By David Skolnick

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The number of people cited by police for civil speeding violations has exceeded 4,000 in less than three months of enforcement.

In comparison, city police ticketed 960 people for speeding all of last year.

Since the program began Aug. 18, 4,006 people have been cited for speeding based on an ongoing weekly count by The Vindicator.

Only 119 had filed for appeal hearings as of Friday, including none during the past week, said Lt. William Ross, head of the city’s traffic unit, which operates the speed-gun program.

About 20 to 25 of those who filed objections to the citations will be at the first appeals hearing Wednesday, starting at 6 p.m., in Youngstown Municipal Court in front of Magistrate Eugene Fehr, hired by the city to hear these matters, Ross said.

The number of citations between Nov. 7 and Friday was typical for a week.

In all, 252 people were cited for speeding from Nov. 7 to Friday. The week prior, the number was 157 citations with fewer speed-camera shifts. The two weeks before that declined; officers cited 263 and 275 people for speeding, respectively.

Officers use speed guns to monitor how fast vehicles travel and issue civil-fee citations instead of stopping drivers and giving them moving-violation tickets with a fine and points on driver’s licenses.

Officers issue citations for vehicles going at least 12 mph over the limit on highways and at least 10 mph over the limit in school zones.

The location of most of the tickets is on Interstate 680 between South Avenue and Meridian Road, where the speed limit is 50 mph.

The penalties are $100 for driving up to 13 mph over the limit, $125 for 14 to 19 mph over the limit, and $150 for at least 20 mph over the limit.

Optotraffic, a Latham, Md., company, provided the speed guns and processes and mails citations for the city for 35 percent of the fees collected.

The company has provided the number of people who have paid the speeding fees to the city on Fridays. The company didn’t provide that information this Friday, however.

The most recent number of 1,434 was provided Nov. 6. Using $125 for an average citation, that’s $179,250 collected with the city getting $116,512.50 and Optotraffic keeping $62,737.50.