NORTON – If you’re using to speeding down Interstate 76 through Norton, you better slow down, and this is your final warning. Police are ready to start using their speed camera program to keep driver’s honest.
City councilman Dennis McGlone represents ward 2 and is also head of the safety committee. Safety, he says, is what this program is all about.
“A lot of people are saying maybe it’s about the money, but it isn’t. It’s about the safety of the people of Norton and anyone that drives through our city,” McGlone said of the program.
The program is focused on a stretch of I-76 that is undergoing an $80.4 million dollar project to widen the road. In some areas, this means there are single lanes of traffic where police don’t have the ability to pull people over for going over the speed limit. That’s why the police and city council opted for the camera program to help enforce the speed limit.
Signs have been put up along highway entrance ramps warning drivers about the photo enforcement. Officers will stand on bridges and use a DragonCam brand laser-camera system to clock the speed of drivers and take photos of the violation.
The program will target drivers going more than 10 miles per hour over the limit on I-76, and will cost the driver $200. However, the citations will not add any points to a driver’s record.
The city ordinance is written as an emergency measure to improve safety, not permanent legislation. That means the camera enforcement program goes away when the construction goes away.
“As soon as they’re done with the construction, it’s over with. We send the cameras back, the signs go back down,” said McGlone. “It’s back to normal as we’ve always been doing it with the Norton police pulling people over.”
Back in July, Norton’s Chief of Police advised city council there had been 84 crashes along the stretch of I-76 from January to July of 2018. There were only 83 the entire year of 2016, before construction started.
By having a way to enforce the law, city officials believe the number of accidents will decrease.
For those driving through the are, McGlone advises, “drive the speed limit -- you’re not going to get a ticket. And you’ll save yourself $200.”
Construction is scheduled to wrap up in July 2019. That’s when the program will go away.