Beware speeding in Tallulah Falls
To the Editor:
I am sending this in hopes that it might save some of my neighbors in Franklin and other WNC communities some aggravation and some money. My wife and I travel south on U.S. 23/441 through Clayton and then Tallulah Falls on our way to the Atlanta airport fairly often.
Recently we received a speeding citation issued by the Tallulah Falls police on behalf of Tallulah Falls School just south of the gorge.
The ticket (fine of $100) said we had been driving 57 mph in a 45 mph school zone at 10:57 a.m. on Monday, August 19, and it was sent from a processing center in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It included a photo of the back of our car and of our license plate. It did not indicate anything about a radar reading, police presence, etc., just the camera photos. We were informed that we could file for an administrative hearing and as informed by the internet website of the processing center, if we did not pay or respond to the citation within the stated time limit we could be prevented from renewing our vehicle registration and eventually might have our driver’s license revoked.
Further online research revealed that the community of Tallulah Falls (population around 200 residents) had collected in excess of $3 million in the two or three years since the cameras had been installed (13th highest in the 54 municipalities listed). Those 54 municipalities with school zone cameras generated $112 million since the law enabling municipalities to install and process these types of “violations” was passed by the Georgia legislature in 2019. Neither my wife nor I saw any flashing school zone lights and we did not believe that we were in fact speeding. Again, there was no statement of radar enforcement or police observation of the supposed violation on the ticket we received.
Since we did not believe we were guilty of any violation (certainly not at the stated speed), we spent further time on Google searching for information. In doing that we came across a most interesting and well researched recent news piece in a publication called Atlanta News First, authored by a reporter named Andy Pierrotti. His article reported that one victim of the Tallulah Falls speed cameras had appealed all the way through the U.S. District Court, 9th District of Georgia to no avail. His appeal was based primarily on having understood from the Tallulah Falls signage that the warning lights and enforcement were not in effect except during the 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. busy student traffic periods. The ticket in his case was issued more than an hour and a half after the warning lights were turned off.
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Again, his appeal was to no avail, and we assume he had to pay up. At one point in Mr. Pierrotti’s story, he reports that state Rep. Clay Pirkle (R-Ashburn) filed a bill in a legislative session to ban the cameras. His bill did not pass but may be refiled. He reportedly said that these machines are “not really about safety, but about money,” and that their operation is “like having your own ATM.”
My wife and I had hoped that the Georgia camera operations could not enforce the penalty of blocking your vehicle registration or going after your driver’s license in North Carolina, but sadly learned that we were wrong. Legislation on the books in North Carolina and we assume in other nearby states is titled the “Non Resident Violators Compact,” or NVC, and would indeed allow Tallulah Falls or their representative at the Chattanooga processing center to cause you considerable difficulty. It appears we have no realistic choice and so we sent in our check yesterday.
So, a warning to drivers passing through Tallulah Falls — proceed with caution!
Richard (Jake) Jacobson
Franklin
