PennDOT issues refunds for drivers ticketed by speed camera in unposted work zone

PennDOT issues refunds for speed camera ticket

Frustrated Bucks County drivers claim they have been erroneously ticketed by speed cameras in an unposted work zone. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) is issuing refunds to the drivers who have been ticketed erroneously over the past three months.

BENSALEM, Pa. - The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) is issuing refunds after months worth of erroneous tickets that penalized drivers for speeding in an unposted work zone.

Dennis O'Sullivan, a local driver, said he received a speeding ticket through the mail from a camera on the Route 1 work zone in Bensalem last November. He later got the warning that should have preceded the ticket.

"I never had any opportunity to modify anything because I was never notified of the first violation," O'Sullivan explained to FOX 29's Hank Flynn. His frustration with speed cameras is shared by many drivers who frequent Pennsylvania roads.

"It’s not an officer, If an officer came up and gave me a ticket, that’s fine," one driver said. "I don’t trust them. At all. I don’t trust the cameras."

The camera is mobile and legal, it's run by a state-contracted vendor who didn’t post required signage or use the calibrated gear which is guaranteed in writing on the tickets.

Pennsylvania Rep. Frank Farry of Langhorne said the program is new and wrinkles still need to be ironed out, but it will make travel safer.

"What I hope from this is, one: the system works properly moving forward, and two: people respect that speed zone, and three: people are aware of it because awareness may save a life one day," Farry said.

A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Motorists Association said that in work zones construction workers are hurt more by the job itself than passing drivers.

The association also points out that there is a vendor-contractor relationship to split the money from ticket which may incentivize more infractions to be written.