Lead-footed motorists won?t be smiling if caught on speed cameras in Maryland highway construction areas and school zones under a statewide proposal before the General Assembly.
Members of a House of Delegates committee Wednesday debated a proposal that would authorize speed cameras in highway work zones and allow counties to adopt legislation to place them along highways in residential and school zones.
State officials said the proposal, which is part of Gov. Martin O?Malley?s legislative agenda, is an attempt to reduce the number of construction-zone fatalities, which has hovered around 15 since 2002.
“We often have narrow lanes, shifting traffic patterns, we have heavy construction equipment, jersey barriers,” said State Highway Administrator Neil Pedersen. “Sometimes, there is only one barrel between a highway worker and moving traffic.”
Montgomery County became the first and only county to use cameras to catch speeders, when the state Senate overrode a veto by then Gov. Robert Ehrlich in 2006.
Under O?Malley?s proposal, a road sign would be placed within one-quarter mile of a work zone, and the camera must be manned by a police officer. The state would implement a year-long warning period.
On Wednesday, Joseph Trapani, a manager with Facchina Construction Company, choked up as he described a March 2004 accident that killed his employee, Dave Bowles, as Bowles worked along the highway.
“He was a family man,” Trapani said. “He wore a smile to work each day and was willing to do pretty muchanything.”
Lawmakers debated the warning period, and several expressed concern with the program?s $1.5 million pricetag. Del. Joe Boteler, a Baltimore County Republican, said he feared speed cameras would become “revenue generators.”
Bruce Bereano, an Annapolis lobbyist who said he was testifying as a private citizen, said the proposal reduces penalties for speeding in work zones from $290 to $75 and eliminates tougher penalties for higher speeds.
Like red-light cameras, Bereano said tickets presume the driver is guilty.
“You have to go to court and prove your innocence,” Bereano said. “You have the burden.”
