SUFFOLK, Va.— Watch out! New speed enforcement cameras in Suffolk have caught thousands of drivers going over the speed limit. Drivers told News 3 they have concerns about these cameras, and why they are now pumping the brakes.
"You have to watch that work zone area, if it isn't anybody out there you have to watch it," said Suffolk resident Denise Johnson. "If you don't you will get a ticket in the mail."
Johnson says she knows all too well about getting a ticket in the mail. Her husband got one.
"Now, he knows to slow down," said Johnson.
If you get caught in school and construction zones, it is a $100 fine.
"He was driving on 258, right there by Pruden, the college, right up the street,"" said Johnson. "He was driving in the work zone."
There are two work zone cameras at Route 58/ Holland Road Widening Project and Pruden Boulevard at College and Career Academy Roadway Project.
According to Suffolk City Council leaders, they have had a earful of concerns about these cameras.
"Right now everybody is ticked," said Suffolk City Councilman Timothy Johnson.
Between May 15 and June 15, more than 35,636 drivers were given warnings, and from June 15 through July 15, over 12,819 citations were mailed with a hefty $100 fine.
"I thought I was keeping up with the traffic actually," said Kathy Dibble, who was ticketed in July.
Dibble is from Petersburg and was traveling through Suffolk coming from vacation. She is grouped with many who were slapped with a fine. Her violation said she was going 45 in a 35 work zone, yet she claims she wasn't speeding.
"I was doing the speed limit and I had a car in front of me,"said Johnson. "When I received the speeding ticket in the mail, I was shocked."
Dibble questions the accuracy of the speed cameras.
"The system does not only catch one vehicle, so you may be in a cluster of vehicles, and it can get more than one vehicle at the time," said Al Chandler, Suffolk Police Chief. "Were not making any delineation of any one type of vehicle, being tractor trailers or city vehicles. If we have the information they violated the law, we're acting the same way."
Another driver told News 3 he lives in North Carolina, but travels to Suffolk everyday for work on route 460. He said he is surprised he has never gotten a ticket because its easy to miss the warning signs.
"I'm just praying people will slow down," said Johnson.
To clear concerns Chief Chandler said the images these cameras capture are not entered into the Suffolk Police Department database and are not kept in the system, and these cameras do not play favorites.
