BOTHELL, Wash. — Just north of Bothell’s Westhill Elementary School on 88th Avenue Northeast, new speed cameras have been installed by the city. That means if you go through the area over the 20 mile an hour speed limit marked on signs, you’ll probably get a ticket in the mail.
We saw the effect of this during drop-off at school on Friday morning.
Paulo Freitas is a parent in Bothell and was dropping his children at an early learning center Friday Morning. He says traffic is an issue in the area of the schools on 88th Ave Northeast.
“Yeah sometimes very fast,” he told us. “That’s very scary.”
On Friday morning, however, there was a slow crawl in front of West Hill Elementary and Sorensen Early Learning Center, where even pedestrians were moving faster than cars.
That could very well be thanks to the newly installed speed cameras.
Bothell’s cameras are legal by Washington state law, as long as they are enacted by the counties.
These cameras have become especially common across the Puget Sound region according to Mark McKechnie with the Washington Traffic Safety Commission.
“Within the state statute they can authorize them for use in school walk zones, park zones, hospital zones, and depending on the size of the city, there’s an allowance to use them in problem areas,” he described.
Jane Zng traversed the busy roadway this morning to get her children to the bus stop. She says speed limits need to be obeyed, cameras or not.
“They need to keep the speed at 20,” she said.
Tacoma law firm Garguile DUI and Traffic Lawyers states on its website that you can dispute the traffic camera tickets. A driver can request a contested hearing, and in Washington state, a judge can even decide to lower the fine on most traffic infractions.
That said, judges are not allowed to reduce a fine when the camera ticket is for speeding in a school zone or passing a stopped school bus.
Under Washington law, a traffic infraction detected through a camera is presumed to have been committed by the registered owner of the vehicle. But, you can testify in a written statement that you were not behind the wheel and the responsibility can be passed on to the person who was actually driving.
McKechnie did clarify one key thing drivers should know.
“The fines for these citations are limited also, and they do not count the same on the drivers’ record,” he said. “It doesn’t go into the drivers record the same way an officer issued citation would.”
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