Marylanders Can Now Check Speed Camera Accuracy Online

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The public can now check the accuracy of some speed cameras online. It's an effort by state highway officials to make information accessible.

Tim Williams has more.

It's an effort to be more open with the accuracy and information collected by highway speed cameras.

"The transparency of the program is what we're after and the safety," said State Highway Administration Traffic and Safety Director Cedric Ward.

The Maryland SafeZone Program allows state and Transportation Authority Police to enforce speed limits in highway construction zones. Information from the automated cameras is now being published. Calibration certifications and daily verification tests are now on the Internet.

"We have nine cameras that are rotated--seven cameras with two spares. Each camera has an initial calibration by a third-party vendor that's done here locally. At the year point, the cameras are submitted to be calibrated again. On a daily setup, the operator has to run a series of checks. If something comes up in error, the camera will not fully boot up," said Ward.

"We made some mistakes we shouldn't have been making on reviewing citations," said Anthony Batts, Baltimore Police Commissioner.

The push for transparency comes on the heels of controversy and confusion surrounding the accuracy of city speed cameras.

Just last week, two construction workers were hit and killed in a marked work zone on Route 40 in Cecil County. There were no cameras there.

SafeZone cameras are only placed along roadways or highways with speeds above 45 miles per hour.

"With any program, we always try to monitor it and make improvements and we felt that this was an appropriate step to help aid in that confidence issue," Ward said.

For more information on how you can check the cameras' accuracy, click here.