MACON, Ga. — Drivers, you'll want to listen up. Macon-Bibb County will start back ticketing using speeding cameras in front of several county schools beginning Monday.
That's after the county gave drivers a two-week long grace period.
13WMAZ’s Jessica Cha spoke with one woman who was affected by this and what's happening to her tickets.
Sonya Goodlow and her family said they had almost $5000 worth of speeding tickets from the camera on Upper River Road. She says she's relieved that people are finally paying attention to the issue.
"I'm glad and grateful that they're dismissing the tickets,” she says.
Goodlow was one of hundreds ticketed by the new speeding camera in front of Northeast High School. After her story aired last month, she was told to mail in her citations to schedule a hearing with a judge.
“So, I sent all of mine in with the multiple tickets that I have. Like my cousin’s tickets, my grandson’s tickets. I told them I wanted all the tickets to be heard the same day since they all happened around the same time,” she explains. “I never heard anything back from that.”.
Goodlow says in mid-October, she was invited to her neighborhood watch meeting where over a dozen other folks told her they experienced the same problem.
"They was saying that it was unfair. Why didn't anyone notify anybody in the neighborhood that those cameras were gonna be there,” she recalls.
On November 9, Macon-Bibb County announced they would be making temporary changes to how tickets were issued for speeders for one week.
They said violating vehicles would be issued a maximum of one citation per vehicle. Any violations past the first one would be dismissed.
Goodlow says she's glad this happened, but she only knew because her niece sent her a social media post.
"They said that [County Commissioner] Al Tillman had posted on Facebook, ‘Merry Christmas, school zone speeders. We’re gonna dismiss all your tickets but one,” she says. “I would've never known.".
Goodlow says she also didn't know that the cameras would start working again after Thanksgiving break, or if the citations she and her family have mailed in would also be dismissed.
She says the county and sheriff's office are still lacking in communication.
"Send us something in the mail, or either have a news briefing on it to be specific so the public can know. Like I said, not everyone is on social media,” Goodlow explains.
Bibb County installed speeding cameras in front of nine schools including: Northeast High, Appling Middle, Rutland Middle & High, Weaver Middle, Westside High, Ballard-Hudson Middle & Ingram-Pye Elementary, and Southwest High. They say that they will eventually be installed in front of all public schools.
Citations are given once a car travels through a speed zone more than 10 miles per hour of the posted speed limit. The first citation will be $100 and each violation after that will be $150.