similar to red-light cameras,’ it’s not because this is based on the speed of the car,” said Duran.

Biliter is all for this idea and she wants people in Lee County to know about it. “There is so much traffic and no one pays attention to the signs,” she said.

WINK News reached out to Lee County Commissioners about this proposal to see if they would be in favor of school zone cameras. However, most were noncommittal.

However, the majority of you who commented on WINK News’ Facebook Page, liked the idea.