The speed camera crackdown in school zones has snared 200 city-owned vehicles — and the employees caught driving them will have to pony up the $50 fines themselves, a new analysis revealed Tuesday.
The number — based on data from mid-January to the end of May — is a fraction of the 41,000 tickets issued during that period, WNYC reported.
And only five of the authorized 140 cameras were operating at that time.
Another 15 were turned on in June, when 48,517 tickets were issued, and the remaining 120 cameras are expected to be operating by the end of 2014.
Regular passenger cars got the most tickets, about 34,000, followed by vehicles with Taxi and Limousine plates, which were slapped with about 4,000. Vehicles with commercial plates ranked third, with about 1,000 tickets, the analysis showed.
Beyond the 200 city-owned vehicles, about another 120 cars were registered to other government entities, which could be the state, other municipalities or state-run agencies.
City workers caught speeding are responsible for paying the tickets they received, a spokeswoman for the mayor’s office told the station.
Speeders are targeted if they drive more than 11 mph over the speed limit under the speed-camera crackdown, designed to make the roads safer for drivers and pedestrians.
The cameras issue tickets beginning an hour before school until an hour after school ends Mondays through Fridays.
The report comes as an analysis by the New York City Independent Budget Office suggests that revenue from camera-generated tickets for red light, bus lane and speeding tickets rose to about $41 million in the 2014 fiscal year.
The total represented about 75 percent of all revenue from traffic violations, up from just 38 percent in 1999.
That’s nearly triple the $14 million in fines generated by violations written up by police officers.
And with the new cameras coming, the amount of cash generated by camera-recorded violations is expected to keep growing, according to projections by City Hall.
The budget for the 2015 fiscal year assumes that revenues from those sources will total about $62 million — including $8 million from speed cameras.
“The jump, from about $2 million to $8 million, in anticipated revenue from camera-generated speeding summonses is attributable to Albany’s recent approval of an increase of 120 in the number of speed cameras to be installed in school zones across the city,” according to the report, prepared by the IBO’s Bernard O’Brien.
People who ignore the fines often wind up paying more if they have to reclaim their vehicles from the tow pound. Vehicles that amass more than $350 in unpaid tickets automatically go on the tow list.