The Youngstown Vindicator — aka The Vindy — reports that the city police department is about to mail out 1,000 speeding tickets gathered over the past 12 days. Most of the tickets were picked up on State Rt. 711 and I-680.

“In comparison,” The Vindy‘s David Skolnick writes, “the city issued 960 speeding tickets all of last year and 1,050 in all of 2013.”

The new radar guns allow officers to catch speeders and later mail them the ticket, rather than initiate a traffic stop. As these traffic guns are held by hand, the process circumvents state law that prohibits “unmanned” traffic cameras.

Here’s one more tidbit from the paper:

When asked if the citations are a “money grab” by the city, [Mayor John A.] McNally said, “I don’t have a thought on that. There’s a fine, but we look at it as a safety issue.”

This article appears in Aug 26 – Sep 1, 2015.

Eric Sandy is an award-winning Cleveland-based journalist. For a while, he was the managing editor of Scene. He now contributes jam band features every now and then.

7 replies on “Youngstown Issues 1,000 Speeding Tickets in 12 Days with New Radar Guns”

  3. people are driving like idiots anymore! there are so many drivers that will cause uneccesary urgent braking by cutting in to traffic at the last second, and weaving in and out of lanes to get a couple of cars ahead!!! I drive for a living and have been doing so for the past 15 years. It is getting much worse in Northeast Ohio. Road rage will be not far behind!

  4. Alright. So, on one hand, I hate this, because essentially all the problems with a traffic camera apply here. You do not get the opportunity to plead your case to the officer at the time of the traffic stop, you’re basically already “guilty” if your license plate is tagged, justly or unjustly.

    On the other hand, most drivers really are awful and have no idea what they’re doing. Turn signals, remember those things? I think there should be some CE or retesting for drivers licenses, it’s just nuts on the roads some days.

  6. I travel 680 and 711 to and from work on a daily basis. The speed limit should definitely be raised from 50 to 60 along the entire length of 680 that winds through the city of Youngstown. As far as the on-ramps go, since no one seems to know what a White/Red Yield Sign means (merging is not recommended; proceed according to traffic flow) Youngstown needs to babysit these area’s by placing a cop or a stop sign at the bottom of these ramps. I would almost guarantee you that the accidents would decrease at least ten-fold and probably fifty-fold if they’d start shooting half the people that don’t merge appropriately (no doubt crime would then decrease at least by twenty-fold in those area’s). The reason I ‘speed’ along 680 is to stay out of the lane closest to the on-ramps. It is not the people who are from out of town who don’t understand how to merge it is the fools who live and work in Youngstown and Austintown who don’t get it. Regardless, 50 mph is too slow for North and South 680 period and the threat of getting hit with a ticket while travelling through this gauntlet has already caused two accidents that I know of from people slamming on their brakes who suddenly realize where they are (and it’s not the Village of Poland, where speeding and playing loud music could find you lying on the side of the road with a bullet in the head) . The new traffic camera’s are nothing but a revenue-maker for the city which will eventually be fought over in court and ultimately the practice of using cameras will go away. How do I know this? There are too many lawyers and judges with wives and children who also speed along I-680 and well, you know, without a cop there to ask them who they’re related to, well, let’s be honest, sometimes, living in a Valley that sees its fair share of corruption doled out on a daily basis, sometimes a face-to-face with an officer of the law can turn out to be a good thing.

  7. I think that the city is using the cameras to create money for the city of Youngstown. They have now placed them on exit signs on 680. Martin l. King exit, right of the sign with a sun panel. One on a sign before you get to the boardman exit, unmaned. on the way back from Boardman another one unmaned by a exit sign. one on the freeway before you get to the spit williamson – cleveland at the top of a light . The fact that all of a sudden the people of Youngstown are getting all of these tickets, does that mean that the youngstown police dept. was inept all these years? I will not vote for our mayor again. I think that we should have been able to vote on the issue of the cameras.

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