Nearly 100 bipartisan legislators are supporting the repeal of a 2018 law that mandated use of school zone traffic cameras. Rep. Dewey McClain (D-Lawrenceville) supported the original bill, but now says, “There’s no school on Saturdays, there’s no school on Sundays. There’s no schools at 7 or 8 o’clock at night. Why are the cameras still on?” Republican Dale Washburn, representing District 144 which includes Macon, heard complaints from constituents claiming the privately run camera systems had erroneously tagged them as speeders. As an aside, one of the ways local governments using privately run traffic enforcement cameras get around both the high burden of proof in a criminal matter and the Confrontation Clause is to make such infractions civil.
The state passed the law after a speeding car killed Edna Euma, a crossing guard in Austell. Bob Dallas, former director of the governor’s office of highway safety, thinks the law has been successful slowing traffic in school zones. “It’s all about safety. And I know (some legislators are) trying to make it about something else. But I think in their conversation, they’ll hear the safety story and realize how this benefits Georgians.” He says if the program needs to be modified, it should be, but that eliminating it all together will result in more deaths and injuries in school zones. Indeed, one has to wonder, based on McClain’s complaint, why the cameras just don’t operate when schools aren’t open? Why must this be an all or nothing approach?