School zone cameras now back on as Spokane students head back to class

SPOKANE, Wash. — It’s the end of summer vacation in Spokane, which means your commute will look a lot different than it has for the last few months. When 30,000 students head back to class Thursday, they’ll be taking over the roads throughout Spokane — whether it’s walking, biking, busing or driving — through 20 mile per hour speed zones.

“Our driving experiences in the morning and our driving experiences in the afternoon are going to be significantly different,” said Meidl. “One of the frequent things that we will see is that people get impatient or they’re running late because they didn’t give themselves enough time.”

Meidl warned drivers at a press conference Wednesday even going 10 miles per hour over that speed limit can carry consequences beyond a $234 fine.

“When you’re going 20 miles an hour that gives you more reaction time. When you’re going 30 miles an hour, that not only reduces the opportunity you have to potentially see a threat, but also to react to it,” Meidl said. “Studies will show that at 20 miles an hour, if you hit a child, that child has a 10% chance of not surviving that collision. When you’re going 30 miles an hour, that goes up exponentially.”

Meidl said some figures show if a child is hit by a car going 30 miles per hour, their chances of survival drop to a 50-50 chance. He said drivers will see more officers on their way to school or work, as patrols will be keeping drivers in check alongside school zone cameras.

From May to June this year, five different school zone cameras caught about 2,200 drivers speeding past schools.

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