The bane of many drivers’ existence, school zone speed cameras often seem to be prowling on every street, waiting to catch every driver who passes by. At the end of the day, however, they exist to prevent accidents and even save the lives of pedestrians, especially children.

As you know, knowledge is power, and when it comes to camera violations, knowledge is also money, so it pays to know that, starting on July 11, 2020, as part of the Vision Zero program, the City of New York’s school zone speed cameras started operating from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, year round. That means that if a camera caught your vehicle traveling at a speed in excess of 10 MPH of the posted maximum speed limit, disputing your ticket with the defense that it occurred outside of school hours has a rather limited range.

As per the City’s School Zone Speed Camera Violations information page, the following defences are possible when disputing a school zone speed camera violation:

• Your evidence shows that the ticket was issued outside of the enforceable days or hours.
• Your evidence shows that you are not the owner of the vehicle ticketed. For example, there were other cars near yours at the time of occurrence, and the camera captured the wrong car.
• Your evidence shows that the camera malfunctioned on the date of occurrence.
• You have evidence to show that your car was stolen, and not recovered, before the occurrence.