Local police department plans to add more cameras in school zones to help catch speedy drivers

Drive too fast past a school, and you’ll likely end up on camera.

The school zone speed cameras are always watching, and one city in north Fulton County just caught two extreme speeders.

Channel 2′s Steve Gehlbach was in Alpharetta to show you just how fast they were going.

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Last Friday afternoon after school, a speed camera caught a driver going 60 mph past Alpharetta High School.

Then, less than a mile and a half away, a camera caught not one, but two motorcycles going even faster.

Video from the speed camera outside Manning Oaks Elementary on Cumming Street showed a pair of bikers buzz a student on the sidewalk. They were clocked at 77 mph in the school zone — 52 mph over the posted 25 limit.

“He clearly heard the bikes as they were coming up on him,” Capt. Jakai Braithwaite of the Alpharetta Police Department said. Braithwaite said the child was obviously “spooked” as the bikers whizzed by.

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Another camera caught a car on North Point Parkway doing 60 through the 25 mph school zone, where neighbors say drivers speed constantly.

“No, it does not surprise me at all. I just think, especially with the kids here, they just need to slow down,” said a Alpharetta neighbor.

“To tell you the truth, that’s not the fastest we have seen. During school hours, (we’ve) actually seen a 96,” Braithwaite said.

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The automated cameras only operate an hour in the morning and hour in the afternoon, and they send any violations to police. An Alpharetta traffic officer then reviews the video.

For these two cases, the car’s driver and one of the motorcyclists were cited and sent $75 tickets. But if they were caught going even 30 mph over the limit by an officer in person, they could have been arrested.

“You can see people flying by school buses when they stop,” Braithwaite said. “Please, just be aware. Put your phones down. Slow down. Protect our children. That’s why these cameras are here.”

Alpharetta police currently have cameras at seven locations but want to add two more: one outside New Prospect Elementary on Kimball Bridge and another outside Innovation Academy on Milton Avenue. They’re waiting on approval from the Fulton County schools.

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