Radar camera is just the ticket

The District’s newest photo-radar camera, near the entrance of Gallaudet University in Northeast, has caught more than 10,000 speeding drivers in 15 days and is expected to generate millions in ticket revenue after the one-month warning period ends.

The camera — located in the 600 block of Florida Avenue NE — was activated Feb. 27. Owners of vehicles caught speeding by the camera will be issued tickets via mail beginning March 28.

“In the first 15 days of operation of the stationary camera, it generated 10,284 potential warning citations, averaging out to about 685 a day,” said Kevin Morison, spokesman for Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey.

Such violations do not carry points in the District, but speeding fines can be as much as $200.

Until the recent deployment on Florida Avenue, speed cameras had been placed in police cruisers at strategic spots throughout the city.

Police said the site was chosen as the city’s first fixed-camera location because of chronic speeders in that area.

Four speeding-related fatalities — three vehicular crashes on Oct. 7, 1998, Jan. 4, 1999, and Nov. 17, 2001, and one pedestrian death on Feb. 27, 1999 — have occurred in the area in recent years.

Neighborhood residents applaud the camera’s installation, calling it a long-overdue action in light of the Florida Avenue’s proximity to Gallaudet — a school for the deaf and hard-of-hearing — and nearby J.O. Wilson Elementary School.

“We needed it,” said Pauline Robinson, 80, a 30-year resident of the 1000 block of Eighth Street NE. “There was always accidents. They’d always fly up and down [Florida Avenue].”

Mr. Morison said, “The highest speed we’ve recorded to date in those first 12 days was 88 miles per hour, and remember that’s a 25 miles per hour zone adjacent to Gallaudet University with its sizable population of deaf and hard-of-hearing students.”

Miss Robinson, who lives with her daughter and 5-year-old grandson, said she hasn’t noticed any difference since the camera was installed. “They still [speed excessively].”

Asked if the many children walking from Wilson Elementary School influence motorists to slow down, Miss Robinson said the speeding drivers “don’t care.”

Her neighbor, John White, 45, agreed that action has needed to be taken in the area for a long time.

“I’m glad they did it,” said Mr. White, a warehouse worker who has lived in the neighborhood for 21/2 years. “All the time [before the camera’s implementation], I’d be waking up at nights to accidents.”

Story Continues →