D.C.’s traffic cameras don’t know the difference between a normal vehicle and an official D.C. government vehicle, and it’s not only normal motorists who are bad drivers. WJLA reports that D.C. workers driving official D.C. vehicles have racked up some $367,000 worth of traffic camera tickets over the last year-and-a-half:
A review of thousands of tickets issued to the city and video evidence has revealed flat out dangerous driving by D.C. government employees in vehicles belonging to the city—all captured by the district’s red light cameras.
The red light cameras also caught fire and police vehicles not using their emergency lights when going through traffic signals.
Seven on your side reviewed nearly 2,600 photo enforcement tickets issued to D.C. government vehicles from 2011 and the first half of 2012—688 of them were for running a red light, 145 were for going at least 21 miles over the speed limit.
According to D.C. officials, unless those tickets are dismissed because of valid reasons—an emergency vehicle responding to a call, for one—the driver is expected to pay the fine in full.
Earlier this year, WTOP reported that cameras onboard Metrobuses had caught a number of traffic violations, including near-collisions with cars and pedestrians.
Martin Austermuhle