Beltway speed cameras in Prince George's Co. work zone issue more than $3M in fines in 6 months

WASHINGTON - The Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) has sent drivers 74,964 citations since it implemented a speed camera in a construction zone on Interstate 95/Interstate 495 in Prince George's County.

At $40 per ticket, that comes to a total of $3,073,524 in fines.

AAA Mid-Atlantic requested the citation statistics from the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA), which accounts for the past six months.

The Maryland State Highway Administration first implemented the safe zone mobile enforcement vehicle for the Suitland Road Bridge replacement project in July 2017. The speed limit for that portion of the Beltway near Joint Base Andrews is 55 miles per hour. Drivers have to go 12 miles over that to get a ticket or 67 miles per hour.

"The inherent danger is killing construction workers in work zones," explained John Townsend with AAA Mid-Atlantic. "The other inherent danger is in the state of Maryland last year, the majority of persons -- six people were killed in work zones -- most of those were drivers and not construction workers."

But looking at the big picture, the number of citations is relatively small compared to how much traffic flows through that area daily (about 200,000 vehicles). That comes to 36 million cars in six months. With nearly 75,000 receiving tickets, that is a rate of .21 percent of drivers.

And according to SHA, once these work zone cameras are implemented, they reduce speeding by 90 percent. Currently, Maryland has work zone cameras in nine other areas across the state. Since the program's implementation in 2010, it has brought in $115 million in revenue from speedy drivers.