HIALEAH GARDENS, FLA. (WSVN) - Cars speeding in school zones are becoming a troubling trend in Hialeah Gardens, prompting officials to launch a new initiative in an effort to improve safety.
The City of Hialeah Gardens is launching a new program in partnership with the traffic enforcement company, Altumint, to address drivers speeding near schools. This comes on the heels of newly released data in Miami-Dade County pertaining to the county’s school bus camera program.
“We have seen an increase in our motorists and our violators that tend to pass the school buses,” said Miami-Dade Police Detective Angel Rodriguez.
Miami-Dade County schools are back in session just under two weeks and MDPD said they’ve already seen alarming numbers, with nearly 11,500 school bus violations recorded. All of the violations were caught on newly installed cameras on over 1,000 school buses. The cameras are installed on the “stop” arms of the bus and are triggered automatically when the stop sign is deployed and the bus come to a complete stop.
The devices detect movement on the left side of the bus and capture the license plate of any vehicle that passes illegally.
“This is a reminder to everyone in our community that safety is our utmost importance, and even to our first responder that may be going to call, we are not exempt from this law. We are also held accountable and made responsible to ensure that we adhere to, not only, the traffic laws but also to this school safety, bus camera enforcement,” said Rodriguez.
The results of the speed test highlighted Hialeah Gardens problem with speeding while reduce speed flashing lights were activated.
Five hundred sixty-five cars sped through the Hialeah Garden school zone in one day with another 340 cars speeding through Matter Academy school zones.
A trailer equipped with AI technology will capture drivers who are going over 11 miles per hour over the posted speed limit up to 30 min before school, during school, and 30 min after. The make and model of the car will be reviewed, send to the DMV, and then over to PD.
“We send it to the police department for their review,” sad an Altumint representative, “only the police department can send out a citation.”
After a 30 day warning period, violators may pay a 100 dollar fine.
“Anything that helps protect the kids obviously I think is a good thing,” said Adrian Ardila, father of a student at Hialeah Gardens Middle School.
School districts across South Florida will be implementing similar security programs.
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