Thank you, Cape Gazette, for submitting a Freedom of Information Act request for detailed information about the surge in speed camera citations on Route 1 north of Lewes.
Speeding is a serious threat to our public safety; however, the speed camera itself is a serious threat to the rights of law-abiding citizens.
I was a passenger in a vehicle that Delaware Department of Transportation accuses of going 64 mph in that area on Sunday afternoon, Dec. 7. The citation is $127. There is no way the driver was going anywhere close to that fast! Cruise control was set at 55 mph and vehicles were zooming past as we comparatively crawled along in the right-hand lane.
The driver plans to contest this bogus ticket. The hearing request doesn’t say where the procedures are held. I wonder how many other falsely cited drivers aren’t able to take a day off work to defend their accuser. If close to 25,000 citations at $127 (or more) are paid, that’s $3 million in less than a month! Where is this money going?
An interesting aside: The form requesting a hearing is mailed to an address in Baltimore, Md.
I look forward to your staff’s deeper dig into these numbers.
Victoria McCowan
Frankford
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