Almost 142,000 Montgomery County School students will return to class on Monday, which means more kids crossing the road and more school buses stopping to pick them up. Police and school officials are taking the time to remind drivers to watch their speed in school zones.
Drivers who speed by White Oak Middle School at 12201 New Hampshire Ave. in Silver Spring, Md., will be caught on the new speed cameras police have installed there. The County has 25 new speed cameras but this is the only location with a fixed pole camera. The community asked police to put cameras there because people regularly drive 60 mph through that school zone.
Over a seven-day period, police found 36,000 cars speeding through there, County Executive Isiah Leggett said during a press conference at the school Thursday. All of the drivers were going at least 12 miles above the speed limit. Since 2003, there were 196 crashes within half a mile of White Oak Middle School.
Officials hope speed cameras at the location will also benefit other area schools, including Jackson Road Middle School, St. John's Catholic School, the Martin Luther King Jr., Recreational Center and Springbrook High School.
Montgomery County Police want you know know the cameras are out there, said Director of the County's Traffic Division Captain, Thomas Didone. If you slow down, they don't have to take your picture, he added.
