While drivers speed at all hours of the day, speed cameras cannot catch them overnight and on weekends.

But that may change.

City Council members on Thursday passed a resolution in support of a state bill to keep these speed cameras on, issuing tickets, 24/7.

What You Need To Know

  • The City Council passed a resolution in support of speed cameras operating 24/7, allowing Albany lawmakers to approve the measure

  • There are about 2,000 cameras in 750 school zones

  • Speed cameras issued more than $4 million tickets last year

Currently, the speed cameras are placed in school zones and issue $50 tickets to drivers going 10 miles an hour over the speed limit, on weekdays between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

"School-zone speed cameras have been proven to reduce dangerous speeding on our streets that can too often have deadly consequences," Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said.

The resolution was necessary for state lawmakers to expand speed cameras hours of operation and extend the program to July 2025.

This year through April, 69 people died in traffic accidents.

And the street carnage continued Thursday a driver of an SUV fatally struck a 1-year-old baby.

"There's not a way of how we can justify that drivers are speeding more than 25 miles per hour so this is about adding a new tool that we are able to bring to the city of New York," Ydanis Rodriguez, the city transportation commissioner, said on NY1's Inside City Hall. "It's a big victory."

City Councilman Kalman Yeger, a Brooklyn Democrat, was one of seven no votes against the speed camera resolution.

He criticized the city Department of Transportation for taking years to add traffic lights, speed bumps, and other basic street safety measures.

"These are simple fixes that will legitimately, before the speeding, actually happens stop the speeding," Yeger said. "The city won't do that because it doesn't raise money for them."

State Sen. Andrew Gounardes, a Brooklyn Democrat, is one of the lawmakers leading the effort in Albany for a deal on making speed cameras 24/7.

"We were able to look at the data and make a very compelling case as to why these cameras are actually effective when they were turned on," Gounardes said. "The data shows us that when a camera is installed an operational.

Speeding is reduced by 72%. That is a hugely significant number."

There are about 2,000 cameras in 750 school zones, issuing more than 4 million tickets last year.

According to the city, just over a third of non-highway traffic fatalities in 20-20 happened in school zones that had speed cameras that could not issue tickets overnight and on weekends.

Albany lawmakers are in session for only three more days, until June 2, to pass the speed camera bill.