Unsafe speeds in school zones
ABC57 news has received several complaints from concerned viewers about the speed of cars and the lack of police presence outside of schools.
One woman told us she was in line at an elementary school and observed cars going more than ten miles an hour over the speed limit.
Ten miles an hour how can she be sure that’s how fast the drivers are going over.
I got my hands on a radar gun to see for myself if this truly is a problem.
This is not an official radar gun used by law enforcement.
We tested the radar by placing a camera on the speedometer and a camera on me with the radar gun.
After testing the radar, it seemed to be in good working condition and accurate.
Our first test was at Clay International Academy.
" I'm standing outside today in front of clay International Academy, home of the Cougars. We're on the corner of Lilly Road and Cleveland Road. We're here to do a test because we've received numerous complaints about speeding in the school zone. Now parents are very concerned, and we're here to find out how fast Michiana's drivers are going through the school zone."
When we used radar, the school zone lights were on
and the speed limit is twenty-five miles per hour during dismissal.
Some of the speeds while testing:
"fifty-seven"
"Cop car, fifty-three,"
"With no emergency lights, is that recording?"
"That school zone light is still on, right?
We observed a St. Joseph County police department vehicle with no lights or sirens speeding through the school zone.
I reached out to St. joseph county sheriff bill Redman to see what he had to say about it.
He didn't speak about this on camera but did inform me he is looking into this matter.
Sheriff Redman did talk about the police presence around the schools.
"I ask our patrol officers who are normally in these areas around our local schools, to frequent the school zones as much as possible," Sheriff Redman tells me.
Redman says he also gets a lot of complaints from the public about excessive speeding in school zones.
He recently made some changes to address the problem.
"I took a two-man traffic unit and just doubled that recently, to make it a four-man traffic unit," stated Sheriff Redman.
Another location where high-speed traffic is an issue, is Thomas Jefferson Middle School located on eddy street.
"Now, we've only been here for about five to ten minutes of doing actual radar checking. and it's a little disturbing how fast people going we've seen speeds clock at over 50 miles per hour," I observed.
There was even a construction zone which ended where the school zone began.
That didn't cause drivers to slow down either.
But my main observation.
"We had no police presence. nobody was using radar but us out here."
Our time at Mishawaka High School gave me a different perspective.
Drivers maintained the speed limit for the most part.
A large portion were even going below the speed limit.
The fastest speed…
"37"
The difference we noticed outside Mishawaka high school.
A police presence.
"So, we want to make sure that the school inside is safe as well as the outside in the roadways around each and every school in St. Joe County," Stated Sheriff Redman.