Greene County may put up speed cameras near schools

GREENE COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) - The Greene County Board of Supervisors is looking into adding speed cameras at three school zones.

“The goal is not to punish citizens, but to train people to be aware that you’re in a school zone,” Supervisor Dale Herring said.

The county conducted a study back in April at Nathaniel Greene Elementary, Ruckersville Elementary, and William Monroe High schools. It says cameras captured more than 400 violations per day.

“Traffic is increasing, attention is probably decreasing, and a combination of two can create a problem.” Herring said.

Ruckersville Elementary saw the most, with 205 violations recorded. The school is right off of Route 33.

“[Route 33] is a very important road for the state, and it’s a pretty highly trafficked road,” Free Enterprise Forum CEO Neil Williamson said.

Each ticket issued to speeders would be $100. Williamson says this could result in the county getting more than $600,000 a month from violations, assuming drivers don’t learn to slow down.

“Their goal is compliance, they would rather get no money from this and have compliance” Williamson said.

“The goal is to have little revenue from this, because this should be a safety enhancement feature, not a revenue-generating feature,” Herring said.

The proposed program would be “violator funded,” meaning no money would come from the already tight budget.

If approved, that money would go to the county’s general funds.

In Virginia, speed cameras are only allowed in work zones and school zones. If a driver receives a ticket, no points would be added to their driving record.

“It’s a civil penalty that’s imposed with a fine, kind of like a parking ticket,” AC Reiman, NBC29′s legal analyst, said.

Greene County will hear public comments before it can vote on adding speed cameras. Herring says it would highly unlikely that the cameras would be in place before school starts in the fall.

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