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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Posts
    3

    Question School Zone with No Specified Time of Enforcement

    My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: Texas

    This school zone is on a westbound street of three through lanes and one left turn lane at the point where the signage is posted. While traveling in the far right lane at the posted speed of 35 MPH, my mother passed a school zone sign that does not have any indication of when it is in effect. The signage consists only of the S4-3 SCHOOL and the R2-1 SPEED LIMIT sign assembly with no flashing lights (Sign 1). There is no S4-1 Sign. Approximately one quarter mile down the road there is another sign for the school zone with the flashers, S4-3, R2-1 and S4-4 assemblage of signs (Sign 2). It is on the grass off to the right side of the road. My mom was in the process of slowing down from 35 to 20 in compliance with this sign, when she was directed to pull over by a police officer in a driveway approximately 30 yards west of the sign.

    The officer wrote her a citation for exceeding the speed in the school zone as marked by Sign 1 and told her that there was a flashing signal at that point also. Upon returning to check, there is indeed a sign with the flashing beacons, S4-3, R2-1 and S4-4 assembly (Sign 3). This sign is placed in the center median at a point where the road is four lanes wide (including the previously mentioned left turn lane).

    My question is: Does the absence of the times of enforcement indicator on Sign 1, and the fact that Sign 3 could easily be obscured by large trucks, buses, angle of the sun or the fact that it's in the median forty feet out of normal line of sight for a person driving in the right lane meet the definition outlined in the following section of the transportation code?

    544.004 (b) A provision of this subtitle requiring an official traffic-control device may not be enforced against an alleged violator if at the time and place of the alleged violation the device is not in proper position and sufficiently legible to an ordinarily observant person.

    Am I wrong in thinking that the one sign meeting the "sufficiently legible" requirement is in an improper position; and the sign that is in the proper position, while legible, does not indicate the exact message it is intended to convey?

    Here's a picture of it from Google Earth (it was already dark by the time we got back to look at the signs so we couldn't get a good picture). Sign 1 is to the right, Sign 2 is nearly dead center way down the road and is circled in green, sign 3 is on the left.


  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    OH10
    Posts
    17,019

    Default Re: School Zone with No Specified Time of Enforcement

    It says "During Restricted Hours" I presume? Is she new to the area or a local resident?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Posts
    3

    Default Re: School Zone with No Specified Time of Enforcement

    The sign beneath it says Cell Phone Use Is Prohibited. There are no times listed. Technically, as displayed, the 20 MPH speed limit would be in effect 24/7.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    OH10
    Posts
    17,019

    Default Re: School Zone with No Specified Time of Enforcement

    It appears to meet state law. She did not pay attention to the primary sign.

    http://onlinemanuals.txdot.gov/txdot...peed_zones.htm

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Posts
    3

    Default Re: School Zone with No Specified Time of Enforcement

    Quote Quoting Disagreeable
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    It appears to meet state law. She did not pay attention to the primary sign.
    But the lighted sign is on the left side of the road, and signs over there generally are specifically for drivers in the left lane. She was in the right lane and the sign that was immediately visible to her does not say when the school zone is in effect. Is it 2:30 to 3:00 PM, 3:10 PM to 3:40 PM, or 3:50 to 4:30 PM?

    The guidelines you linked to specify the following, in part:

    ....to identify the periods the school speed limit is in force.
    So why is there one signage that is specified that it must indicate when the school speed limit is in force, and the other signs just leave drivers to haphazardly guess as to when they should go 20mph? Technically a police officer could sit on the side of that road at any time of day or night and give citations for people travelling faster than 20mph. Without the time specifications it must be interpreted as in effect 24/7, which does not meet the guidelines for school zones.

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