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Are some Buffalo school zone cameras ticketing after hours?

SCHOOL ZONE CAM
Posted at 5:55 PM, Feb 12, 2020
and last updated 2020-02-12 23:42:17-05

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — If you've driven in the City of Buffalo in the last month, you've likely noticed school zone cameras posted outside schools. They're meant to ticket drivers who are not obeying the speed limit in a school zone, but one Buffalo family says they were ticketed "outside" the allotted time.

"She noticed the sign stated 15MPH for the school zone, but another sign underneath said 7:00 am-3:30pm," said Peter Lauricella, whose daughter received a warning from the City.

Lauricella says his daughter was driving home from work on January 9. She was passing Canisius High School on Delaware Avenue shortly after 4:00pm. He says she was going the regular 30mph speed limit. A sign indicating the area is a school zone says the lower 15mph limit ended that school day at 3:30pm.

"A month later she received a traffic violation for the camera at that school," he said.

The ticket she received shows she was clocked on Delaware at 4:13pm going 30mph in the school zone. The sign posted says the school zone stopped ticketing at 3:30pm.

Lauricella says he called the camera company, which is based in Massachusetts to see what was going on.

"The man checked his computer and it says Buffalo gave them the information to ticket until 4:30pm," he said.

That's an hour glitch in the system. Lauricella says his daughter just received this warning last week, and was concerned others may be unfairly ticketed past the posted time.

We took these concerns to the City of Buffalo, and a spokesperson says the company did have the wrong time for that camera, ticketing until 4:30pm instead of 3:30pm.

City spokesperson Mike Degeorge says the problem has since been fixed, and Lauricella's daughter won't be getting a ticket.