Years ago, I worked the city council
beat for a local newspaper. Some of those nights can be pretty boring. There
are the reporters lounging around on the back row, pencils poised for a worthy
development or sparkling quote.
Having been there, I always appreciate
a lively city council story where “the people” speak up. Here’s such a report
from the Fort Dodge Messenger News in
Iowa. It was sent to us by OOIDA
member Les Yaw of Mason City, IA.
Some people were at the council meeting
to address erroneous speeding tickets generated by the mobile traffic camera
system in Fort Dodge. Messenger
reporter Bill Shea made a quick pounce on a story.
Those tickets, he writes, suggest that “there
are some lead-footed drivers behind the wheels of school buses and other large
vehicles traveling through the city.”
But something appears to be rotten in
Fort Dodge and Shea quickly clarifies: “That’s simply not true, said a handful
of drivers who took their case to the City Council Monday night.”
Shea reports these drivers – including
a truck driver and a couple of bus drivers – claimed that they were not
speeding when the traffic camera snapped photos of their vehicles. They also
made the point that that “it would be impossible to get their large machines
moving as quickly as the traffic camera evidence suggests.”
According to Shea’s story, the police
chief said, after hearing the complaints, that the camera system was constantly
checked and calibrated to the same standards used for all of the Iowa law
enforcement cams.
Nevertheless, the trucker told the
council he got three tickets after his truck was clocked going 50 to 55 mph in
a 25 mph zone. He told them it was impossible for his big truck to hit 50 mph
or more in the block and a half.
One driver for Dodger Area Rapid
Transit was at the meeting, too. His bus was ticketed twice in one day. Another
bus driver from the school district said he got three tickets in one day and
was “going to lose his job.”
As far as paying the tickets, I’m not
clear if the trucker and the bus drivers have paid the tickets, if they are
pending or what. The trucker said he didn’t think he should be held
accountable.
The chief and the council reacted
sensibly. They’d heard of this happening in other towns although they couldn’t
recall where. They decided if the traffic cam isn’t working, they will stop
using it until the questions about the tickets involving large vehicles are
totally checked out.
It’s always good to hear a positive story
where people take the time to go to a city council meeting and stand up for
themselves in the face of some ridiculous charges. In a world of surveillance, constant
tickets, citations, warnings and fines, it’s heartening.
