ORLANDO, Fla. – School zone speed cameras are now legal in Florida and may soon be coming to a school zone near you.
On Monday, the Osceola County Commission took up the issue. County commissioners voted unanimously to take the next steps to install cameras in school zones.
The Florida Legislature approved the use of the cameras in spring of 2023. Osceola County staff will now work on drafting a new ordinance for the cameras.
The cameras are already up in parts of Winter Garden.
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The new state law allows for cameras in school zones to take pictures of vehicles going more than 10 miles per hour over the speed limit, and then fine the owner of the vehicle $100.
The cameras will be active 30 minutes before and after the school day.
Eustis Police Chief Craig Capri recently joined Trooper Steve Montiero to discuss possibly implementing the new technology in their city. Chief Capri supports the idea.
“Our kids are out here going to school in the morning, the last thing we want to do is see a kid get hit by a car,” said Capri. “I mean, that’s what this is all about, saving lives, so this equipment is going to help us do that and it’ll be funded by the violators, not by the taxpayers.”
Altumint, the company that would implement the cameras in Eustis, recently did a study on some of the proposed sites. At one site, 3,369 vehicles were captured. If the cameras had been online, 894 would have been found in violation, going more than 10 mph over the speed limit, which breaks down to 27% of vehicles monitored.
The fastest speeds captured were 69.1 mph, 60.6 mph and 59.7 mph.
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