An article in the Albany Times Union by staff writer Steve Hughes on Oct. 27 caught my attention. It stated that 12,895 speeding tickets were issued to drivers in Albany who exceeded the posted 20-mph speed limit in school zones by more than 10 mph above the limit. And that was in only four school speed zones in a 10-day period from October 7-21, not including weekends and the Columbus Day holiday.

The violations were captured by the city’s new school zone speed camera system, a pilot project to deal with the unbelievable number of drivers who fail to obey school speed zones. Ultimately, the project will have 20 school speed zone cameras. After cameras are installed, there is a grace period of 30 days when only warnings are issued. During the same 10-day period mentioned above, an additional 14,834 warnings were issued.

The cameras are meant to help with a simple problem: Too many drivers in Albany speed near schools and the city doesn’t have the police manpower to handle the issue. The tickets go through a two-step process before being mailed to drivers to ensure a violation occurred. The vendor working with the city flags the violation and then a city police officer signs off on the citation.

One particularly recalcitrant driver of a 2019 Toyota Corolla from the 12203 ZIP code managed to rack up 29 tickets during the 10 school-day span.

According to the Times Union article, Albany city treasurer Darius Shahinfar said he was astonished by the early results. “My initial thought was, ‘Holy crap, this many people are speeding in a school zone?'” he said.

For those who know Albany somewhat, the intersection at Eagle Point Elementary School, Western Avenue at Russell Road, racked up the most violations — 7,643.

Each violation occurred in a 20-mph school zone and resulted in a $50 fine. Nearly 9% of those fined were traveling more than 20 mph over the posted speed limit. Eighteen vehicles were traveling over 50 mph.

The city splits the $50 with the camera vendor, with Albany receiving $17 and the company keeping the rest. The violations are not reported to the state Department of Motor Vehicles or a driver’s auto insurance company.

The cameras are live every school day from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Drivers recorded going faster than 30 mph receive a citation in the mail for a $50 fine, which includes a link to view a video of the infraction.

Editor’s note: Dave Werner’s column is in today’s paper because there is no paper Monday due to the

holiday.