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Pennsylvania State Senate
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=S&SPick=20130&cosponId=13144
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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2013 - 2014 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: August 2, 2013 08:42 AM
From: Senator Michael J. Stack
To: All Senate members
Subject: Photo Speed Enforcement Cameras Co-sponsorship Memo
 
Following the deaths of a mother and her three sons two weeks ago along Roosevelt Boulevard in Northeast Philadelphia, I intend to introduce a bill to put photo speed enforcement cameras along U.S. 1 (Roosevelt Boulevard) from the Bucks County line to I-76.

Photo speed enforcement cameras would not have stopped this tragedy by themselves, but as a deterrent, this technology would send a message to every Boulevard motorist, every day, that if they exceed the speed limit on what has always been a dangerous road, they will receive a penalty.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, only 133 communities in 13 states use photo radar. No Pennsylvania community uses the technology.

A study by the international Cochrane Collaboration found that photo radar devices reduce all speed-related crashes by as much as 25 percent. For crashes involving fatalities, photo radar drops that statistic by as much as 44 percent.

My legislation would place photo speed enforcement cameras on U.S. Route 1 in Philadelphia from the Bucks County Line to I-76. A city of the first class would manage the cameras or hire a contractor to manage the cameras and the enforcement program. Before the cameras could be used, PennDOT would need to approve the cameras and appropriate signs would need to be placed on U.S. 1 alerting drivers to the use of photo speed enforcement devices.

A person that violates the speed limit and is recorded by a photo speed enforcement device shall pay a $100 fine. No points shall be assessed for this violation and no tickets will be issued if someone is going less than ten miles per hour in excess of the legal speed limit. So if a driver is driving 53 mph in a 45 mph stretch of highway, they would not receive a speeding ticket from the photo speed enforcement technology.

Privacy of these images is important and strong under the legislation. Law enforcement may only access the photo images if they are conducting a criminal investigation. Recorded images shall be destroyed within one year of final disposition of a recorded event. The legislation also includes several valid defenses to violations including:

1. The person named in the notice of the violation was not operating the vehicle at the time of the violation and the owner submits evidence that he or she was not the driver at the time and discloses the identity of the driver.

2. The vehicle was reported to a police department as stolen prior to the time the violation occurred.

3. The person receiving the notice of the violation was not the owner of the vehicle at the time.

I hope you will join me in sponsoring this legislation. If you have any questions, please contact my office.



Introduced as SB1211